¹ All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.

² All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had died in this wilderness!

³ Why does Yahweh bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: wouldn't it be better for us to return into Egypt?"

⁴ They said one to another, "Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt."

⁵ Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

⁶ Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of those who spied out the land, tore their clothes:

⁷ and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, "The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land.

⁸ If Yahweh delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us; a land which flows with milk and honey.

⁹ Only don't rebel against Yahweh, neither fear the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is removed from over them, and Yahweh is with us. Don't fear them."

¹⁰ But all the congregation threatened to stone them with stones. The glory of Yahweh appeared in the Tent of Meeting to all the children of Israel.

¹¹ Yahweh said to Moses, "How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them?

¹² I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they."

¹³ Moses said to Yahweh, "Then the Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them;

¹⁴ and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you Yahweh are in the midst of this people; for you Yahweh are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.

¹⁵ Now if you killed this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying,

¹⁶ 'Because Yahweh was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.'

¹⁷ Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying,

¹⁸ 'Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and that will by no means clear [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.'

¹⁹ Please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loving kindness, and according as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now."

²⁰ Yahweh said, "I have pardoned according to your word:

²¹ but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Yahweh;

²² because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice;

²³ surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it:

²⁴ but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring into the land into which he went; and his seed shall possess it.

²⁵ Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: tomorrow turn, and go into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea."

²⁶ Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

²⁷ "How long [shall I bear] with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.

²⁸ Tell them, 'As I live, says Yahweh, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you:

²⁹ your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me,

³⁰ surely you shall not come into the land, concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

³¹ But your little ones, that you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected.

³² But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.

³³ Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness.

³⁴ After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, you will bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you will know my alienation.'

³⁵ I, Yahweh, have spoken, surely this will I do to all this evil congregation, who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die."

³⁶ The men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land,

³⁷ even those men who did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Yahweh.

³⁸ But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men who went to spy out the land.

³⁹ Moses told these words to all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.

⁴⁰ They rose up early in the morning, and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, "Behold, we are here, and will go up to the place which Yahweh has promised: for we have sinned."

⁴¹ Moses said, "Why now do you disobey the commandment of Yahweh, since it shall not prosper?

⁴² Don't go up, for Yahweh isn't among you; that you not be struck down before your enemies.

⁴³ For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and you shall fall by the sword: because you are turned back from following Yahweh, therefore Yahweh will not be with you."

⁴⁴ But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and Moses, didn't depart out of the camp.

⁴⁵ Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite who lived in that mountain, and struck them and beat them down, even to Hormah.

¹ When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him."

² Aaron said to them, "Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me."

³ All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.

⁴ He received what they handed him, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molten calf; and they said, "These are your gods, Israel, which 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 feast to Yahweh."

⁶ They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

⁷ Yahweh spoke to Moses, "Go, get down; for your people, who you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves!

⁸ They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.'"

⁹ Yahweh said to Moses, "I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people.

¹⁰ Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation."

¹¹ Moses begged Yahweh his God, and said, "Yahweh, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

¹² Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, 'He brought them forth for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth?' Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people.

¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.'"

¹⁴ Yahweh repented of the evil which he said he would do to his people.

¹⁵ Moses turned, and went down from the mountain, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand; tablets that were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other they were written.

¹⁶ The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tables.

¹⁷ When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is the noise of war in the camp."

¹⁸ He said, "It isn't the voice of those who shout for victory, neither is it the voice of those who cry for being overcome; but the noise of those who sing that I hear."

¹⁹ It happened, as soon as he came near to the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing: and Moses' anger grew hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mountain.

²⁰ He took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

²¹ Moses said to Aaron, "What did these people do to you, that you have brought a great sin on them?"

²² Aaron said, "Don't let the anger of my lord grow hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.

²³ For they said to me, 'Make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him.'

²⁴ I said to them, 'Whoever has any gold, let them take it off:' so they gave it to me; and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf."

²⁵ When Moses saw that the people had broken loose, (for Aaron had let them loose for a derision among their enemies),

²⁶ then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is on Yahweh's side, come to me!" All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.

²⁷ He said to them, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'Every man put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and every man kill his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.'"

²⁸ The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

²⁹ Moses said, "Consecrate yourselves today to Yahweh, yes, every man against his son, and against his brother; that he may bestow on you a blessing this day."

³⁰ It happened on the next day, that Moses said to the people, "You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to Yahweh. Perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin."

³¹ Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold.

³² Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin--and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written."

³³ Yahweh said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

³⁴ Now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin."

³⁵ Yahweh struck the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.