Exodus 32

1 When the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain,
the people gathered themselves together
to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us
gods, which shall go before us; for as for
this Moses, the man who brought us up out
of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what
has become of him.”

2 Aaronsaidto them, “Take off the golden
rings, which are in the ears of your wives,
of your sons, and of your daughters, and
bring them to me.”

3 All the people took off the golden rings
which were in their ears, and brought
them to Aaron.

4 He received what they handed him,
fashioned it with an engraving tool,
and made it a molded calf. Then they
said, “These are your gods, Israel, which
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,
and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to
Yahweh.”

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

7 Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Go, get down;
for your people, whom you brought up
out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted
themselves!

8 They have turned away quickly out of
the way which I commanded them. They
have made themselves a molded calf, and
have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to
it, and said, ‘These are your gods, Israel,
which brought you up out of the land of
Egypt.’ ”

9 Yahweh said to Moses, “I have seen
these people, and behold, they are a stiffnecked people.

10 Now therefore leaveme alone,thatmy
wrath may burn hot againstthem, and that
I may consume them; and I will make of
you a great nation.”

11 Moses begged Yahweh his God, and
said, “Yahweh, why does your wrath burn
hot against your people, that you have
brought out of the land of Egypt with great
power and with a mighty hand?

12 Why should the Egyptians talk, saying,
‘He brought them out for evil, to kill them
in the mountains, and to consume them
from the surface of the earth’? Turn fromyour fierce wrath, and turn away from this
evil 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† as the stars of the
sky, and all this land that I have spoken of
I will give to your offspring, and they shall
inherit it forever.’ ”

14 So Yahweh turned away from the evil
which he said he would do to his people.

15 Moses turned, and went down from
the mountain, with the two tablets of the
covenant in his hand; tablets that were
written on both their sides. They were
written on one side and on the other.

16 The tablets were the work of God,
and the writing was the writing of God,
engraved on the tablets.

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