The Golden Calf

32 Now when the people saw that Moses ^(A)delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled around Aaron and said to him, “Come, ^(B)make us ^[a]a god who will go before us; for ^(C)this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we do not know what happened to him.” ² Aaron said to them, “^(D)Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” ³ So all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ Then he took the gold from their ^[b]hands, and fashioned it with an engraving tool and made it into a ^(E)cast metal calf; and they said, “^[c]This is your god, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”

⁷ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Go ^[a]down at once, for your people, whom ^(A)you brought up from the land of Egypt, have ^(B)behaved corruptly. ⁸ They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. ^(C)They have made for themselves a cast metal calf, and have worshiped it and ^(D)have sacrificed to it and said, ‘^[b](E)This is your god, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’”

Moses’ Anger

¹⁹ And it came about, as soon as ^[a]Moses approached the camp, that ^(A)he saw the calf and the people dancing; and Moses’ anger burned, and ^(B)he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them to pieces ^[b]at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰ Then ^(C)he took the calf which they had made and completely burned it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it over the surface of the water and made the sons of Israel drink it.

²¹ Then Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” ²² And Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, ^(D)that they are ^[c]prone to evil. ²³ For ^(E)they said to me, ‘Make ^[d]a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we do not know what happened to him.’ ²⁴ So I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ Then they gave it to me, and ^(F)I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”