The golden calf
1When the people saw that Moses was slow to come down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Get up, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3So all the people took off the gold rings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4He took them from their hands, shaped the gold with an engraving tool, and made it into a calf, cast in metal. Then they said, “Israel, these are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” 5When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it and made a proclamation: “Tomorrow is a festival to Yahweh.” 6Early the next day the people rose, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings. They sat down to eat and drink, and got up to revel.
Yahweh’s anger and Moses’ plea
7Yahweh said to Moses, “Go down at once, because your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8They have turned aside quickly from the way I commanded them. They have made themselves a calf, cast in metal; they have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘Israel, these are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’” 9Yahweh said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed 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.” 11But Moses sought the favor of Yahweh his God and said, “Yahweh, why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger, and relent from this disaster against your people. 13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land I promised, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14So Yahweh relented from the disaster he had said he would bring on his people.
Moses breaks the tablets and confronts Aaron
15Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands, tablets written on both sides — written on the front and on the back. 16The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. 17When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is a sound of war in the camp.” 18But Moses said, “It is not the sound of shouting in victory, nor the sound of shouting in defeat — it is the sound of singing that I hear.” 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 shattered them at the foot of the mountain. 20He took the calf they had made, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it. 21Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” 22Aaron answered, “Do not let my lord’s anger burn. You know this people, that they are bent on evil. 23They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off.’ They gave it to me, I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
The Levites’ judgment and Moses’ second plea
25Moses saw that the people were running wild, for Aaron had let them run wild, to the derision of their enemies. 26So Moses stood at the entrance of the camp and said, “Whoever is for Yahweh, come to me.” And all the Levites gathered around him. 27He said to them, “This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap on his sword, go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, and each of you kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’” 28The Levites did as Moses commanded, and about three thousand men fell that day among the people. 29Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for Yahweh, each of you at the cost of his son and his brother, so that he may bless you this day.” 30The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. Now I will go up to Yahweh; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” 31So Moses went back to Yahweh and said, “This people have committed a great sin — they have made themselves gods of gold. 32But now, if you will forgive their sin — but if not, please blot me out of the book you have written.” 33Yahweh said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. 34Now go, lead the people to the place I told you about. My angel will go before you. But on the day I settle accounts, I will punish them for their sin.” 35Then Yahweh struck the people with a plague, because of what they did with the calf that Aaron made.
