Exodus 32:30–33:6

³⁰On the next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”^{* 31}So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold.^{* 32}But now, if you will only forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of the book that you have written.”^{* 33}But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.^{* 34}But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; see, my angel shall go in front of you. Nevertheless, when the day for punishment comes, I will punish them for their sin.”^*

³⁵Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf—the one that Aaron had made.^*

The Command to Leave Sinai

³³The Lord said to Moses, “Go, leave this place, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, and go to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’^{* 2}I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.^{* 3}Go up^k to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you, or I would consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”^*

⁴When the people heard these harsh words, they mourned, and no one put on ornaments.^{* 5}For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, and I will decide what to do to you.’ ” ⁶Therefore the Israelites stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.