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Exodus 32

32. The Golden Calf

The Golden Calf

32

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, 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.”²Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”³So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron.⁴He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”⁵When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.”⁶They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.

⁷ The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely;⁸they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a 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!’ ”⁹The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are.¹⁰Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.”

¹¹ But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?¹²Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”¹⁴And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

¹⁵ Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain, carrying the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, tablets that were written on both sides, written on the front and on the back.¹⁶The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved upon the tablets.¹⁷When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.”¹⁸But he said,

“It is not the sound made by victors,

or the sound made by losers;

it is the sound of revelers that I hear.”

¹⁹ 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.²⁰He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.

²¹ Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?”²²And Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn hot; you know the people, that they are bent on evil.²³They 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.’²⁴So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, 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 were running wild (for Aaron had let them run wild, to the derision of their enemies),²⁶then 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.²⁷He said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side, each of you! Go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill your brother, your friend, and your neighbor.’ ”²⁸The sons of Levi did as Moses commanded, and about three thousand of the people fell on that day.²⁹Moses said, “Today you have ordained yourselves for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of a son or a brother, and so have brought a blessing on yourselves this day.”

³⁰ On the next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”³¹So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold.³²But now, if you will only forgive their sin—but if not, blot me out of the book that you have written.”³³But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.³⁴But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; see, my angel shall go in front of you. Nevertheless, when the day comes for punishment, I will punish them for their sin.”

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

1 Corinthians 1:13-17

1. Divisions in the Church

¹³Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?¹⁴I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,¹⁵so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name.¹⁶(I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.

Psalm 88

88. Psalm 88

Psalm 88

Prayer for Help in Despondency

A Song. A Psalm of the Korahites. To the leader: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.

1

O Lord, God of my salvation,

when, at night, I cry out in your presence,

2

let my prayer come before you;

incline your ear to my cry.

 

3

For my soul is full of troubles,

and my life draws near to Sheol.

4

I am counted among those who go down to the Pit;

I am like those who have no help,

5

like those forsaken among the dead,

like the slain that lie in the grave,

like those whom you remember no more,

for they are cut off from your hand.

6

You have put me in the depths of the Pit,

in the regions dark and deep.

7

Your wrath lies heavy upon me,

and you overwhelm me with all your waves.Selah

 

8

You have caused my companions to shun me;

you have made me a thing of horror to them.

I am shut in so that I cannot escape;

9

my eye grows dim through sorrow.

Every day I call on you, O Lord;

I spread out my hands to you.

10

Do you work wonders for the dead?

Do the shades rise up to praise you?Selah

11

Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,

or your faithfulness in Abaddon?

12

Are your wonders known in the darkness,

or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness?

 

13

But I, O Lord, cry out to you;

in the morning my prayer comes before you.

14

O Lord, why do you cast me off?

Why do you hide your face from me?

15

Wretched and close to death from my youth up,

I suffer your terrors; I am desperate.

16

Your wrath has swept over me;

your dread assaults destroy me.

17

They surround me like a flood all day long;

from all sides they close in on me.

18

You have caused friend and neighbor to shun me;

my companions are in darkness.