 1 The people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain and they gathered to Aaron and said to him, Get up and make us gods to go before us, for we do not know what has become of Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt. 2 Aaron said to them, Break off the golden earrings that are in the hearing+ of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me. 3 All the people broke off the golden earrings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took them from their hand, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into a molten calf. They said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it and made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. 6 They rose early on the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. 7 The Lord said to Moses, Go. Get down there for your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt are corrupted. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made a molten calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, These are your gods, O Israel, who have brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 9 The Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people and they are a stiff necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my wrath may become hot against them and so that I may consume them and I will make of you a great nation. 11 Moses prayed to the Lord his God and said, Lord, why does your wrath become hot against your people whom you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians speak and say, He brought them out for harm to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce wrath and be moved to pity as to this evil against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever. 14 The Lord relented+ from the harm+ that He had thought to do to His people. 15 Moses turned, and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both their sides. On the one side and on the other. 16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God. It was engraved on the tablets. 17 Joshua heard the voice of the people in their shouting. And he said to Moses, A sound of war in the camp. 18 He said, It is not a sound of a cry of victory, nor a sound of the cry of defeat. I am hearing the sound of singing. 19 As he came near to the camp and saw the calf and dances, the anger of Moses became hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, and broke them at the bottom of the mountain. 20 He took the calf that they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, dropped it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it. 21 Moses said to Aaron, What did this people do to you so that you have brought so great a sin upon them? 22 Aaron said, Do not let the anger of my lord become hot. You know that the people are set on mischief. 23 For they said to me, Make us gods to go before us. For we do not know what has become of Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt. 24 I said to them, Whoever has any gold, let them break it off and they gave it to me and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf. 25 When Moses saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked to their shame among their enemies, 26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me. Then all the sons of Levi gathered to him. 27 He said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Each man put his sword by his side and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp and each one kill his brother and his neighbor and his kindred. 28 The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses and about 3,000 men of the people fell that day. 29 For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, since each one has been against his son and against his brother in order to give you a blessing today. 30 The next day, Moses said to the people, You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I will make an atonement for your sin. 31 Moses returned to the Lord and said, These people have sinned a great sin and made false gods of gold for themselves. 32 Will you now forgive their sin? If not, I ask you to blot me out of your book that you have written. 33 The Lord said to Moses, Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book. 34 Now go. Lead the people to the place that I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel will go before you. In the day of my visitation I will visit their sin upon them. 35 Then the Lord plagued the people because they made the calf that Aaron made.
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