The Golden Calf

¹When the people realized Moses was taking a long time to come back down the mountain, they crowded around Aaron and said, "Come on, make us gods to lead us! As for this Moses — the man who brought us out of Egypt — we have no idea what's happened to him." ²Aaron told them, "Pull the gold earrings off your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me." ³So everyone removed their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron. ⁴He took what they gave him, melted it down, and shaped it with a carving tool into a calf. Then the people declared, "These are your gods, Israel — the ones who brought you out of Egypt!" ⁵When Aaron saw their reaction, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a feast to the LORD." ⁶The next morning, the people got up early, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings. Then they sat down to eat and drink, and got up to play. ⁷The LORD told Moses, "Go — get down there now. Your people, the ones you brought out of Egypt, have completely corrupted themselves. ⁸They've already abandoned the path I commanded them to follow. They've made themselves a molten calf, bowed down to it, offered sacrifices to it, and said, 'These are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt.'" ⁹The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and look, it is a stiff-necked people." ¹⁰Now leave me alone so my anger can burn against them and destroy them. Then I'll start over and make you into a great nation." ¹¹But Moses pleaded with the LORD his God. "LORD, why let your anger burn against your own people — the ones you brought out of Egypt with such incredible power and a mighty hand? ¹²Why should the Egyptians say, 'He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people. ¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, saying, 'I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and I will give all this land I promised to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.' ¹⁴The LORD repented of the evil that he thought to do to his people. ¹⁵Moses turned and went down from the mountain, carrying the two tables of the testimony in his hands. The tables were written on both sides; on one side and on the other they were written. ¹⁶The tablets themselves were the work of God, and the writing engraved on them was God's own writing. ¹⁷When Joshua heard the loud noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, "It sounds like war in the camp!" ¹⁸Moses replied, "That's not the sound of a victory cheer, and it's not the cry of defeat either. What I hear is the sound of singing." ¹⁹As soon as Moses got close to the camp and saw the calf and the people dancing, his anger burned hot. He threw the stone tablets from his hands and broke them at the base of the mountain. ²⁰Then he grabbed the calf they had made, burned it in the fire, ground it into fine powder, scattered it over the water, and forced the Israelites to drink it. ²¹Moses turned to Aaron and demanded, "What did these people do to you that you led them into such a terrible sin?" ²²Aaron answered, "Don't be angry with me, my lord. You know how these people are — they're bent on doing evil. ²³They told me, 'Make us gods to lead us, because this Moses who brought us out of Egypt — we don't know what's happened to him.' ²⁴So I told them, 'Anyone who has gold, take it off.' They gave it to me, I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf." ²⁵When Moses saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked to their shame among their enemies, ²⁶So Moses stood at the entrance of the camp and shouted, "Whoever is on the LORD's side, come to me!" Every man from the tribe of Levi rallied to him. ²⁷He told them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Strap on your swords. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, and each of you strike down your brother, your friend, and your neighbor.'" ²⁸The Levites did exactly what Moses commanded, and about 3,000 men died that day. ²⁹For Moses had said, "Consecrate yourselves today to the LORD, even every man upon his son and upon his brother, so that he may bestow upon you a blessing today." ³⁰The next day Moses told the people, "You have committed a terrible sin. Now I'm going back up to the LORD — maybe I can make atonement for your sin." ³¹So Moses went back to the LORD and said, "Please — these people have committed a terrible sin. They made themselves gods out of gold. ³²But now, if you're willing, please forgive their sin. If not, then blot me out of the book you have written." ³³The LORD answered Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me — that is who I will blot out of my book. ³⁴"Therefore go now, lead the people to the place I have spoken to you about. Look, my Angel will go before you. Nevertheless, on the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them." ³⁵The LORD struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf that Aaron had made.