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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Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®
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Exodus 32
32
The Gold Calf
1Now when the people saw that Moses #Ex. 24:18; Deut. 9:9–12delayed coming down from the mountain, the people #Ex. 17:1–3gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, #Acts 7:40“Come, make us gods that shall #Ex. 13:21go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who #Ex. 32:8brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
2And Aaron said to them, “Break off the #Ex. 11:2; 35:22; Judg. 8:24–27golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4#Ex. 20:3, 4, 23; Deut. 9:16; Judg. 17:3, 4; 1 Kin. 12:28; Neh. 9:18; Ps. 106:19; Acts 7:41And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf.
Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that #Ex. 29:45, 46brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
5So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a #Lev. 23:2, 4, 21, 37; 2 Kin. 10:20; 2 Chr. 30:5proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.” 6Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people #Ex. 32:17–19; Num. 25:2; 1 Cor. 10:7sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
7And the Lord said to Moses, #Deut. 9:8–21; Dan. 9:14“Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt #Gen. 6:11, 12have corrupted themselves. 8They have turned aside quickly out of the way which #Ex. 20:3, 4, 23; Deut. 32:17I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, #1 Kin. 12:28‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ” 9And the Lord said to Moses, #Ex. 33:3, 5; 34:9; Deut. 9:6; 2 Chr. 30:8; Is. 48:4; (Acts 7:51)“I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! 10Now therefore, #Deut. 9:14, 19let Me alone, that #Ex. 22:24My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And #Num. 14:12I will make of you a great nation.”
11#Deut. 9:18, 26–29Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: “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#Num. 14:13–19; Deut. 9:28; Josh. 7:9Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and #Ex. 32:14relent from this harm to Your people. 13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You #Gen. 22:16–18; (Heb. 6:13)swore by Your own self, and said to them, #Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 15:7, 18; 22:17; 26:4; 35:11, 12; Ex. 13:5, 11; 33:1‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” 14So the Lord #2 Sam. 24:16relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.
15And #Deut. 9:15Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other they were written. 16Now the #Ex. 31:18tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.
17And when 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 noise of the shout of victory,
Nor the noise of the cry of defeat,
But the sound of singing I hear.”
19So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that #Deut. 9:16, 17he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses’ anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20#Num. 5:17, 24; Deut. 9:21Then he took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder; and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it. 21And Moses said to Aaron, #Gen. 26:10“What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?”
22So Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord become hot. #Ex. 14:11; Deut. 9:24You know the people, that they are set on evil. 23For they said to me, ‘Make us gods that shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24And I said to 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.”
25Now when Moses saw that the people were #Ex. 33:4, 5unrestrained (for Aaron #2 Chr. 28:19had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies), 26then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on the Lord’s side—come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. 27And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and #Num. 25:5–13let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’ ” 28So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day. 29#Ex. 28:41; 1 Sam. 15:18, 22; Prov. 21:3; Zech. 13:3Then Moses said, “Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, that He may bestow on you a blessing this day, for every man has opposed his son and his brother.”
30Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, #1 Sam. 12:20, 23“You have committed a great sin. So now I will go up to the Lord; #2 Sam. 16:12perhaps I can #Num. 25:13make atonement for your sin.” 31Then Moses #Deut. 9:18returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have #Ex. 20:23made for themselves a god of gold! 32Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, #Ps. 69:28; Is. 4:3; Mal. 3:16; Rom. 9:3blot me #Dan. 12:1; Phil. 4:3; Rev. 3:5; 21:27out of Your book which You have written.”
33And the Lord said to Moses, #Lev. 23:30; (Ezek. 18:4; 33:2, 14, 15)“Whoever has sinned against Me, I will #Ex. 17:14; Deut. 29:20; Ps. 9:5; Rev. 3:5; 21:27blot him out of My book. 34Now therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have #Ex. 3:17spoken to you. #Ex. 23:20; Josh. 5:14Behold, My Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, #Deut. 32:35; Rom. 2:5, 6in the day when I visit for punishment, I will #Ps. 89:32visit punishment upon them for their sin.”
35So the Lord plagued the people because of #Neh. 9:18what they did with the calf which Aaron made.
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.