Exodus 32
Blot Me Out Instead of Them
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The Rebellion
32:1When the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, they gathered against Aaron and said, “Get up! Make us gods to go before us. As for this Moses, the man who led us out of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.”
32:2Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold earrings from the ears of your wives and daughters, and bring them to me.”
32:3All the people took off the gold earrings from their ears and brought them to Aaron.
32:4He received them from their hands, fashioned them with an engraving tool, and made them into a cast-metal calf. He said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from Egypt.”
32:5When Aaron saw it, he built an altar opposite it and proclaimed, “Tomorrow is a feast of the Lord.”
32:6He rose early the next day, offered whole burnt offerings, and brought a sacrifice of well-being. The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
The Divine Verdict
32:7The Lord said to Moses, “Hurry away from here and go down, for your people, whom you led out of Egypt, have acted lawlessly.
32:8They have quickly transgressed the way you commanded them. They have made a calf, bowed down to it, sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from Egypt.’”
32:10Now leave Me alone, and in My anger I will destroy them. I will make you into a great nation.”
32:11Moses entreated the Lord God: “Why are You angry with Your people, Lord, whom You led out of Egypt with great strength and Your uplifted arm?
32:12Do not let the Egyptians say, ‘He led them out with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and consume them from the earth.’ Cease from Your fierce anger and be merciful concerning Your people’s wickedness,
32:13remembering Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Your servants, to whom You swore by Yourself: ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven in number, and all this land You said You would give their descendants, and they shall possess it forever.’”
32:14The Lord was appeased concerning the calamity He had said He would bring upon His people.
The Fall
32:15Moses turned and came down the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands, stone tablets written on both sides, on the one side and the other.
32:16The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing, engraved on the tablets.
32:17When Joshua heard the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is a sound of war in the camp!”
32:18He said, “It is not the sound of those leading a song of victory or of defeat; it is the sound of those leading a wine-song that I hear.”
32:19As he approached the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. In his anger Moses threw the two tablets from his hands and shattered them at the mountain’s foot.
32:20He took the calf they had made, burned it in the fire, ground it fine, scattered it on the water, and made the sons of Israel drink it.
32:21Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you brought such a great sin upon them?”
32:22Aaron said to Moses, “Do not be angry, my lord. You know this people’s impulse.
32:23They said to me, ‘Make us gods to go before us. As for this Moses, the man who led us out of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’
32:24So I told them, ‘Whoever has gold ornaments, take them off.’ They gave them to me, I threw them into the fire, and this calf came out.”
The Purge
32:25Moses saw that the people were scattered, for Aaron had scattered them, to the delight of their enemies.
32:26Moses stood at the camp’s gate and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!” All the sons of Levi gathered to him.
32:27He said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Each of you put his sword at his thigh. Go back and forth through the camp from gate to gate, and kill, each his brother, each his neighbor, and each the one nearest to him.’”
32:28The sons of Levi did as Moses told them. As many as three thousand men of the people fell that day.
32:29Moses said to them, “You have filled your hands today to the Lord, each at the cost of his son or brother, so that a blessing may be given to you.”
The Consequence
32:30After the next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. Now I will go up to God to make propitiation for your sin.”
32:31Moses returned to the Lord and said, “I beg You, Lord: this people has committed a great sin and made themselves gods of gold.
32:32Now, if You will forgive their sin, forgive it; but if not, blot me out of the book You have written.”
32:33The Lord said to Moses, “If anyone has sinned before Me, I will blot him out of My book.
32:34Now go down and lead this people to the place I told you. My angel goes before you. On the day I visit, I will bring their sin upon them.”
32:35The Lord struck the people because of the making of the calf Aaron made.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.