Exodus 32:15-29

Evangelical Heritage Version

¹⁵ Moses turned and went down the mountain, with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hand—tablets that were written on both sides, written on one side and on the other. ¹⁶ The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

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

¹⁸ Moses said, “It is not the sound of people who shout for victory; neither is it the sound of people who cry because of defeat. But I do hear the sound of people who are celebrating.”

¹⁹ As soon as Moses came near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses’ anger burned. So he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰ He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water. Then he made the people of Israel drink it.

²¹ Moses said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you have brought such a great sin on them?”

²² Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn. You know these people. They are set on evil, ²³ so they said to me, ‘Make a god for us, who will go ahead of us, because this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ²⁴ So I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, pull it off.’ So they gave it to me. I threw it into the fire and out came this calf.”

²⁵ When Moses saw that the people were out of control (for Aaron had let them get so out of control that they were disgraced among their enemies), ²⁶ Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Whoever is on the Lord’s side, come to me!”

All the descendants of Levi gathered themselves together to Moses. ²⁷ He said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Every man is to strap his sword on his thigh and go back and forth throughout the camp, from one gate of the camp to the other, and every man is to kill his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.’” ²⁸ The Levites did what Moses said, and that day about three thousand men from among the people fell. ²⁹ Moses said, “Begin your service of the Lord today.^[a] Yes, because every man among you took a stand against his son and against his brother, the Lord is bestowing a blessing on you today.”