Israel Worships a Golden Calf

32 The people saw that Moses took a long time to come down from the mountain. So they gathered around Aaron. They said to him, “Come. Make us a god that will lead us. This fellow Moses brought us up out of Egypt. But we don’t know what has happened to him.”

² Aaron answered them, “Take the gold earrings off your wives, your sons and your daughters. Bring the earrings to me.” ³ So all the people took off their earrings. They brought them to Aaron. ⁴ He took what they gave him and made it into a metal statue of a god. It looked like a calf. Aaron shaped it with a tool. Then the people said, “Israel, here is your god who brought you up out of Egypt.”

⁵ When Aaron saw what they were doing, he built an altar in front of the calf. He said, “Tomorrow will be a feast day to honor the Lord.” ⁶ So the next day the people got up early. They sacrificed burnt offerings and brought friendship offerings. They sat down to eat and drink. Then they got up to dance wildly in front of their god.

⁷ The Lord spoke to Moses. He said, “Go down. Your people you brought up out of Egypt have become very sinful. ⁸ They have quickly turned away from what I commanded them. They have made themselves a metal statue of a god in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down and sacrificed to it. And they have said, ‘Israel, here is your god who brought you up out of Egypt.’

³¹ So Moses went back to the Lord. He said, “These people have committed a terrible sin. They have made a god out of gold for themselves. ³² Now please forgive their sin. But if you won’t, then erase my name out of the book you have written.”

³³ The Lord replied to Moses. The Lord said, “I will erase out of my book only the names of those who have sinned against me. ³⁴ Now go. Lead the people to the place I spoke about. My angel will go ahead of you. But when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.”

³⁵ The Lord struck the people with a plague. That’s because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made.