Golden Calf and God's Merciful Restoration

1. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.” 2. Aaron said to them, “Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3. All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4. He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molten calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” 5. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh.” 6. They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. 7. Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Go, get down; for your people, who you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves! 8. They have turned away quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’” 9. Yahweh said to Moses, “I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people. 10. Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation.” 11. Moses begged Yahweh his God, and said, “Yahweh, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12. Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘He brought them out for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth?’ Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people. 13. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, 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 spoken of I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14. Yahweh repented of the evil which he said he would do to his people. 15. Moses turned, and went down from the mountain, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand; tablets that were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other they were written. 16. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. 17. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is the noise of war in the camp.” 18. He said, “It isn’t the voice of those who shout for victory. It is not the voice of those who cry for being overcome; but the noise of those who sing that I hear.” 19. As soon as he came near to the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. Then Moses’ anger grew hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mountain. 20. He took the calf which they had made, and burned it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it. 21. Moses said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you have brought a great sin on them?” 22. Aaron said, “Don’t let the anger of my lord grow hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 23. For 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 don’t know what has become of him.’ 24. I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them take it off:’ so they gave it to me; and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.” 25. When Moses saw that the people had broken loose, (for Aaron had let them loose for a derision among their enemies), 26. then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on Yahweh’s side, come to me!” All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. 27. He said to them, “Yahweh says, the God of Israel, ‘Every man put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and every man kill his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’” 28. The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. 29. Moses said, “Consecrate yourselves today to Yahweh, yes, every man against his son, and against his brother; that he may give you a blessing today.” 30. On the next day, Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to Yahweh. Perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin.” 31. Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold. 32. Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.” 33. Yahweh said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. 34. Now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin.” 35. Yahweh struck the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made. 1. Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Depart, go up from here, you and the people that you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ 2. I will send an angel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: 3. to a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you on the way.” 4. When the people heard this evil news, they mourned: and no one put on his jewelry. 5. Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go up among you for one moment, I would consume you. Therefore now take off your jewelry from you, that I may know what to do to you.’” 6. The children of Israel stripped themselves of their jewelry from Mount Horeb onward. 7. Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far away from the camp, and he called it “The Tent of Meeting.” Everyone who sought Yahweh went out to the Tent of Meeting, which was outside the camp. 8. When Moses went out to the Tent, all the people rose up, and stood, everyone at their tent door, and watched Moses, until he had gone into the Tent. 9. When Moses entered into the Tent, the pillar of cloud descended, stood at the door of the Tent, and spoke with Moses. 10. All the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the door of the Tent, and all the people rose up and worshiped, everyone at their tent door. 11. Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. He turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, didn’t depart from the Tent. 12. Moses said to Yahweh, “Behold, you tell me, ‘Bring up this people:’ and you haven’t let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘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 show me now your way, that I may know you, so that I may find favor in your sight: and consider that this nation is your people.” 14. He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15. He said to him, “If your presence doesn’t go with me, don’t carry us up from here. 16. For how would people know that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Isn’t it that you go with us, so that we are separated, I and your people, from all the people who are on the surface of the earth?” 17. Yahweh said to Moses, “I will do this thing also that you have spoken; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” 18. He said, “Please show me your glory.” 19. He said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim Yahweh’s name before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” 20. He said, “You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live.” 21. Yahweh also said, “Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22. It will happen, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; 23. then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back; but my face shall not be seen.” 1. Yahweh said to Moses, “Chisel two stone tablets like the first. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2. Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. 3. No one shall come up with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Do not let the flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.” 4. He chiseled two tablets of stone like the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets. 5. Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed Yahweh’s name. 6. Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth, 7. keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation.” 8. Moses hurried and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. 9. He said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, Lord, please let the Lord go among us; although this is a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.” 10. He said, “Behold, I make a covenant: before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been worked in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among which you are shall see the work of Yahweh; for it is an awesome thing that I do with you. 11. Observe that which I command you today. Behold, I drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 12. Be careful, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be for a snare among you: 13. but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherah poles; 14. for you shall worship no other god: for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. 15. “Don’t make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice; 16. and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods. 17. “You shall make no cast idols for yourselves. 18. “You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib; for in the month Abib you came out of Egypt. 19. “All that opens the womb is mine; and all your livestock that is male, the firstborn of cow and sheep. 20. You shall redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb. If you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. You shall redeem all the firstborn of your sons. No one shall appear before me empty. 21. “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest: in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. 22. “You shall observe the feast of weeks with the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest at the year’s end. 23. Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel. 24. For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither shall any man desire your land when you go up to appear before Yahweh, your God, three times in the year. 25. “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. The sacrifice of the feast of the Passover shall not be left to the morning. 26. “You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground to the house of Yahweh your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” 27. Yahweh said to Moses, “Write you these words: for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28. He was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. 29. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mountain, Moses didn’t know that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with him. 30. When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him. 31. Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them. 32. Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all the commandments that Yahweh had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 33. When Moses was done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. 34. But when Moses went in before Yahweh to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out; and he came out, and spoke to the children of Israel that which he was commanded. 35. The children of Israel saw Moses’ face, that the skin of Moses’ face shone: and Moses put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

1. Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we don’t faint. 2. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3. Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who are dying; 4. in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them. 5. For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake; 6. seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7. But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves. 8. We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; 9. pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed; 10. always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh. 12. So then death works in us, but life in you. 13. But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, “I believed, and therefore I spoke.” We also believe, and therefore also we speak; 14. knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will present us with you. 15. For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. 16. Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. 17. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; 18. while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 1. For we know that if the earthly house of our tent is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens. 2. For most certainly in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven; 3. if so be that being clothed we will not be found naked. 4. For indeed we who are in this tent do groan, being burdened; not that we desire to be unclothed, but that we desire to be clothed, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5. Now he who made us for this very thing is God, who also gave to us the down payment of the Spirit. 6. Therefore we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord; 7. for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8. We are courageous, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord. 9. Therefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing to him. 10. For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 11. Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are revealed to God; and I hope that we are revealed also in your consciences. 12. For we are not commending ourselves to you again, but speak as giving you occasion of boasting on our behalf, that you may have something to answer those who boast in appearance, and not in heart. 13. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. Or if we are of sober mind, it is for you. 14. For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died. 15. He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again. 16. Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more. 17. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. 18. But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19. namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20. We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21. For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 1. Working together, we entreat also that you do not receive the grace of God in vain, 2. for he says, “At an acceptable time I listened to you, in a day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. 3. We give no occasion of stumbling in anything, that our service may not be blamed, 4. but in everything commending ourselves, as servants of God, in great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, 5. in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; 6. in pureness, in knowledge, in perseverance, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love, 7. in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, 8. by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; 9. as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and not killed; 10. as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. 11. Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians. Our heart is enlarged. 12. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. 13. Now in return, I speak as to my children, you also open your hearts. 14. Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15. What agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever? 16. What agreement has a temple of God with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 17. Therefore “‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you. 18. I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

1. God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture? 2. Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance; Mount Zion, in which you have lived. 3. Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary. 4. Your adversaries have roared in the middle of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs. 5. They behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of trees. 6. Now they break all its carved work down with hatchet and hammers. 7. They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name. 8. They said in their heart, “We will crush them completely.” They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped. 9. We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows how long. 10. How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever? 11. Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it from your chest and consume them! 12. Yet God is my King of old, working salvation throughout the earth. 13. You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters. 14. You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures. 15. You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers. 16. The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared the light and the sun. 17. You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter. 18. Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Yahweh. Foolish people have blasphemed your name. 19. Don’t deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Don’t forget the life of your poor forever. 20. Honor your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth. 21. Don’t let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name. 22. Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day. 23. Don’t forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.