Exodus 32:1-33:17

English Standard Version

The Golden Calf

32 When the people saw that Moses ^(A)delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, ^(B)“Up, make us gods who shall ^(C)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.” ²So Aaron said to them, “Take off the ^(D)rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” ³So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. ⁴^(E)And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden^[a] calf. And they said, ^(F)“These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” ⁵When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron ^(G)made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” ⁶And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And ^(H)the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up ^(I)to play.

⁷And the Lord said to Moses, ^(J)“Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have ^(K)corrupted themselves. ⁸They have turned aside quickly out of the way that ^(L)I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” ⁹And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, ^(M)it is a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰Now therefore ^(N)let me alone, that ^(O)my wrath may burn hot against them and ^(P)I may consume them, in order that ^(Q)I may make a great nation of you.”

¹¹But ^(R)Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹²^(S)Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and ^(T)relent from this disaster against your people. ¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you ^(U)swore by your own self, and said to them, ^(V)‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” ¹⁴And the Lord ^(W)relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

¹⁵Then ^(X)Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the ^(Y)two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. ¹⁶^(Z)The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. ¹⁷When ^(AA)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 of ^(AB)shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” ¹⁹And as soon as he came near the camp and ^(AC)saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.

²¹And Moses said to Aaron, ^(AD)“What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” ²²And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. ^(AE)You know the people, that they are set on evil. ²³For ^(AF)they said to me, ‘Make us gods 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.’ ²⁴So ^(AG)I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

²⁵And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, ^(AH)to the derision of 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. ²⁷And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you ^(AI)kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” ²⁸And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. ²⁹And Moses said, “Today you have been ^(AJ)ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”

³⁰The next day Moses said to the people, ^(AK)“You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; ^(AL)perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” ³¹So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, ^(AM)this people has sinned a great sin. They have ^(AN)made for themselves gods of gold. ³²But now, if ^(AO)you will forgive their sin—but if not, please ^(AP)blot me out of ^(AQ)your book that you have written.” ³³But the Lord said to Moses, ^(AR)“Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. ³⁴^(AS)But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; ^(AT)behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”

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

The Command to Leave Sinai

33 The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you ^(AU)and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To ^(AV)your offspring I will give it.’ ²I will send an ^(AW)angel before you, ^(AX)and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ³^(AY)Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; ^(AZ)but I will not go up among you, ^(BA)lest I consume you on the way, for you are a ^(BB)stiff-necked people.”

⁴When the people heard this disastrous word, they ^(BC)mourned, and ^(BD)no one put on his ornaments. ⁵For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a ^(BE)stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would ^(BF)consume you. So now ^(BG)take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” ⁶Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

The Tent of Meeting

⁷Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and ^(BH)he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who ^(BI)sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. ⁸Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and ^(BJ)each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. ⁹When Moses entered the tent, the ^(BK)pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord^[b] would speak with Moses. ¹⁰And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. ¹¹Thus ^(BL)the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his ^(BM)assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Moses' Intercession

¹²Moses said to the Lord, “See, ^(BN)you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ^(BO)‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ ¹³Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please ^(BP)show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is ^(BQ)your people.” ¹⁴And he said, ^(BR)“My presence will go with you, and ^(BS)I will give you rest.” ¹⁵And he said to him, ^(BT)“If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. ¹⁶For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? ^(BU)Is it not in your going with us, ^(BV)so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”