Exodus 32

Exodus 32:1 After the people saw that Moses was overdue coming down from the mountain, the people collected [1] together to Aaron and said to him, “Stand up, make us gods who will go before us. We do not know what has become of this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, of him.”

Exodus 32:2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”

Exodus 32:3 So all the people took off the gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.

Exodus 32:4 And he took the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

Exodus 32:5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow should be a feast to Yahveh.”

Exodus 32:6 And they rose up early the next day and offered ascending offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

Exodus 32:7 And Yahveh said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have ruined themselves.

Exodus 32:8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'”

Exodus 32:9 And Yahveh said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and notice, it is a stiff-necked people.

Exodus 32:10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

Exodus 32:11 But Moses implored Yahveh his God and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

Exodus 32:12 Why should the Egyptians say, He brought them out with a wrong motive, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the land? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.

Exodus 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your slaves, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they should inherit it permanently.'”

Exodus 32:14 And Yahveh relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

Exodus 32:15 Moses then turned and went down from the mountain and the two tablets of the reminder were in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back, they were written.

Exodus 32:16 The tablets fashioned by God, and the writing was the writing of God, he had engraved the tablets.

Exodus 32:17 When Joshua had heard the noise of the people as they were shouting, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.”

Exodus 32:18 But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.”

Exodus 32:19 And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.

Exodus 32:20 He took the calf that they had made and had it burned with fire and ground it to powder and scattered on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.

Exodus 32:21 And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great failure[2] upon them?”

Exodus 32:22 And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.

Exodus 32:23 Because they said to me, ‘Make us gods who should 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.’

Exodus 32:24 So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So, they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out.”

Exodus 32:25 And when Moses saw that the people had lost control of themselves (for Aaron had let them lose control, so that those standing with them gossiped),

Exodus 32:26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who belongs to Yahveh? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.

Exodus 32:27 And he said to them, “This is what Yahveh God of Israel says: ‘Put your sword on your side each of you and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his friend and his neighbor.'”

Exodus 32:28 And the sons of Levi did what Moses said. And among the people that day about three thousand men were killed.

Exodus 32:29 And Moses said, “Today you have shown yourselves committed to the service of Yahveh, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”

Exodus 32:30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have failed a great sin. So now I will go up to Yahveh; perhaps I can make atonement for your failure.”

Exodus 32:31 So Moses returned to Yahveh and said, “Now, this people have failed a great failure. They have made for themselves gods of gold.

Exodus 32:32 But now, if you will forgive their sin – but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”

Exodus 32:33 But Yahveh said to Moses, “I will blot out of my book the one who has failed me.

Exodus 32:34 But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; notice, my agent will go before you. But on the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”

Exodus 32:35 Then Yahveh sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.

[1] קָהַל = collect. Exodus 32:1; 35:1.

[2] חֲטָאָה = failure. Exodus 32:21, 30, 31.

Exodus 32 quotes

“The reality that divine grace does not come easily or cheaply is quite dramatically illustrated by Yahweh’s reaction to the people’s sin in 32:10: Yahweh’s initial impulse is to obliterate these treacherous people entirely. But Yahweh’s words also reveal a struggle within to suppress a gentler nature. God commands Moses to leave so that the divine wrath will not be impeded. But Moses coaxes Yahweh to do that which Yahweh really wants to do—forgive the people”

Newsome, James D. Exodus. First edition, Westminster John Knox Press, 1998. p, 109.

“The narrator tells us that, in response to Moses, “the LORD changed his mind © about the terrible things he said he would do to his people” (Exodus 32:14). There is no question that punishment was justified. It would not have © been unfair to hold the people accountable. But the simple statement that © “the LorD changed his mind” is most remarkable—and for some people, © most difficult to accept.”

March, W. Eugene. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Abingdon Press, 2012. p. 41.

“There is little wonder that the story of the golden calf has loomed large in the consciousness of many men and women of faith. Ezekiel 20:8, Acts 7:40—42 (Ex. 32:1 is quoted almost verbatim in 7:40), and 1 Corinthians 10:7 (which quotes Ex. 32:6) are all texts that recall this terrible moment of Israel’s sinfulness. In each case (although from different perspectives), the later passages cite the golden calf incident as an example of how God’s people are not to live or act. “

Newsome, James D. Exodus. 1st ed, Geneva Press, 1998. p. 108.