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
1And the people see that Moses is delaying to come down from the mount, and the people assemble against Aaron, and say unto him, ‘Rise, make for us gods who go before us, for this Moses — the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt — we have not known what hath happened to him.’
2And Aaron saith unto them, ‘Break off the rings of gold which [are] in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring in unto me;’
3and all the people themselves break off the rings of gold which [are] in their ears, and bring in unto Aaron,
4and he receiveth from their hand, and doth fashion it with a graving tool, and doth make it a molten calf, and they say, ‘These thy gods, O Israel, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.’
5And Aaron seeth, and buildeth an altar before it, and Aaron calleth, and saith, ‘A festival to Jehovah — to-morrow;’
6and they rise early on the morrow, and cause burnt-offerings to ascend, and bring nigh peace-offerings; and the people sit down to eat and to drink, and rise up to play.
7And Jehovah saith unto Moses, ‘Go, descend, for thy people whom thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt hath done corruptly,
8they have turned aside hastily from the way that I have commanded them; they have made for themselves a molten calf, and bow themselves to it, and sacrifice to it, and say, These thy gods, O Israel, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.’
9And Jehovah saith unto Moses, ‘I have seen this people, and lo, it [is] a stiff-necked people;
10and now, let Me alone, and My anger doth burn against them, and I consume them, and I make thee become a great nation.’
11And Moses appeaseth the face of Jehovah his God, and saith, ‘Why, O Jehovah, doth Thine anger burn against Thy people, whom Thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?
12why do the Egyptians speak, saying, For evil He brought them out to slay them among mountains, and to consume them from off the face of the ground? turn back from the heat of Thine anger, and repent of the evil against Thy people.
13‘Be mindful of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, Thy servants, to whom Thou hast sworn by Thyself, and unto whom Thou speakest: I multiply your seed as stars of the heavens, and all this land, as I have said, I give to your seed, and they have inherited to the age;’
14and Jehovah repenteth of the evil which He hath spoken of doing to His people.
15And Moses turneth, and goeth down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony [are] in his hand, tables written on both their sides, on this and on that [are] they written;
16and the tables are the work of God, and the writing is the writing of God, graven on the tables.
17And Joshua heareth the voice of the people in their shouting, and saith unto Moses, ‘A noise of battle in the camp!’
18and he saith, ‘It is not the voice of the crying of might, nor is it the voice of the crying of weakness — a voice of singing I am hearing.’
19And it cometh to pass, when he hath drawn near unto the camp, that he seeth the calf, and the dancing, and the anger of Moses burneth, and he casteth out of his hands the tables, and breaketh them under the mount;
20and he taketh the calf which they have made, and burneth [it] with fire, and grindeth until [it is] small, and scattereth on the face of the waters, and causeth the sons of Israel to drink.
21And Moses saith unto Aaron, ‘What hath this people done to thee, that thou hast brought in upon it a great sin?’
22and Aaron saith, ‘Let not the anger of my lord burn; thou — thou hast known the people that it [is] in evil;
23and they say to me, Make for us gods, who go before us, for this Moses — the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt — we have not known what hath happened to him;
24and I say to them, Whoso hath gold, let them break [it] off, and they give to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf cometh out.’
25And Moses seeth the people that it [is] unbridled, for Aaron hath made it unbridled for contempt among its withstanders,
26and Moses standeth in the gate of the camp, and saith, ‘Who [is] for Jehovah? — unto me!’ and all the sons of Levi are gathered unto him;
27and he saith to them, ‘Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, Put each his sword by his thigh, pass over and turn back from gate to gate through the camp, and slay each his brother, and each his friend, and each his relation.’
28And the sons of Levi do according to the word of Moses, and there fall of the people on that day about three thousand men,
29and Moses saith, ‘Consecrate your hand to-day to Jehovah, for a man [is] against his son, and against his brother, so as to bring on you to-day a blessing.’
30And it cometh to pass, on the morrow, that Moses saith unto the people, ‘Ye — ye have sinned a great sin, and now I go up unto Jehovah, if so be I atone for your sin.’
31And Moses turneth back unto Jehovah, and saith, ‘Oh this people hath sinned a great sin, that they make to themselves a god of gold;
32and now, if Thou takest away their sin — and if not — blot me, I pray thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written.’
33And Jehovah saith unto Moses, ‘Whoso hath sinned against Me — I blot him out of My book;
34and now, go, lead the people whithersoever I have spoken to thee of; lo, My messenger goeth before thee, and in the day of my charging — then I have charged upon them their sin.’
35And Jehovah plagueth the people, because they made the calf which Aaron made.
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