Exodus 32
21st Century King James Version
32 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, “Arise, make us gods which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him.”
2 And Aaron said unto them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.”
3 And all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
4 And he received them from their hand, and fashioned it with an engraving tool after he had made it a molten calf; and they said, “These are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt!”
5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.”
6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
7 And the Lord said unto Moses, “Go, get thee down; for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.
8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten calf and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed thereunto and said, ‘These are thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt!’”
9 And the Lord said unto Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiffnecked people.
10 Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of thee a great nation.”
11 And Moses besought the Lord his God and said, “Lord, why doth Thy wrath wax hot against Thy people, whom Thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
12 Why should the Egyptians speak and say, ‘For mischief did He bring them out, to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against Thy people.
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Thy servants to whom Thou sworest by Thine own self and saidst unto them, ‘I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.’”
14 And the Lord repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people.
15 And Moses turned and went down from the mount, and the two tablets of the testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.
16 And the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tablets.
17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.”
18 And Moses said, “It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome; but the noise of them that sing do I hear.”
19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing; and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them beneath the mount.
20 And he took the calf which they had made and burned it in the fire and ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink of it.
21 And Moses said unto Aaron, “What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?”
22 And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord wax hot. Thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief.
23 For they said unto me, ‘Make us gods which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him.’
24 And I said unto them, ‘Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off.’ So they gave it to me. Then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.”
25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies),
26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’S side? Let him come unto me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.
27 And he said unto them, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: ‘Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’”
28 And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.
29 For Moses had said, “Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even every man upon his son and upon his brother, that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day.”
30 And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, “Ye have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up unto the Lord. Perhaps I shall make an atonement for your sin.”
31 And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold.
32 Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin — and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written!”
33 And the Lord said unto Moses, “Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book.
34 Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee; behold, Mine angel shall go before thee. Nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them.”
35 And the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf which Aaron made.
Exodus 32
EasyEnglish Bible
The gold calf
32 The people realized that Moses had been on the mountain for a long time. So they went in a group to Aaron. They said to him, ‘Do something! Make some gods for us who will lead us. This man, Moses, brought us here out of Egypt. But now we do not know what has happened to him.’
2 So Aaron said to them, ‘Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters. Then bring the rings to me.’ 3 So all the Israelites removed the rings from their ears. They brought them to Aaron.
4 Aaron took the gold rings from the people. He melted the gold and he used a tool to make an image of a calf. Then the people said, ‘Look, people of Israel! This is our god who brought us up out of Egypt!’
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the gold calf. He told everyone, ‘Tomorrow, there will be a feast to worship the Lord.’
6 So the next day, the Israelites got up early. They killed animals as burnt offerings on the altar. They also brought peace offerings. After that, they sat down to eat a meal and they drank wine. Then they had a wild party.
7 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Hurry back down the mountain! The people that you brought out of Egypt have done a wicked thing. 8 They have already turned away from my commands. They have made for themselves an image of a calf. They have bent down low to worship it. They have made sacrifices to give it honour. They are saying, “This is the god of the Israelites, the god who brought us out of Egypt!” ’
9 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen these people. They are proud and they do not obey me. 10 I am very angry with them and I will destroy them. Do not try to stop me. I will make your descendants into a great nation, instead of them.’
11 But Moses asked the Lord his God to be kind. He said, ‘Lord, please do not be so angry with your own people! You used your great power and authority to bring them safely out of Egypt. 12 If you destroy them, the Egyptians will say, “God led the Israelites out of our land so that he could completely destroy them. He wanted to kill them in the mountains.” So please stop being angry. Change your mind. Please do not bring this great trouble on your own people. 13 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who are our ancestors. Remember the serious promise that you made to them. You said, “I will give you many descendants. They will be as many as the stars in the sky. I have also promised to give this whole land to them. It will belong to them as their home for ever.” ’
14 Then the Lord changed his mind. He did not bring the great trouble on his people as he had said he would.
15 Moses left the Lord and he went down the mountain. He carried in his hands the two flat stones with God's special commands on them. God had written his commands on both sides of the stones. 16 This was God's own work. He himself had written the words on the stones.
17 Joshua heard the noise of the Israelites as they were shouting down below. He said to Moses, ‘I can hear the sound of war in the camp!’ 18 But Moses said, ‘It is not the noise that soldiers make when they have won a battle. It is not the sound of soldiers who are crying because their enemy has won against them. I can hear the sound of people who are singing.’
19 Then Moses arrived at the camp. He saw the gold calf. He saw that the people were dancing. He became very angry. He threw the two flat stones that he was carrying onto the ground. He broke them into pieces there at the bottom of the mountain. 20 Then he took the image of the calf that they had made. He burned it in the fire. He beat it into powder. He mixed the powder with the people's water. Then he commanded the Israelites to drink it.
21 Moses said to Aaron, ‘Why did you agree to do this? What did the people do to you? You have made them guilty of a great sin.’ 22 Aaron answered, ‘My lord, please do not be so angry with me. You know how quickly these people decide to do wicked things. 23 They said to me, “Make us some gods that will lead us. This man Moses brought us here out of Egypt. But now we do not know what has happened to him.” 24 So I said to them, “Everyone who has any gold rings must remove them.” So they gave the gold to me. I threw it into the fire. Then this image of a calf came out of the fire!’
God punishes the people
25 Moses saw that the people were running about everywhere. Aaron had not been able to control them. If their enemies could see them, they would see how foolish they were. 26 So Moses stood at the edge of the camp. He said, ‘Everyone who decides to serve the Lord must come here to me.’ Then all the Levites went to stand near Moses.
27 Then Moses said to the Levites, ‘The Lord, Israel's God, says this: Each one of you must take his sword in his hand. You must go everywhere in the camp, from this side to the other side. You must kill everyone, even your brothers, your friends and your neighbours.’ 28 The Levites obeyed Moses' command. About 3,000 Israelites died on that day.
29 Then Moses said to the Levites, ‘You have shown today that you want to serve the Lord. You have become his special servants because you have obeyed him. You have agreed to kill even your own sons and brothers. God has blessed you because of this.’
30 On the next day, Moses said to the people, ‘You have done a great sin. But now I will go back up the mountain. I will speak to the Lord. Perhaps I can do something so that the Lord will forgive your sin.’
31 So Moses returned to the Lord. He said to the Lord, ‘Please listen to me. These people have done a very great sin. They have made a gold idol to worship as their god. 32 But now I ask you to forgive them for their sin. But if you will not do that, then please remove my name from your book.’[a]
33 The Lord answered Moses, ‘I will only remove the names of the people who have turned against me. 34 Now go! Lead the Israelites to the place that I have told you about. My angel will go in front of you. But on the day for punishment, I will certainly punish them for their sin.’
35 The Lord did send a bad disease to punish the people. He punished them because they had caused Aaron to make an image of a calf.
Footnotes
- 32:32 This was a book where God had written the names of his people.
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