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.” ⁵ Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” ⁶ So the next day they got up early and ^(F)offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and ^(G)the people sat down to eat and to drink, and got up ^(H)to engage in lewd behavior.

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

³⁰ And on the next day Moses said to the people, “^(A)You yourselves have ^[a]committed a great sin; and now I am going up to the Lord; perhaps I can ^(B)make atonement for your sin.” ³¹ Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, this people has ^[b]committed a great sin, and they have made a ^(C)god of gold for themselves! ³² But now, if You will forgive their sin, very well; but if not, please wipe me out from Your ^(D)book which You have written!” ³³ However, the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, ^(E)I will wipe him out of My book. ³⁴ But go now, lead the people ^(F)where I told you. Behold, ^(G)My angel shall go before you; nevertheless ^(H)on the day when I ^[c]punish, ^(I)I will ^[d]punish them for their sin.” ^35 (J)Then the Lord struck the people with a plague, because of ^(K)what they did with the calf which Aaron had made.