Exodus 32

Chapter 32.

32 ¹ When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, "Get up, make us gods to 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."

The Golden Calf

² Aaron said to them, "Take off the gold rings that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me."

³ So all the people took off the gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ He took the gold from their hands, shaped it with an engraving tool, and made it into a molten calf. Then they said, "These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!"

⁵ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation: "Tomorrow there will be a festival to our Father." ¹ 1 v5 Aaron tries to wrap the calf in our Father's name, calling a festival to him — but blending idolatry with true worship is itself the sin this chapter exposes.

⁶ They rose early the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink, and then got up to revel.

⁷ Then our Father said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. ⁸ They have turned aside quickly from the way I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, bowed down to it, sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.'"

⁹ Our Father said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰ Now leave me alone, so that my anger may burn against them and I may consume them; then I will make you into a great nation."

¹¹ But Moses pleaded with our Father and said, "Why, our Father, does your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? ¹² Why 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 burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. ¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, 'I will multiply your offspring like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they will inherit it forever.'"

¹⁴ So our Father relented from the disaster he had spoken of bringing on his people.

¹⁵ Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand—tablets written on both sides, front and back. ¹⁶ The tablets were the work of our Father, and the writing was the writing of our Father, engraved on the tablets.

¹⁷ When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is the sound of war in the camp."

¹⁸ But Moses said, "It is not the sound of shouting for victory, nor the sound of crying in defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear."

¹⁹ As he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰ He 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.

²¹ Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you that you brought such a great sin upon them?"

²² Aaron said, "Do not let my lord's anger burn hot. You know the people, that they are bent on evil. ²³ They said to me, 'Make us gods to 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.'

²⁴ So I said to them, 'Whoever has gold, take it off.' They gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf."

²⁵ Moses saw that the people were running wild—for Aaron had let them run wild, to the mockery of their enemies. ²⁶ So Moses stood at the entrance of the camp and said, "Whoever is for our Father, come to me!" And all the Levites gathered around him.

²⁷ He said to them, "This is what our Father says: 'Each of you strap your sword to your side. 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.'"

²⁸ The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people fell.

²⁹ Then Moses said, "Today you have set yourselves apart for our Father, each one at the cost of his son and his brother, so that he might give you his blessing this day."

³⁰ The next day Moses said to the people, "You have committed a great sin. Now I will go up to our Father; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin."

Moses Pleads for His People

³¹ So Moses returned to our Father and said, "Oh, this people has committed a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold. ³² But now, if you will only forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of the book you have written." ² 2 v32 God's 'book' is his record of those who belong to him — Moses is offering his own place in it to spare the people.

³³ But our Father said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me, him I will blot out of my book. ³⁴ Now 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 hold them accountable for their sin."

³⁵ Then our Father struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf that Aaron had made.