And the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain; and the people assembled against Aaron and said to him, “Rise up, make us gods who will go before us — for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
And Aaron said to them, “Tear off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”
And all the people tore off the rings of gold that were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.
And he took them from their hand, and shaped it with an engraving tool, and made it a molten calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!”
And Aaron saw, and he built an altar before it; and Aaron called out and said, “Tomorrow is a festival to the LORD.”
And they rose early the next day, and offered up burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.
And the LORD spoke to Moses: “Go, get down — for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have acted ruinously.
They have turned aside quickly from the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a molten calf and bowed down to it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.’”
And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people — and look, it is a stiff-necked people.
And now, leave me alone, that my anger may burn against them and I may consume them — and I will make you into a great nation.”
And Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God, and said, “Why, O LORD, should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?
Why should Egypt say, ‘With evil intent he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to finish them off from the face of the ground’? Turn from your burning anger, and relent concerning the evil against your people.
Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and to whom you spoke: ‘I will multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens; and all this land that I have promised I will give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.’”
And the LORD relented concerning the evil that he had spoken of doing to his people.
And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand — tablets written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other they were written.
And the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
And Joshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted, and he said to Moses, “There is a sound of war in the camp.”
And he said, “It is not the sound of the cry of victory, and it is not the sound of the cry of defeat; the sound of singing is what I hear.”
And it happened, as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, that Moses’ anger burned; and he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.
And he took the calf that they had made, and burned it with fire, and ground it until it was fine powder; and he scattered it on the face of the water, and made the sons of Israel drink it.
And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought a great sin on them?”
And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn. You yourself know the people — that they are set on evil.
And they said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us — for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’
And I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, tear it off.’ And they gave it to me; and I threw it into the fire — and out came this calf.”
And Moses saw the people, that they were running wild — for Aaron had let them run wild, to the scorn of any who rose against them.
And Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Whoever is for the LORD — to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered to him.
And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘Each man put his sword on his thigh. Pass through and back, from gate to gate in the camp, and kill — each man his brother, and each man his neighbor, and each man his near kin.’”
And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.
And Moses said, “Fill your hands today for the LORD — for each man has been against his son and against his brother — that he may put a blessing on you today.”
And it happened the next day that Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
And Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Please — this people has sinned a great sin, and they have made themselves gods of gold.
And now, if you will forgive their sin — but if not, wipe me, please, out of your book that you have written.”
And the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, him I will wipe out of my book.
And now, go — lead the people to the place I have spoken of to you. Look, my angel will go before you. And in the day of my visitation, I will visit their sin on them.”
And the LORD struck the people with a plague, because they made the calf — the one Aaron made.
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