Study Desk

"They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a cast metal calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, 'This is your god, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!'"

"So now leave Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation."

Then Moses pleaded with the LORD his God, and said, "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?

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."

Then Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you, that you have brought such a great sin upon them?"

"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 happened to him.'

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."

And 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."

Then Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Oh, this people has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves!

Then the LORD struck the people with a plague, because of what they did with the calf which Aaron had made.

"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."

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.

So 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.

Then the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock;

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.

"Be careful that you do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst.

—for you shall not worship any other god, because the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God—

otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they would prostitute themselves with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice,

"You shall redeem with a lamb the firstborn 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 are to appear before Me empty-handed.

"Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.