Exodus 32–34

The Gold Calf

32Now when the people saw that Moses ^adelayed coming down from the mountain, the people ^bgathered together to Aaron, and said to him, ^c“Come, make us ¹gods that shall ^dgo before us; for as for this Moses, the man who ^ebrought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

²And Aaron said to them, “Break off the ^fgolden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” ³So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. ^4gAnd he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf.

Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that ^hbrought you out of the land of Egypt!”

⁵So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a ⁱproclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.” ⁶Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people ^jsat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

⁷And the Lord said to Moses, ^k“Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt ^lhave corrupted themselves. ⁸They have turned aside quickly out of the way which ^mI commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ⁿ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ” ⁹And the Lord said to Moses, ^o“I have seen this people, and indeed it is a ²stiff-necked people! ¹⁰Now therefore, ^plet Me alone, that ^qMy wrath may burn hot against them and I may ³consume them. And ^rI will make of you a great nation.”

^11sThen Moses pleaded with ⁴the Lord his God, and said: “Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ^12tWhy should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and ^urelent from this harm to Your people. ¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You ^vswore by Your own self, and said to them, ^w‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” ¹⁴So the Lord ^xrelented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.

¹⁵And ^yMoses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other they were written. ¹⁶Now the ^ztablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.

¹⁷And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.”

¹⁸But he said:

“It is not the noise of the shout of victory,

Nor the noise of the cry of defeat,

But the sound of singing I hear.”

¹⁹So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that ^ahe saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses’ anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. ^20bThen he took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder; and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it. ²¹And Moses said to Aaron, ^c“What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?”

²²So Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord become hot. ^dYou know the people, that they are set on evil. ²³For they said to me, ‘Make us gods that shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ²⁴And I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out.”

²⁵Now when Moses saw that the people were ^eunrestrained (for Aaron ^fhad not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies), ²⁶then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on the Lord’s side—come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. ²⁷And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and ^glet every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’ ” ²⁸So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day. ^29hThen Moses said, ⁵“Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, that He may bestow on you a blessing this day, for every man has opposed his son and his brother.”

³⁰Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, ⁱ“You have committed a great sin. So now I will go up to the Lord; ^jperhaps I can ^kmake atonement for your sin.” ³¹Then Moses ^lreturned to the Lord and said, “Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have ^mmade for themselves a god of gold! ³²Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, ⁿblot me ^oout of Your book which You have written.”

³³And the Lord said to Moses, ^p“Whoever has sinned against Me, I will ^qblot him out of My book. ³⁴Now therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have ^rspoken to you. ^sBehold, My Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, ^tin the day when I ^uvisit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin.”

³⁵So the Lord plagued the people because of ^vwhat they did with the calf which Aaron made.

The Command to Leave Sinai

33Then the Lord said to Moses, “Depart and go up from here, you ^aand the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ^b‘To your descendants I will give it.’ ^2cAnd I will send My Angel before you, ^dand I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. ³Go up ^eto a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest ^fI ¹consume you on the way, for you are a ^gstiff-necked ²people.”

⁴And when the people heard this bad news, ^hthey mourned, ⁱand no one put on his ornaments. ⁵For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ³ornaments, that I may ^jknow what to do to you.’ ” ⁶So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.

Moses Meets with the Lord

⁷Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and ^kcalled it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who ^lsought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp. ⁸So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood ^mat his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. ⁹And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord ⁿtalked with Moses. ¹⁰All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and ^oworshiped, each man in his tent door. ¹¹So ^pthe Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but ^qhis servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.

The Promise of God’s Presence

¹²Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, ^rYou say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ^s‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ ¹³Now therefore, I pray, ^tif I have found grace in Your sight, ^ushow me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is ^vYour people.”

¹⁴And He said, ^w“My Presence will go with you, and I will give you ^xrest.”

¹⁵Then he said to Him, ^y“If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. ¹⁶For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, ^zexcept You go with us? So we ^ashall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”

¹⁷So the Lord said to Moses, ^b“I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”

¹⁸And he said, “Please, show me ^cYour glory.”

¹⁹Then He said, “I will make all My ^dgoodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. ^eI will be gracious to whom I will be ^fgracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” ²⁰But He said, “You cannot see My face; for ^gno man shall see Me, and live.” ²¹And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. ²²So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you ^hin the cleft of the rock, and will ⁱcover you with My hand while I pass by. ²³Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall ^jnot be seen.”

Moses Makes New Tablets

34And the Lord said to Moses, ^a“Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and ^bI will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. ²So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there ^con the top of the mountain. ³And no man shall ^dcome up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain; let neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain.”

⁴So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him; and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone.

⁵Now the Lord descended in the ^ecloud and stood with him there, and ^fproclaimed the name of the Lord. ⁶And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord …