The Golden Calf

⁷ Remember this and never forget how you aroused the anger^(A) of the Lord your God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious^(B) against the Lord.^{(C) 8} At Horeb you aroused the Lord’s wrath^(D) so that he was angry enough to destroy you.^{(E) 9} When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant^(F) that the Lord had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days^(G) and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water.^{(H) 10} The Lord gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God.^(I) On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.^(J)

¹¹ At the end of the forty days and forty nights,^(K) the Lord gave me the two stone tablets,^(L) the tablets of the covenant. ¹² Then the Lord told me, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt.^(M) They have turned away quickly^(N) from what I commanded them and have made an idol for themselves.”

¹³ And the Lord said to me, “I have seen this people^(O), and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! ¹⁴ Let me alone,^(P) so that I may destroy them and blot out^(Q) their name from under heaven.^(R) And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.”

¹⁵ So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.^{(S) 16} When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf.^(T) You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.

¹⁸ Then once again I fell^(U) prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water,^(V) because of all the sin you had committed,^(W) doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and so arousing his anger. ¹⁹ I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you.^(X) But again the Lord listened to me.^{(Y) 20} And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too. ²¹ Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust^(Z) and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.^(AA)

²² You also made the Lord angry^(AB) at Taberah,^(AC) at Massah^(AD) and at Kibroth Hattaavah.^(AE)

²³ And when the Lord sent you out from Kadesh Barnea,^(AF) he said, “Go up and take possession^(AG) of the land I have given you.” But you rebelled^(AH) against the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust^(AI) him or obey him. ²⁴ You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you.^(AJ)