¹⁶ When they have a dispute, they come to me, and I decide between one person and another, and I make known to them the statutes and instructions of God.” ¹⁷ Moses’s father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. ¹⁸ You will surely wear yourself out, both you and these people with you, for the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.^{(A) 19} Now listen to me. I will give you counsel, and God be with you! You should represent the people before God and bring their cases to God.^{(B) 20} Teach them the statutes and instructions and make known to them the way they are to go and the things they are to do.^(C)

The Golden Calf

32 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”^{(A) 2} Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.”^{(B) 3} So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ He took these from them, formed them in a mold,^[a] and cast an image of a calf, and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”^(C)

³⁵ The Israelites had acted according to the word of Moses; they had asked the Egyptians for jewelry of silver and gold and for clothing,^{(A) 36} and the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. And so they plundered the Egyptians.^(B)

² “Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering; from all whose hearts prompt them to give you shall receive the offering for me.^{(A) 3} This is the offering that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, ⁴ blue, purple, and crimson yarns and fine linen, goats’ hair, ⁵ tanned rams’ skins, fine leather,^[a] acacia wood, ⁶ oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,^{(B) 7} onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and for the breastpiece.^{(C) 8} And they shall make me a sanctuary so that I may dwell among them.^(D)