Exodus 32:1-12 ▼

1 And the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, and the people gathered together against Aaron and they said to him, “Arise, make for us gods who will go before our faces. For this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

2 And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden rings that are in the ears of your? wives, your? sons, and your? daughters, and bring them to me.”

3 And all the people broke off the golden rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.

4 And he took it from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and he made a molten calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!”

5 And Aaron saw, and he built an altar before its face. And Aaron proclaimed and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to YHWH.”

6 And they rose early on the next day, and they offered burnt offerings, and they brought near peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and they rose up to play.

7 And YHWH said to Moses, “Go, descend; for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.

8 They have turned aside quickly from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten calf and they have bowed down to it, and they have sacrificed to it and they have said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’”

9 And YHWH said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.

10 And now, leave Me alone, and My anger may burn hot against them, and I may consume them. And I will make you into a great nation.”

11 And Moses pleaded the face of YHWH his God, and he said, “Why, O YHWH, does Your anger burn hot against Your people, whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

12 Why should Egypt speak, saying, ‘In evil He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and relent over the evil against Your people.