Exodus 32
32
The People Make a Gold Calf
1The people saw that a long time had passed and Moses had not come down from the mountain. So they gathered around Aaron and said, “Moses led us out of Egypt, but we don’t know what has happened to him. Make us gods who will lead us.”
2Aaron said to the people, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, sons, and daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3So all the people took their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4He took the gold from the people and formed it with a tool and made a statue of a calf. Then the people said, “Israel, these are your gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
5When Aaron saw all this, he built an altar before the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a special feast to honor the Lord.” 6The people got up early the next morning and offered whole burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. They sat down to eat and drink, and then they got up and sinned sexually.
7Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down from this mountain, because your people, the people you brought out of the land of Egypt, have ruined themselves. 8They have quickly turned away from the things I commanded them to do. They have made for themselves a calf covered with gold, and they have worshiped it and offered sacrifices to it. They have said, ‘Israel, these are your gods who brought you out of Egypt.’ ”
9The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen these people, and I know that they are very stubborn. 10So now do not stop me. I am so angry with them that I am going to destroy them. Then I will make you and your descendants a great nation.”
11But Moses begged the Lord his God and said, “Lord, don’t let your anger destroy your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with your great power and strength. 12Don’t let the people of Egypt say, ‘The Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt for an evil purpose. He planned to kill them in the mountains and destroy them from the earth.’ So stop being angry, and don’t destroy your people. 13Remember the men who served you—Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. You promised with an oath to them and said, ‘I will make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky. I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised them, and it will be theirs forever.’ ” 14So the Lord changed his mind and did not destroy the people as he had said he might.
15Then Moses went down the mountain, and in his hands he had the two stone tablets with the Agreement on them. The commands were written on both sides of each stone, front and back. 16God himself had made the tablets, and God himself had written the commands on the tablets.
17When Joshua heard the sound of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “It sounds like war down in the camp.”
18Moses answered:
“It is not a shout of victory;
it is not a cry of defeat.
It is the sound of singing that I hear.”
19When Moses came close to the camp, he saw the gold calf and the dancing, and he became very angry. He threw down the stone tablets that he was carrying and broke them at the bottom of the mountain. 20Then he took the calf that the people had made and melted it in the fire. He ground it into powder. Then he threw the powder into the water and forced the Israelites to drink it.
21Moses said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you? Why did you cause them to do such a terrible sin?”
22Aaron answered, “Don’t be angry, master. You know that these people are always ready to do wrong. 23The people said to me, ‘Moses led us out of Egypt, but we don’t know what has happened to him. Make us gods who will lead us.’ 24So I told the people, ‘Take off your gold jewelry.’ When they gave me the gold, I threw it into the fire and out came this calf!”
25Moses saw that the people were acting wildly. Aaron had let them get out of control and become fools in front of their enemies. 26So Moses stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Let anyone who wants to follow the Lord come to me.” And all the people from the family of Levi gathered around Moses.
27Then Moses said to them, “The Lord, the God of Israel, says this: ‘Every man must put on his sword and go through the camp from one end to the other. Each man must kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’ ” 28The people from the family of Levi obeyed Moses, and that day about three thousand of the Israelites died. 29Then Moses said, “Today you have been given for service to the Lord. You were willing to kill your own sons and brothers, and God has blessed you for this.”
30The next day Moses told the people, “You have done a terrible sin. But now I will go up to the Lord. Maybe I can do something so your sins will be removed.” 31So Moses went back to the Lord and said, “How terribly these people have sinned! They have made for themselves gods from gold. 32Now, please forgive them of this sin. If you will not, then erase my name from the book in which you have written the names of your people.”
33But the Lord told Moses, “I will erase from my book the names of the people who sin against me. 34So now, go. Lead the people where I have told you, and my angel will lead you. When the time comes to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”
35So the Lord caused terrible things to happen to the people because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.
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Exodus 32: NCV
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The Holy Bible, New Century Version, Copyright © 2005 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Exodus 32
32
Exodus 32
1¶ And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, Rise up, make us gods which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.
2And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
3Then all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them unto Aaron,
4who took them from their hands and fashioned it with a graving tool and made of it a molten calf. Then they said, These are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
5And seeing this, Aaron built an altar before the calf; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast unto the Lord.
6And they rose up early on the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play.
7¶ Then the Lord said unto Moses, Go, descend; for thy people, which thou didst bring out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:
8They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molten calf and have worshipped it and have sacrificed unto it and said, These are thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
9The Lord further said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and for certain it is a stiffnecked people.
10Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot in them and consume them; and I will put thee over a great nation.
11Then Moses grieved before the Lord his God and said, Lord, why shall thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
12Why should the Egyptians speak and say, For evil did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from upon the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of the evil of thy people.
13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy slaves, to whom thou didst sware by thine own self and hast said unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall take it for inheritance for ever.
14Then the Lord repented of the evil which he said should be done unto his people.
15¶ And Moses turned and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand; the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.
16And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.
17And Joshua, hearing the noise of the people as they shouted, said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.
18And he answered, It is not the voice of those that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of those that cry for being overcome, but the noise of those that sing that I hear.
19And it came to pass as soon as he came near unto the camp and he saw the calf and the dances, anger caused Moses to wax hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mount.
20And he took the calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire and ground it to powder and scattered it upon the waters and made the sons of Israel drink it.
21¶ And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people do unto thee that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?
22And Aaron answered, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot; thou knowest the people that they are inclined to evil.
23For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us, for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what is become of him.
24And I answered unto them, Whoever has any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it to me and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out.
25And when Moses saw that the people were naked (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies),
26Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord’s side? Come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.
27And he said unto them, Thus hath the Lord God of Israel said, Put every man his sword by his side and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay each one his brother and his companion and his neighbour.
28And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.
29Then Moses had said, Today you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord, for each one has consecrated in his son and in his brother, that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.
30¶ And it came to pass on the next day that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin, but now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make reconciliation for your sin.
31Then Moses returned unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, for, this people who have sinned a great sin and have made themselves gods of gold,
32that thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me now out of thy book which thou hast written.
33And the Lord answered unto Moses, Whoever has sinned against me, this one will I blot out of my book.
34Therefore go now, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee; behold, my Angel shall go before thee; nevertheless in the day of my visitation I will visit their sin in them.
35And the Lord smote the people because they had made the calf, which Aaron formed.
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The Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB) by Ransom Press International