File:Moses Breaks Commandment Tablets 001.jpg

Summary
Exodus 32:1 - 32:19

''The people fall into idolatry. Moses prays for them. He breaks the tables: destroys the idol: blames Aaron, and causes many of the idolaters to be slain.''

32:1. The people seeing that Moses delayed to come down from the mount, gathering together against Aaron, said: Arise, make us gods, that may go before us: For as to this Moses, the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has befallen him.

32:2. Aaron said to them: Take the golden earrings from the ears of your wives, and your sons and daughters, and bring them to me.

32:3. The people did what he had commanded, bringing the earrings to Aaron.

'''32:4. When he had received them, he fashioned them by founders' work, and made of them a molten calf. They said: These are your gods, O Israel, that have brought you out of the land of Egypt.''' 32:5. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, and made proclamation by a crier's voice, saying tomorrow is the solemnity of the Lord.

32:6. Rising in the morning, they offered holocausts, and peace victims, and the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.

32:7. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Go, get you down: your people, which you have brought out of the land of Egypt, has sinned.

32:8. They have quickly strayed from the way which you didst show them: and they have made to themselves a molten calf, and have adored it, and sacrificing victims to it, have said: These are your gods, O Israel, that have brought you out of the land of Egypt.

32:9. Again the Lord said to Moses: I see that this people is stiffnecked:

32:10. Let me alone, that my wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them, and I will make of you a great nation.

32:11. But Moses besought the Lord his God, saying: Why, O Lord, is your indignation enkindled against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, with great power, and with a mighty hand?

32:12. Let not the Egyptians say, I beseech you: He craftily brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains, and destroy them from the earth: let your anger cease, and be appeased upon the wickedness of your people.

32:13. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, saying: I will multiply your seed as the stars of Heaven: and this whole land that I have spoken of, I will give to your seed, and you shall possess it for ever: 32:14. The Lord was appeased from doing the evil which He had spoken against His people.

32:15. Moses returned from the mount, carrying the two tables of the testimony in his hand, written on both sides,

32:16. and made by the work of God; the writing also of God was graven in the tables.

32:17. Joshua hearing the noise of the people shouting, said to Moses: The noise of battle is heard in the camp.

32:18. But he answered: It is not the cry of men encouraging to fight, nor the shout of men compelling to flee: but I hear the voice of singers.

32:19. When he came nigh to the camp, he saw the calf, and the dances: and being very angry, he threw the tables out of his hand, and broke them at the foot of the mount:

32:20. and laying hold of the calf which they had made, he burnt it, and beat it to powder, which he strewed into water, and gave thereof to the children of Israel to drink.

The Coloured Picture Bible for Children Illustrator: Richard Andre Place: London Date: 1884. Source: The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge