Exodus 32:11-34:9

New American Standard Bible

Moses’ Plea

¹¹ Then ^(A)Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said, “Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹² Why should ^(B)the Egyptians talk, saying, ‘With evil motives He brought them out, to kill them on the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and relent of doing harm to Your people. ¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You ^(C)swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will ^(D)multiply your ^[a]descendants as the stars of the heavens, and ^(E)all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your ^[b]descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’” ^14 (F)So the Lord relented of the harm which He said He would do to His people.

^15 (G)Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, ^(H)tablets which were written on both ^[c]sides; they were written on one side and the other. ¹⁶ The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing engraved on the tablets. ¹⁷ Now when Joshua heard the sound of the people ^[d]as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a sound of war in the camp.” ¹⁸ But he said,

Moses’ Anger

¹⁹ And it came about, as soon as ^[e]Moses approached the camp, that ^(I)he saw the calf and the people dancing; and Moses’ anger burned, and ^(J)he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them to pieces ^[f]at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰ Then ^(K)he took the calf which they had made and completely burned it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it over the surface of the water and made the sons of Israel drink it.

²¹ Then Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” ²² And Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, ^(L)that they are ^[g]prone to evil. ²³ For ^(M)they said to me, ‘Make ^[h]a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we do not know what happened to him.’ ²⁴ So I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ Then they gave it to me, and ^(N)I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

²⁵ Now when Moses saw that the people were ^[i]out of control—for Aaron had ^(O)let them ^[j]get out of control to the point of being an object of ridicule among ^[k]their enemies— ²⁶ Moses then stood at the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. ²⁷ And he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘Every man of you put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his ^[l]neighbor.’” ²⁸ So ^(P)the sons of Levi did ^[m]as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day. ²⁹ Then Moses said, “^[n]Dedicate yourselves today to the Lord—for every man has been against his son and against his brother—in order that He may bestow a blessing upon you today.”

³⁰ And on the next day Moses said to the people, “^(Q)You yourselves have ^[o]committed a great sin; and now I am going up to the Lord; perhaps I can ^(R)make atonement for your sin.” ³¹ Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, this people has ^[p]committed a great sin, and they have made a ^(S)god of gold for themselves! ³² But now, if You will forgive their sin, very well; but if not, please wipe me out from Your ^(T)book which You have written!” ³³ However, the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, ^(U)I will wipe him out of My book. ³⁴ But go now, lead the people ^(V)where I told you. Behold, ^(W)My angel shall go before you; nevertheless ^(X)on the day when I ^[q]punish, ^(Y)I will ^[r]punish them for their sin.” ^35 (Z)Then the Lord struck the people with a plague, because of ^(AA)what they did with the calf which Aaron had made.

The Journey Resumed

33 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which ^(AB)I swore to Abraham, ^(AC)Isaac, and ^(AD)Jacob, saying, ‘^(AE)To your ^[s]descendants I will give it.’ ² And I will send ^(AF)an angel before you and ^(AG)I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. ³ Go up to a land ^(AH)flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, because you are ^[t](AI)an obstinate people, and ^(AJ)I might destroy you on the way.”

⁴ When the people heard this ^[u]sad word, ^(AK)they went into mourning, and none of them put on his jewelry. ⁵ For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the sons of Israel, ‘You are ^[v](AL)an obstinate people; if I ^[w]were to go up in your midst for just one moment, I would destroy you. So now, take off your ^[x]jewelry that I may know what I shall do to you.’” ⁶ So the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their jewelry, from Mount Horeb onward.

⁷ Now Moses used to take ^(AM)the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And ^(AN)everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp. ⁸ And it came about, whenever Moses went out to the tent, that all the people would arise and stand, each at the entrance of his tent, and gaze after Moses until he entered the tent. ⁹ Whenever Moses entered the tent, ^(AO)the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent; ^(AP)and ^[y]the Lord would speak with Moses. ¹⁰ When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would stand and worship, each at the entrance of his tent. ¹¹ So ^(AQ)the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When ^[z]Moses returned to the camp, ^(AR)his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Moses Intercedes

¹² Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘^(AS)Bring up this people!’ But You Yourself have not let me know ^(AT)whom You will send with me. ^(AU)Moreover, You have said, ‘I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.’ ¹³ Now then, if I have found favor in Your sight in any way, please ^(AV)let me know Your ways so that I may know You, in order that I may find favor in Your sight. ^(AW)Consider too, that this nation is Your people.” ¹⁴ And He said, “^(AX)My presence shall go with you, and ^(AY)I will give you rest.” ¹⁵ Then he said to Him, “^(AZ)If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. ¹⁶ For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that ^(BA)we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are on the face of the ^[aa]earth?”

¹⁷ The Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; ^(BB)for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.” ^18 (BC)Then Moses said, “Please, show me Your glory!” ¹⁹ And He said, “^(BD)I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and ^(BE)I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion to whom I will show compassion.” ²⁰ He further said, “You cannot see My face, ^(BF)for mankind shall not see Me and live!” ²¹ Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place ^[ab]by Me, and ^(BG)you shall stand there on the rock; ²² and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and ^(BH)cover you with My hand until I have passed by. ²³ Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but ^(BI)My face shall not be seen.”

The Two Tablets Replaced

34 Now the Lord said to Moses, “Cut out for yourself ^(BJ)two stone tablets like the former ones, and ^(BK)I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you smashed. ² So be ready by morning, and come up in the morning to ^(BL)Mount Sinai, and ^[ac]present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain. ³ And ^(BM)no one is to come up with you, nor let anyone be seen ^[ad]anywhere on the mountain; even the flocks and the herds are not to graze in front of that mountain.” ⁴ So he cut out ^(BN)two stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses got up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and he took the two stone tablets in his hand. ⁵ And ^(BO)the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he ^[ae]called upon the name of the Lord. ⁶ Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, ^(BP)compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and ^[af]truth; ⁷ who ^(BQ)keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing, violation of His Law, and sin; yet He ^(BR)will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, ^(BS)inflicting the ^[ag]punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” ⁸ And Moses hurried ^[ah](BT)to bow low toward the ground and worship. ⁹ Then he said, “^(BU)If in any way I have found favor in Your sight, Lord, please may the Lord go along in our midst, even though ^[ai](BV)the people are so obstinate, and ^(BW)pardon our wrongdoing and our sin, and ^(BX)take us as Your own ^[aj]possession.”