Exodus 32:15–29

¹⁵Then Moses went down the mountain, and in his hands he had the two stone tablets with the Agreement on them. The commands were written on both sides of each stone, front and back. ¹⁶God himself had made the tablets, and God himself had written the commands on the tablets.

¹⁷When Joshua heard the sound of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “It sounds like war down in the camp.”

¹⁸Moses answered:

“It is not a shout of victory;

it is not a cry of defeat.

It is the sound of singing that I hear.”

¹⁹When Moses came close to the camp, he saw the gold calf and the dancing, and he became very angry. He threw down the stone tablets that he was carrying and broke them at the bottom of the mountain. ²⁰Then he took the calf that the people had made and melted it in the fire. He ground it into powder. Then he threw the powder into the water and forced the Israelites to drink it.

²¹Moses said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you? Why did you cause them to do such a terrible sin?”

²²Aaron answered, “Don’t be angry, master. You know that these people are always ready to do wrong. ²³The people said to me, ‘Moses led us out of Egypt, but we don’t know what has happened to him. Make us gods who will lead us.’ ²⁴So I told the people, ‘Take off your gold jewelry.’ When they gave me the gold, I threw it into the fire and out came this calf!”

²⁵Moses saw that the people were acting wildly. Aaron had let them get out of control and become fools in front of their enemies. ²⁶So Moses stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Let anyone who wants to follow the Lord come to me.” And all the people from the family of Levi gathered around Moses.

²⁷Then Moses said to them, “The Lord, the God of Israel, says this: ‘Every man must put on his sword and go through the camp from one end to the other. Each man must kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’ ” ²⁸The people from the family of Levi obeyed Moses, and that day about three thousand of the Israelites died. ²⁹Then Moses said, “Today you have been given for service to the Lord. You were willing to kill your own sons and brothers, and God has blessed you for this.”