When Moses went up onto Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19:20), he left the Israelites for forty days and forty nights (Exodus 24:18). The Israelites feared that he would not return, and asked Aaron to make gods for them (Exodus 32:1). He constructed the golden calf and built an altar, and the next day, the Israelites made offerings and celebrated.
The Lord told Moses that his people had corrupted themselves, and that he planned to eliminate them, but Moses argued and pleaded that they should be spared (Exodus 32:11); the Lord relented. Moses went down from the mountain, but upon seeing the calf, he too became angry. He threw down the tablets upon which God's law had been written, and broke them.
Moses then burnt the golden calf in the fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on water, and forced the Israelites to drink it. Moses gathered the sons of Levi and set them to slaying a large number of adult males (3000). A plague then struck the Israelites.
2007-03-15
23:36:09
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