Broken covenant, renewed covenant: the calf and the name of the LORD

32Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!” ²So Aaron told them, “Take off the gold earrings that are on your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.” ³Then all the people took off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron. ⁴He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” ⁵When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before the calf and proclaimed: “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” ⁶So the next day they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to indulge in revelry. ⁷Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. ⁸How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it. They have sacrificed to it and said, ‘These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’” ⁹The LORD also said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰Now leave Me alone, so that My anger may burn against them and consume them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” ¹¹But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God, saying, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? ¹²Why should the Egyptians declare, ‘He brought them out with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce anger and relent from doing harm to Your people. ¹³Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom You swore by Your very self when You declared, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised, and it shall be their inheritance forever.’” ¹⁴So the LORD relented from the calamity He had threatened to bring on His people. ¹⁵Then Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. ¹⁶The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. ¹⁷When Joshua heard the sound of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “The sound of war is in the camp.” ¹⁸But Moses replied: “It is neither the cry of victory nor the cry of defeat; I hear the sound of singing!” ¹⁹As Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he burned with anger and threw the tablets out of his hands, shattering them at the base of the mountain. ²⁰Then he took the calf they had made, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, and scattered the powder over the face of the water. Then he forced the Israelites to drink it. ²¹“What did this people do to you,” Moses asked Aaron, “that you have led them into so great a sin?” ²²“Do not be enraged, my lord,” Aaron replied. “You yourself know that the people are intent on evil. ²³They told me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!’ ²⁴So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, let him take it off,’ and they gave it to me. And when I threw it into the fire, out came this calf!” ²⁵Moses saw that the people were out of control, for Aaron had let them run wild and become a laughingstock to their enemies. ²⁶So Moses stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me.” And all the Levites gathered around him. ²⁷He told them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each of you men is to fasten his sword to his side, go back and forth through the camp from gate to gate, and slay his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’” ²⁸The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people fell dead. ²⁹Afterward, Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for service to the LORD, since each man went against his son and his brother; so the LORD has bestowed a blessing on you this day.” ³⁰The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. Now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” ³¹So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made gods of gold for themselves. ³²Yet now, if You would only forgive their sin.... But if not, please blot me out of the book that You have written.” ³³The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot out of My book. ³⁴Now go, lead the people to the place I described. Behold, My angel shall go before you. But on the day I settle accounts, I will punish them for their sin.” ³⁵And the LORD sent a plague on the people because of what they had done with the calf that Aaron had made.

33Then the LORD said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of the land of Egypt, and go to the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ ²And I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ³Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people; otherwise, I might destroy you on the way.” ⁴When the people heard these bad tidings, they went into mourning, and no one put on any of his jewelry. ⁵For the LORD had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I should go with you for a single moment, I would destroy you. Now take off your jewelry, and I will decide what to do with you.’” ⁶So the Israelites stripped themselves of their jewelry from Mount Horeb onward. ⁷Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it at a distance outside the camp. He called it the Tent of Meeting, and anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp. ⁸Then, whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would stand at the entrances to their own tents and watch Moses until he entered the tent. ⁹As Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and remain at the entrance, and the LORD would speak with Moses. ¹⁰When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they would stand up and worship, each one at the entrance to his own tent. ¹¹Thus the LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young assistant Joshua son of Nun would not leave the tent. ¹²Then Moses said to the LORD, “Look, You have been telling me, ‘Lead this people up,’ but You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have found favor in My sight.’ ¹³Now if indeed I have found favor in Your sight, please let me know Your ways, that I may know You and find favor in Your sight. Remember that this nation is Your people.” ¹⁴And the LORD answered, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” ¹⁵“If Your Presence does not go with us,” Moses replied, “do not lead us up from here. ¹⁶For how then can it be known that Your people and I have found favor in Your sight, unless You go with us? How else will we be distinguished from all the other people on the face of the earth?” ¹⁷So the LORD said to Moses, “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.” ¹⁸Then Moses said, “Please show me Your glory.” ¹⁹“I will cause all My goodness to pass before you,” the LORD replied, “and I will proclaim My name—the LORD—in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” ²⁰But He added, “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.” ²¹The LORD continued, “There is a place near Me where you are to stand upon a rock, ²²and when My glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. ²³Then I will take My hand away, and you will see My back; but My face must not be seen.”

34Then the LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. ²Be ready in the morning, and come up on Mount Sinai to present yourself before Me on the mountaintop. ³No one may go up with you; in fact, no one may be seen anywhere on the mountain—not even the flocks or herds may graze in front of the mountain.” ⁴So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals. He rose early in the morning, and taking the two stone tablets in his hands, he went up Mount Sinai as the LORD had commanded him. ⁵And the LORD descended in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed His name, the LORD. ⁶Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness, ⁷maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” ⁸Moses immediately bowed down to the ground and worshiped. ⁹“O Lord,” he said, “if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, my Lord, please go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our iniquity and sin, and take us as Your inheritance.” ¹⁰And the LORD said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will perform wonders that have never been done in any nation in all the world. All the people among whom you live will see the LORD’s work, for it is an awesome thing that I am doing with you. ¹¹Observe what I command you this day. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ¹²Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land you are entering, lest they become a snare in your midst. ¹³Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles. ¹⁴For you must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. ¹⁵Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices. ¹⁶And when you take some of their daughters as brides for your sons, their daughters will prostitute themselves to their gods and cause your sons to do the same. ¹⁷You shall make no molten gods for yourselves. ¹⁸You are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, you are to eat unleavened bread as I commanded you. For in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt. ¹⁹The first offspring of every womb belongs to Me, including all the firstborn males among your livestock, whether cattle or sheep. ²⁰You must redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb; but if you do not redeem it, you are to break its neck. You must redeem all the firstborn of your sons. No one shall appear before Me empty-handed. ²¹Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in the seasons of plowing and harvesting, you must rest. ²²And you are to celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. ²³Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel. ²⁴For I will drive out the nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the LORD your God. ²⁵Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to Me along with anything leavened, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast remain until morning. ²⁶Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.” ²⁷The LORD also said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” ²⁸So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments. ²⁹And when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was unaware that his face had become radiant from speaking with the LORD. ³⁰Aaron and all the Israelites looked at Moses, and behold, his face was radiant. And they were afraid to approach him. ³¹But Moses called out to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. ³²And after this all the Israelites came near, and Moses commanded them to do everything that the LORD had told him on Mount Sinai. ³³When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. ³⁴But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would remove the veil until he came out. And when he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded, ³⁵and the Israelites would see that the face of Moses was radiant. So Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.