Exodus 32
32
Israel Worships a Golden Calf
1The people saw that Moses took a long time to come down from the mountain. So they gathered around Aaron. They said to him, “Come. Make us a god that will lead us. This fellow Moses brought us up out of Egypt. But we don’t know what has happened to him.”
2Aaron answered them, “Take the gold earrings off your wives, your sons and your daughters. Bring the earrings to me.” 3So all the people took off their earrings. They brought them to Aaron. 4He took what they gave him and made it into a metal statue of a god. It looked like a calf. Aaron shaped it with a tool. Then the people said, “Israel, here is your god who brought you up out of Egypt.”
5When Aaron saw what they were doing, he built an altar in front of the calf. He said, “Tomorrow will be a feast day to honor the Lord.” 6So the next day the people got up early. They sacrificed burnt offerings and brought friendship offerings. They sat down to eat and drink. Then they got up to dance wildly in front of their god.
7The Lord spoke to Moses. He said, “Go down. Your people you brought up out of Egypt have become very sinful. 8They have quickly turned away from what I commanded them. They have made themselves a metal statue of a god in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down and sacrificed to it. And they have said, ‘Israel, here is your god who brought you up out of Egypt.’
9“I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses. “They are stubborn. 10Now leave me alone. I will destroy them because of my great anger. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
11But Moses asked the Lord his God to have mercy on the people. “Lord,” he said, “why should you destroy your people in anger? You used your great power and mighty hand to bring them out of Egypt. 12Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out to hurt them. He wanted to kill them in the mountains. He wanted to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn away from your great anger. Please take pity on your people. Don’t destroy them! 13Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel. You made a promise to them in your own name. You said, ‘I will make your children after you as many as the stars in the sky. I will give them all this land I promised them. It will belong to them forever.’ ” 14Then the Lord took pity on his people. He didn’t destroy them as he had said he would.
15Moses turned and went down the mountain. He had the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. Words were written on both sides of the tablets, front and back. 16The tablets were the work of God. The words had been written by God. They had been carved on the tablets.
17Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting. So he said to Moses, “It sounds like war in the camp.”
18Moses replied,
“It’s not the sound of winning.
It’s not the sound of losing.
It’s the sound of singing that I hear.”
19As Moses approached the camp, he saw the calf. He also saw the people dancing. So he was very angry. He threw the tablets out of his hands. They broke into pieces at the foot of the mountain. 20He took the calf the people had made. He burned it in the fire. Then he ground it into powder. He scattered it on the water. And he made the Israelites drink it.
21He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you? How did they make you lead them into such terrible sin?”
22“Please don’t be angry,” Aaron answered. “You know how these people like to do what is evil. 23They said to me, ‘Make us a god that will lead us. This fellow Moses brought us up out of Egypt. But we don’t know what has happened to him.’ 24So I told them, ‘Anyone who has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ They gave me the gold. I threw it into the fire. And out came this calf!”
25Moses saw that the people were running wild. Aaron had let them get out of control. The people had become a joke to their enemies. 26Moses stood at the entrance to the camp. He said, “Anyone on the Lord’s side, come to me.” All the Levites joined him.
27Then he spoke to them. He said, “The Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Each man must put on his sword. Then he must go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other. Each man must kill his brother and friend and neighbor.’ ” 28The Levites did as Moses commanded. About 3,000 of the people died that day. 29Then Moses said to the Levites, “You have been set apart for the Lord today. You fought against your own sons and brothers. And he has blessed you this day.”
30The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a terrible sin. But now I will go up to the Lord. Maybe if I pray to him, he will forgive your sin.”
31So Moses went back to the Lord. He said, “These people have committed a terrible sin. They have made a god out of gold for themselves. 32Now please forgive their sin. But if you won’t, then erase my name out of the book you have written.”
33The Lord replied to Moses. The Lord said, “I will erase out of my book only the names of those who have sinned against me. 34Now go. Lead the people to the place I spoke about. My angel will go ahead of you. But when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”
35The Lord struck the people with a plague. That’s because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.
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Exodus 32: NIrV
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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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