The Koine Bible

And when the people saw that Moses had delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled against Aaron and say to him, Rise up and make for us gods who will go before us; for this Moses, this man who brought us out of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.

And Aaron says to them, Take off the golden earrings that are in the ears of your wives and daughters, and bring them to me.

And all the people took off the golden earrings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron

And he received it from their hands and formed it with the graving tool and made it a molten calf, and he said, These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

And Aaron, when he saw it, built an altar before it, and Aaron proclaimed, saying, A feast to the Lord tomorrow.

And having risen early on the next day, he brought up whole burnt offerings and offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and they rose up to play.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Go quickly from here, go down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have acted lawlessly.

They have quickly gone aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made for themselves a calf and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and have said, These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

And now let me alone, and being enraged with anger against them I will wipe them out, and I will make you into a great nation.

And Moses entreated before the Lord God and said, Why, O Lord, are you angry in wrath against your people, whom you brought out from the land of Egypt with great strength and with your high arm?

lest the Egyptians should say, saying, With evil he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the land; cease from the anger of your wrath, and be merciful concerning the wickedness of your people

remembering Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and spoke to them, saying, I will multiply your seed like the stars of heaven in multitude, and all this land which you said to give to their seed, and they shall hold it forever

And the Lord was appeased concerning the evil that he said to do to his people.

And Moses turned and came down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the testimony were in his hands, stone tablets, written on both their sides; on this side and on that they were written.

And the tablets were a work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved in the tablets.

And Joshua, having heard the sound of the people crying out, says to Moses, A sound of war in the camp.

And he says, It is not the voice of those beginning in strength, nor the voice of those beginning of victory, but the voice of those beginning of wine I hear.

And when he drew near to the camp, he sees the calf and the dances, and Moses, having been enraged with wrath, threw the two tablets from his hands and shattered them under the mountain.

And taking the calf which they had made, he burned it in fire and ground it to fine powder and scattered it upon the water and made the sons of Israel drink it

And Moses said to Aaron, What did this people do to you that you brought upon them a great sin?

And Aaron said to Moses, Let not my lord be angry, for you know the impetuousness of this people.

For they say to me, Make for us gods who shall go before us; for this Moses, this man who brought us up out of Egypt—we do not know what has happened to him.

And I said to them, If anyone has golden ornaments, remove them; and they gave them to me, and I threw them into the fire, and this calf came out.

And Moses saw the people, that they had been scattered, for Aaron had scattered them, a reproach to their adversaries

And Moses stood at the gate of the camp and said, Who is for the Lord? Let him come to me. Then all the sons of Levi came together to him

And he says to them, Thus says the Lord the God of Israel: Put each man his sword on his thigh, and go through and return from gate to gate through the camp, and kill each man his brother and each man his neighbor and each man his nearest one

And the sons of Levi did as Moses spoke to them, and there fell from the people on that day about three thousand men

And Moses said to them, You have filled your hands today for the Lord, each one in his son or in his brother, to give upon you a blessing.

And it happened after the morrow that Moses said to the people, You have sinned a great sin; and now I will go up to God, that I may make atonement for your sin.

And Moses returned to the Lord and said, I beseech, Lord, this people has sinned a great sin, and they made for themselves golden gods.

And now, if indeed you forgive them their sin, forgive; but if not, blot me out of your book which you have written.

And the Lord said to Moses, If anyone has sinned before me, I will blot him out from my book.

And now go, descend, and lead this people into the place which I told you; behold, my angel goes before your face, and on whatever day I may visit, I will bring upon them their sin.

And the Lord struck the people because of the making of the calf which Aaron made.