Exo 32-34 | ESV | STEP | When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain , the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, Up , make us gods who 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.

1 When the people saw that Moses ^adelayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, ^b“Up, make us gods who shall ^cgo 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.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the ^drings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 ^eAnd he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden ^{▼▼Hebrew cast metal; also verse 8} calf. And they said, ^g“These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron ^hmade a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And ⁱthe people sat down to eat and drink and rose up ^jto play.

7 And the Lord said to Moses, ^k“Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have ^lcorrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that ^mI 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!’” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, ⁿit is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore ^olet me alone, that ^pmy wrath may burn hot against them and ^qI may consume them, in order that ^rI may make a great nation of you.”

11 But ^sMoses implored the Lord 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? 12 ^tWhy should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and ^urelent from this disaster against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you ^vswore by your own self, and said to them, ^w‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14 And the Lord ^xrelented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

15 Then ^yMoses turned and went down from the mountain with the ^ztwo tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. 16 ^aaThe tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. 17 When ^abJoshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” 18 But he said, “It is not the sound of ^acshouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” 19 And as soon as he came near the camp and ^adsaw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20 He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.

21 And Moses said to Aaron, ^ae“What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” 22 And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. ^afYou know the people, that they are set on evil. 23 For ^agthey said to me, ‘Make us gods who 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.’ 24 So ^ahI 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 out came this calf.”

25 And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, ^aito the derision of their enemies), 26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. 27 And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you ^ajkill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” 28 And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. 29 And Moses said, “Today you have been ^akordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”

30 The next day Moses said to the people, ^al“You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; ^amperhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” 31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, ^anthis people has sinned a great sin. They have ^aomade for themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, if ^apyou will forgive their sin—but if not, please ^aqblot me out of ^aryour book that you have written.” 33 But the Lord said to Moses, ^as“Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. 34 ^atBut now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; ^aubehold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”

35 Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.

Exodus 33

The Command to Leave Sinai

1 The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you ^avand the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To ^awyour offspring I will give it.’ 2 I will send an ^axangel before you, ^ayand I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3 ^azGo up to a land flowing with milk and honey; ^babut I will not go up among you, ^bblest I consume you on the way, for you are a ^bcstiff-necked people.”

4 When the people heard this disastrous word, they ^bdmourned, and ^beno one put on his ornaments. 5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a ^bfstiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would ^bgconsume you. So now ^bhtake off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” 6 Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

The Tent of Meeting

7 Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and ^bihe called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who ^bjsought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and ^bkeach would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. 9 When Moses entered the tent, the ^blpillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord ^{▼▼Hebrew he} would speak with Moses. 10 And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. 11 Thus ^bnthe Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his ^boassistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Moses’ Intercession

12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, ^bpyou say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ^bq‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please ^brshow me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is ^bsyour people.” 14 And he said, ^bt“My presence will go with you, and ^buI will give you rest.” 15 And he said to him, ^bv“If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? ^bwIs it not in your going with us, ^bxso that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

17 And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, ^byfor you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” 18 Moses said, “Please ^bzshow me your glory.” 19 And he said, ^ca“I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And ^cbI will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for ^ccman shall not see me and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a ^cdcleft of the rock, and I will ^cecover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall ^cfnot be seen.”

Exodus 34

Moses Makes New Tablets

1 The Lord said to Moses, ^cg“Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, ^chand I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, ^ciwhich you broke. 2 Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me ^cjon the top of the mountain. 3 No ^ckone shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.” 4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. 5 The Lord ^cldescended in the cloud and stood with him there, and ^cmproclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ^cn“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and ^cogracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast ^cplove and faithfulness, 7 ^cqkeeping steadfast love for thousands, ^{▼▼Or to the thousandth generation} ^csforgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but ^ctwho will by no means clear the guilty, ^cuvisiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 And Moses quickly ^cvbowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. 9 And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please ^cwlet the Lord go in the midst of us, for ^cxit is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for ^cyyour inheritance.”

The Covenant Renewed

10 And he said, “Behold, ^czI am making a covenant. Before all your people ^daI will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an ^dbawesome thing that I will do with you.

11 “Observe what I command you this day. Behold, ^dcI will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 12 ^ddTake care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a ^desnare in your midst. 13 You shall ^dftear down their altars and ^dgbreak their pillars and cut down their ^dhAsherim 14 (for ^diyou shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), 15 ^djlest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they ^dkwhore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and ^dlyou are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you take of ^dmtheir daughters for your sons, and their daughters ^dnwhore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.

17 ^do“You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal.

18 ^dp“You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in ^dqthe month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt. 19 ^drAll that open the womb are mine, all your male ^{▼▼Septuagint, Theodotion, Vulgate, Targum; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain} livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep. 20 The ^dtfirstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And ^dunone shall appear before me empty-handed.

21 ^dv“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. 22 ^dwYou shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end. 23 ^dxThree times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. 24 For I will ^dycast out nations before you and ^dzenlarge your borders; ^eano one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.

25 ^eb“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, ^ecor let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning. 26 ^edThe best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. ^eeYou shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

27 And the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words ^efI have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 ^egSo he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he ^ehwrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. ^{▼▼Hebrew the ten words}

The Shining Face of Moses

29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with ^ejthe two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face ^ekshone because he had been talking with God. ^{▼▼Hebrew him} 30 Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face ^emshone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. 32 Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he ^encommanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. 33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a ^eoveil over his face.

34 Whenever Moses ^epwent in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, 35 the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face was ^eqshining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.