Exodus 32:30–33:6

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.