1When the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron and said to him, "Rise, make for us a god that will go before us, for this man Moses who brought us up from the land of Egypt has disappeared and we do not know what has happened to him."2Aaron said to them, "Tear off the gold rings that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me."3So all the people tore off the gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.4He took the gold from their hands, fashioned it with a stylus, and made a molten calf; then they said, "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 proclaimed, "Tomorrow there will be a feast to the LORD."6Early the next morning they offered burnt offerings and presented peace offerings; afterward the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to revel.7The LORD said to Moses, "Go down at once, for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves."8They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a molten calf, bowed down to it, sacrificed to it, and said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt."9The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people."10Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and I may destroy them; then I will make you into a great nation.11Moses implored the LORD his God and said, "O LORD, why does your anger burn against your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?"12Why should the Egyptians say, "He brought them out with evil intent to slay them in the mountains and to wipe them from the face of the earth"? Turn from your fierce anger and relent concerning the disaster to your people.13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself when you said to them, "I will multiply your offspring like the stars of heaven, and all this land of which I spoke I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever."14So the LORD relented from the disaster he had spoken of bringing upon his people.15Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets inscribed on both sides, front and back.16The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.17When Joshua heard the sound of the people shouting, he said to Moses, "There is the sound of war in the camp."18Moses replied, "It is not the sound of the cry of victory, nor is it the sound of the cry of defeat; I hear the sound of singing."19As soon as Moses came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned, and he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.20He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the surface of the water, and made the people of Israel drink it.21Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?"22Aaron answered, "Do not let my lord's anger burn hot; you know the people, that they are set on evil."23They said to me, "Make us gods that shall go before us; as for this man Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."24So I said to them, "Let whoever has gold take it off"; they gave it to me, I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.25Moses saw that the people were running wild, for Aaron had let them get out of control, resulting in derision among their enemies.26Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, "Whoever is for the LORD, come to me"; and all the sons of Levi gathered around him.27He said to them, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel: Each of you strap a sword to his side; go back and forth through the camp from gate to gate, and each kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor."28The sons of Levi did as Moses commanded, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.29Moses said, "Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he may bestow a blessing upon you this day."30The next day Moses said to the people, "You have committed a great sin; but now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin."31Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Alas, this people has committed a great sin; they have made gods of gold for themselves."32But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.33The LORD said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book."34Now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you; nevertheless, on 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 that Aaron made.
Chapter 33
1The LORD said to Moses, "Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'To your offspring I will give it.'"2I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.3Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.4When the people heard this harsh word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments.5The LORD said to Moses, "Say to the people of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you; so now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.'"6So the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward.