Exodus 32:1-13 ▼

1 When the people saw that Moses took a long time to come down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and told him, |Come here and make us a god who will go before us, because, as for this fellow Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him.|

2 Aaron told them, |Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.|

3 All the people tore off the gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to him.

4 He took them from them and, using a tool, fashioned them into a molten calf. The people said, |This, Israel, is your god who brought you out of the land of Egypt.|

5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it, and then he proclaimed, |Tomorrow is to be a festival to the LORD.|

6 They got up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. Then the people sat down to eat and drink, and then they got up to play.

7 The LORD told Moses, |Go down immediately, because your people whom you led out of Egypt have behaved corruptly.

8 They have been quick to turn aside from the way I commanded them, and they have made for themselves a molten calf. They have bowed down to it in worship, they have offered sacrifices to it, and they have said, 'This, Israel, is your god who brought you out of the land of Egypt.'|

9 Then the LORD told Moses, |I've seen these people and indeed they're obstinate.

10 Now let me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may consume them, but I'll make a great nation of you.|

11 But Moses implored the LORD his God: |LORD, why are you angry with your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a show of force?

12 Why should the Egyptians say, 'He brought them out with an evil intention to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your anger and change your mind about the calamity against your people.

13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants to whom you swore by yourself as you told them, 'I'll increase the number of your descendants like the stars of the heavens, I'll give your descendants all of this land about which I have spoken, and they are to possess it forever.'|