Deuteronomy 9:15

¹⁸All of Mount Sinai smoked, because the LORD descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.

²³When you heard the voice out of the middle of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders;

¹¹You came near and stood under the mountain. The mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.

²³Moses stretched out his rod toward the heavens, and the LORD sent thunder and hail; and lightning flashed down to the earth. The LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt.

¹⁴So the LORD turned away from the evil which he said he would do to his people.

¹⁵Moses turned, and went down from the mountain, with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand; tablets that were written on both their sides. They were written on one side and on the other. ¹⁶The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

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

¹⁸He said, “It isn’t the voice of those who shout for victory. It is not the voice of those who cry for being overcome; but the noise of those who sing that I hear.” ¹⁹As soon as he came near to the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. Then Moses’ anger grew hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mountain. ²⁰He took the calf which they had made, and burned it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it.

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

²²Aaron said, “Don’t let the anger of my lord grow hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. ²³For they said to me, ‘Make us gods, which shall go before us. 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.’ ²⁴I 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.”

²⁵When Moses saw that the people were out of control, (for Aaron had let them lose control, causing derision among their enemies), ²⁶then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on the LORD’s side, come to me!” All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.

²⁷He said to them, “The LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘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.’” ²⁸The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. About three thousand men fell of the people that day. ²⁹Moses said, “Consecrate yourselves today to the LORD, for every man was against his son and against his brother, that he may give you a blessing today.”

³⁰On the next day, Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to the LORD. Perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin.”

³¹Moses returned to the LORD, and said, “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold. ³²Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.”

³³The LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book. ³⁴Now 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.” ³⁵The LORD struck the people, because of what they did with the calf, which Aaron made.

¹⁸For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm,