²¹ Finally, he turned to Aaron and demanded, “What did these people do to you to make you bring such terrible sin upon them?”

²² “Don’t get so upset, my lord,” Aaron replied. “You yourself know how evil these people are. ²³ They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.’ ²⁴ So I told them, ‘Whoever has gold jewelry, take it off.’ When they brought it to me, I simply threw it into the fire—and out came this calf!”

²⁵ Moses saw that Aaron had let the people get completely out of control, much to the amusement of their enemies.^{[a] 26} So he stood at the entrance to the camp and shouted, “All of you who are on the Lord’s side, come here and join me.” And all the Levites gathered around him.

²⁷ Moses told them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Each of you, take your swords and go back and forth from one end of the camp to the other. Kill everyone—even your brothers, friends, and neighbors.” ²⁸ The Levites obeyed Moses’ command, and about 3,000 people died that day.

²⁹ Then Moses told the Levites, “Today you have ordained yourselves^[b] for the service of the Lord, for you obeyed him even though it meant killing your own sons and brothers. Today you have earned a blessing.”

Moses Intercedes for Israel

³⁰ The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a terrible sin, but I will go back up to the Lord on the mountain. Perhaps I will be able to obtain forgiveness^[c] for your sin.”