The Gold Calf^(A)

32 Now when the people saw that Moses ^(B)delayed coming down from the mountain, the people ^(C)gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, ^(D)“Come, make us ^[a]gods that shall ^(E)go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who ^(F)brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

² And Aaron said to them, “Break off the ^(G)golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” ³ So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. ^4 (H)And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf.

Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that ^(I)brought you out of the land of Egypt!”

⁵ So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a ^(J)proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.” ⁶ Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people ^(K)sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

⁷ And the Lord said to Moses, ^(L)“Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt ^(M)have corrupted themselves. ⁸ They have turned aside quickly out of the way which ^(N)I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ^(O)‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ” ⁹ And the Lord said to Moses, ^(P)“I have seen this people, and indeed it is a ^[b]stiff-necked people! ¹⁰ Now therefore, ^(Q)let Me alone, that ^(R)My wrath may burn hot against them and I may ^[c]consume them. And ^(S)I will make of you a great nation.”

^11 (T)Then Moses pleaded with ^[d]the Lord his God, and said: “Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ^12 (U)Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and ^(V)relent from this harm to Your people. ¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You ^(W)swore by Your own self, and said to them, ^(X)‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” ¹⁴ So the Lord ^(Y)relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.

¹⁵ And ^(Z)Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other they were written. ¹⁶ Now the ^(AA)tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.

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

¹⁸ But he said:

¹⁹ So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that ^(AB)he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses’ anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. ^20 (AC)Then he took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder; and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it.

The Coming of the Kingdom^(A)

²⁰ Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; ^21 (B)nor will they say, ^[a]‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, ^(C)the kingdom of God is ^[b]within you.”

²² Then He said to the disciples, ^(D)“The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. ^23 (E)And they will say to you, ^[c]‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them. ^24 (F)For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day. ^25 (G)But first He must suffer many things and be ^(H)rejected by this generation. ^26 (I)And as it ^(J)was in the ^(K)days of ^(L)Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: ²⁷ They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the ^(M)day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and ^(N)destroyed them all. ^28 (O)Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; ²⁹ but on ^(P)the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. ³⁰ Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man ^(Q)is revealed.