Exodus 32:15–29

¹⁵Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain, carrying the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, tablets that were written on both sides, written on the front and on the back.^{* 16}The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved upon the tablets.^{* 17}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 sound made by victors

or the sound made by losers;

it is the sound of singing that I hear.”

¹⁹As soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’s anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.^{* 20}He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.^*

²¹Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?”^{* 22}And Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn hot; you know the people, that they are wicked.^{* 23}They said to me, ‘Make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’^{* 24}So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off’; so they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”^*

²⁵When Moses saw that the people were out of control (for Aaron had lost control of them, prompting derision among their enemies), ²⁶then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. ²⁷He said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Put your sword on your side, each of you! Go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill your brother, your friend, and your neighbor.”^{* 28}The sons of Levi did as Moses commanded, and about three thousand of the people fell on that day. ²⁹Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of a son or a brother, and so have brought a blessing on yourselves this day.”