Exodus 32 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

When the people saw that Moses was taking forever to come back down the mountain, they crowded around Aaron and said, "Come on — make us gods who will lead us. Because this Moses guy, the one who brought us out of Egypt? We have no idea what happened to him."

Aaron told them, "Pull the gold earrings off your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me."

So all the people pulled off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron.

He took what they handed him, shaped it with a carving tool, and cast it into a metal calf. Then the people said, "Israel — these are your gods who brought you out of Egypt!"

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a feast to Yahweh!"

The next day the people got up early, offered burnt offerings, and brought fellowship offerings. Then they sat down to eat and drink, and got up to throw a wild party.

Yahweh said to Moses, "Get down there — now. Your people, the ones you brought out of Egypt, have completely lost it."

"They've already turned away from the path I laid out for them. They've made themselves a metal calf, bowed down to it, offered sacrifices to it, and said, 'Israel — these are your gods who brought you out of Egypt!'"

Yahweh said to Moses, "I've been watching these people, and they are stubborn to the core."

"Now leave me alone so my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them. Then I'll start over and make a great nation from you instead."

But Moses pushed back with Yahweh his God. He said, "Yahweh, why let your anger burn against your own people — the ones you brought out of Egypt with incredible power and an unstoppable hand?"

"Why give the Egyptians a reason to say, 'He brought them out just to kill them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth'? Turn from your burning anger. Change your mind about this disaster you're planning for your people."

"Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel — your servants. You swore to them by your own name: 'I will make your descendants as countless as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land I promised, and it will be theirs forever.'"

So Yahweh changed his mind about the disaster he had said he would bring on his people.

Moses turned and headed down the mountain with the two stone tablets of the covenant terms in his hands — tablets that were written on both sides, front and back.

The tablets were God's own work, and the writing was God's own writing, carved into the stone.

When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, "It sounds like war in the camp!"

Moses replied, "That's not the sound of a victory cheer, and it's not the sound of a defeat cry — what I hear is the sound of singing."

As soon as Moses got close to the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger exploded. He threw the tablets out of his hands and shattered them at the base of the mountain.

Then he took the calf they had made, melted it in the fire, ground it into powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.

Moses said to Aaron, "What did these people do to you that you led them into such a massive failure?"

Aaron said, "Don't be angry, my lord. You know these people — they're bent toward trouble."

"They told me, 'Make us gods who will lead us, because this Moses who brought us out of Egypt — we don't know what happened to him.'"

"So I told them, 'Whoever has gold, take it off.' They gave it to me, I threw it in the fire, and out came this calf!"

Moses saw that the people were running wild — Aaron had let them spiral out of control, making them a joke to anyone watching.

So Moses stood at the entrance to the camp and called out, "Everyone who is on Yahweh's side — come to me!" And all the Levites rallied around him.

He told them, "This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: 'Every man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, and each of you kill your brother, your friend, and your neighbor.'"

The Levites did what Moses said, and about three thousand people died that day.

Moses said, "Today you have been set apart for Yahweh's service — yes, even at the cost of your own sons and brothers. He is giving you his favor today."

The next day Moses told the people, "You have committed a massive failure. But now I'm going back up to Yahweh — maybe I can make things right for what you've done."

So Moses went back to Yahweh and said, "Please — these people have committed a massive failure. They made themselves gods out of gold."

"But now — please forgive their failure. And if you won't... then erase me from the book you've written."

Yahweh replied to Moses, "Whoever has failed me — that's who I'll erase from my book."

"Now go — lead the people to the place I told you about. Look, my angel will go ahead of you. But when the time comes for me to settle accounts, I will settle accounts with them for their failure."

And Yahweh struck the people with a plague because of the calf — the one Aaron had made.