Dual Panel1WHEN THE people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, [they] gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, Up, make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
2So Aaron replied, Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives, your sons, and daughters, and bring them to me.
3So all the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron.
4And he received the gold at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it a molten calf; and they said, These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!
5And when Aaron saw the molten calf, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.
6And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
7The Lord said to Moses, Go down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves;
8They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, These are your gods, O Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt!
9And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people;
10Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and that I may destroy them; but I will make of you a great nation.
11But Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why does Your wrath blaze hot against Your people, whom You have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?
12Why should the Egyptians say, For evil He brought them forth, to slay them in the mountains and consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and change Your mind concerning this evil against Your people.
13[Earnestly] remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self and said to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.
14Then the Lord turned from the evil which He had thought to do to His people.
15And Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tables of the Testimony in his hand, tables {or} tablets that were written on both sides.
16The tables were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.
17And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.
18But Moses said, It is not the sound of shouting for victory, neither is it the sound of the cry of the defeated, but the sound of singing that I hear.
19And as soon as he came near to the camp he saw the calf and the dancing. And Moses' anger blazed hot and he cast the tables out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.
20And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.
21And Moses said to Aaron, What did this people do to you, that you have brought so great a sin upon them?
22And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord blaze hot; you know the people, that they are set on evil.
23For they said to me, Make us gods which shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
24I said to them, Those who have any gold, let them take it off. So they gave it to me; then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.
25And when Moses saw that the people were unruly {and} unrestrained (for Aaron had let them get out of control, so that they were a derision {and} object of shame among their enemies),
26Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Whoever is on the Lord's side, let him come to me. And all the Levites [the priestly tribe] gathered together to him.
27And he said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Every man put his sword on 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.
28And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and there fell of the people that day about 3000 men.
29And Moses said [to the Levites, By your obedience to God's command] you have consecrated yourselves today [as priests] to the Lord, each man [at the cost of being] against his own son and his own brother, that the Lord may restore {and} bestow His blessing upon {you} this day.
30The next day Moses said to the people, You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.
31So Moses returned to the Lord, and said, Oh, these people have sinned a great sin and have made themselves gods of gold!
32Yet now, if You will forgive their sin--and if not, blot me, I pray You, out of Your book which You have written!
33But the Lord said to Moses, Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him [not you] out of My book.
34But now go, lead the people to the place of which I have told you. Behold, My Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I punish I will visit their sin upon them!
35And the Lord sent a plague upon the people because they made the calf which Aaron fashioned for them.