32:2 So Aaron said to them, “Break off the gold earrings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” ⁹  32:3 So all ¹⁰  the people broke off the gold earrings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron. 32:4 He accepted the gold ¹¹  from them, ¹²  fashioned ¹³  it with an engraving tool, and made a molten calf. ¹⁴  Then they said, “These are your gods, ¹⁵  O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

32:5 When ¹⁶  Aaron saw this, ¹⁷  he built an altar before it, ¹⁸  and Aaron made a proclamation ¹⁹  and said, “Tomorrow will be a feast ²⁰  to the Lord.” 32:6 So they got up early on the next day and offered up burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink, ²¹  and they rose up to play. ²² 

32:7 The Lord spoke to Moses: “Go quickly, descend, ²³  because your ²⁴  people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have acted corruptly. 32:8 They have quickly turned aside ²⁵  from the way that I commanded them – they have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt.’”

32:9 Then the Lord said to Moses: “I have seen this people. ²⁶  Look ²⁷  what a stiff-necked people they are! ²⁸  32:10 So now, leave me alone ²⁹  so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them, and I will make from you a great nation.”

32:11 But Moses sought the favor ³⁰  of the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your anger burn against your people, whom you have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 32:12 Why ³¹  should the Egyptians say, ³²  ‘For evil ³³  he led them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy ³⁴  them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger, and relent ³⁵  of this evil against your people. 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, ‘I will multiply your descendants ³⁶  like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about ³⁷  I will give to your descendants, ³⁸  and they will inherit it forever.’” 32:14 Then the Lord relented over the evil that he had said he would do to his people.

32:15 Moses turned and went down from the mountain with ³⁹  the two tablets of the testimony in his hands. The tablets were written on both sides – they were written on the front and on the back. 32:16 Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. 32:17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, ⁴⁰  he said to Moses, “It is the sound of war in the camp!” 32:18 Moses ⁴¹  said, “It is not the sound of those who shout for victory, ⁴²  nor is it the sound of those who cry because they are overcome, ⁴³  but the sound of singing ⁴⁴  I hear.” ⁴⁵ 

32:19 When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry. ⁴⁶  He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain. ⁴⁷  32:20 He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it ⁴⁸  to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it. ⁴⁹