SCRIPTURE READING
Exodus 32:1-14
1When 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.” 2 Aaron 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.” 3 So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears and
brought them to Aaron. 4 He took these from them, formed them 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!” 5 When Aaron saw
this, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said,
“Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.” 6 They 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; 8 they 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!’ ” 9 The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen
this people, how stiff-necked they are.
10 Now 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? 12 Why 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. 13 Remember 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.’ ” 14 And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he
planned to bring on his people.
Reader: Word of God. Word of life.
All: Thanks be to God.
