Genesis to Revelation
Bible Reading Plan
January 25
Exodus 32-34
Chapter 32
The Golden Calf
1 Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain,
the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a
god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from
the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
2 Aaron said to them, “Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears
of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”
3 Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought
them to Aaron.
4 He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made
it into a molten calf; and they said, “This is your god, O Israel,
who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
5 Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation
and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.”
6 So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings, and brought
peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to
play.
7 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom
you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.
8 “They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them.
They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and have
sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought
you up from the land of Egypt!’ ”
9 The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they
are an obstinate people.
10 “Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that
I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.”
Moses’ Entreaty
11 Then Moses entreated the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does
Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of
Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
12 “Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He
brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face
of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about
doing harm to Your people.
13 “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore
by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as
the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give
to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”
14 So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to
His people.
15 Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of
the testimony in his hand, tablets which were written on both sides; they
were written on one side and the other.
16 The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing
engraved on the tablets.
17 Now when Joshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted, he said to
Moses, “There is a sound of war in the camp.”
18 But he said,
“
It is not the sound of the cry of triumph,
Nor is it the sound of the cry of defeat;
But the sound of singing I hear.”
Moses’ Anger
19 It came about, as soon as Moses came near the camp, that he saw the calf
and the dancing; and Moses’ anger burned, and he threw the tablets from
his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.
20 He took the calf which they had made and burned it with fire, and ground
it to powder, and scattered it over the surface of the water and made the sons
of Israel drink it.
21 Then Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you
have brought such great sin upon them?”
22 Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people
yourself, that they are prone to evil.
23 “For they said to me, ‘Make a god for us who will go before
us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not
know what has become of him.’
24 “I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ So
they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
25 Now when Moses saw that the people were out of control—for Aaron had
let them get out of control to be a derision among their enemies—
26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is for
the Lord, come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him.
27 He said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Every
man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate
in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every
man his neighbor.’ ”
28 So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand
men of the people fell that day.
29 Then Moses said, “Dedicate yourselves today to the Lord—for
every man has been against his son and against his brother—in order that
He may bestow a blessing upon you today.”
30 On the next day Moses said to the people, “You yourselves have committed
a great sin; and now I am going up to the Lord, perhaps I can make atonement
for your sin.”
31 Then Moses returned to the Lord, and said, “Alas, this people has committed
a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves.
32 “But now, if You will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot
me out from Your book which You have written!”
33 The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot
him out of My book.
34 “But go now, lead the people where I told you. Behold, My angel
shall go before you; nevertheless in the day when I punish, I will punish
them for their sin.”
35 Then the Lord smote the people, because of what they did with the calf
which Aaron had made.
Chapter 33
The Journey Resumed
1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Depart, go up from here, you and the people
whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will
give it.’
2 “I will send an angel before you and I will drive out the Canaanite,
the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite.
3 “Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up
in your midst, because you are an obstinate people, and I might destroy
you on the way.”
4 When the people heard this sad word, they went into mourning, and none
of them put on his ornaments.
5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the sons of Israel, ‘You
are an obstinate people; should I go up in your midst for one moment, I would
destroy you. Now therefore, put off your ornaments from you, that I may know
what I shall do with you.’ ”
6 So the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount
Horeb onward.
7 Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance
from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought
the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp.
8 And it came about, whenever Moses went out to the tent, that all the people
would arise and stand, each at the entrance of his tent, and gaze after Moses
until he entered the tent.
9 Whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and
stand at the entrance of the tent; and the Lord would speak with Moses.
10 When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of
the tent, all the people would arise and worship, each at the entrance of his
tent.
11 Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks
to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the
son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.
Moses Intercedes
12 Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up
this people!’ But You Yourself have not let me know whom You will send
with me. Moreover, You have said, ‘I have known you by name, and you
have also found favor in My sight.’
13 “Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let
me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight.
Consider too, that this nation is Your people.”
14 And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you
rest.”
15 Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not
lead us up from here.
16 “For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight,
I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your
people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face
of the earth?”
17 The Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have
spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.”
18 Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!”
19 And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you,
and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to
whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”
20 But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!”
21 Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall
stand there on the rock;
22 and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you
in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by.
23 “Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face
shall not be seen.”
Chapter 34
The Two Tablets Replaced
1 Now the Lord said to Moses, “Cut out for yourself two stone tablets
like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on
the former tablets which you shattered.
2 “So be ready by morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai,
and present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain.
3 “No man is to come up with you, nor let any man be seen anywhere
on the mountain; even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front of that
mountain.”
4 So he cut out two stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses rose up
early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded
him, and
he took two stone tablets in his hand.
5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called
upon the name of the Lord.
6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the
Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness
and truth;
7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression
and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting
the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third
and
fourth generations.”
8 Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship.
9 He said, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, I pray,
let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate,
and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your own possession.”
The Covenant Renewed
10 Then God said, “Behold, I am going to make a covenant. Before all
your people I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the
earth nor among any of the nations; and all the people among whom you live
will see the working of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to
perform with you.
11 “Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day: behold, I
am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite,
the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite.
12 “Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of
the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst.
13 “But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred
pillars and cut down their Asherim
14 —for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name
is Jealous, is a jealous God—
15 otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and
they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and
someone
might invite you to eat of his sacrifice,
16 and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters
might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the
harlot with their gods.
17 “You shall make for yourself no molten gods.
18 “You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days
you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time
in the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.
19 “The first offspring from every womb belongs to Me, and all your male
livestock, the first offspring from cattle and sheep.
20 “You shall redeem with a lamb the first offspring from a donkey;
and if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. You shall redeem
all the firstborn of your sons. None shall appear before Me empty-handed.
21 “You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even
during plowing time and harvest you shall rest.
22 “You shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, that is, the first fruits
of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.
23 “Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God,
the God of Israel.
24 “For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders,
and no man shall covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear
before the Lord your God.
25 “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread,
nor is the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover to be left over until morning.
26 “You shall bring the very first of the first fruits of your soil into
the house of the Lord your God.
“
You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
27 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance
with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not
eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the
covenant,
the Ten Commandments.
Moses’ Face Shines
29 It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two
tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain),
that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking
with Him.
30 So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of
his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.
31 Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation
returned to him; and Moses spoke to them.
32 Afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do
everything that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai.
33 When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
34 But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would
take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to
the sons
of Israel what he had been commanded,
35 the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face
shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak
with Him.
"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)