The Daily Audio Bible
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32 When Moses didn’t come back down the mountain right away, the people went to Aaron. “Look,” they said, “make us a god to lead us, for this fellow Moses who brought us here from Egypt has disappeared; something must have happened to him.”
2-3 “Give me your gold earrings,” Aaron replied.
So they all did—men and women, boys and girls. 4 Aaron melted the gold, then molded and tooled it into the form of a calf. The people exclaimed, “O Israel, this is the god that brought you out of Egypt!”
5 When Aaron saw how happy the people were about it, he built an altar before the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a feast to Jehovah!”
6 So they were up early the next morning and began offering burnt offerings and peace offerings to the calf idol; afterwards they sat down to feast and drink at a wild party, followed by sexual immorality.
7 Then the Lord told Moses, “Quick! Go on down, for your people that you brought from Egypt have defiled themselves, 8 and have quickly abandoned all my laws. They have molded themselves a calf, and worshiped it, and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of Egypt.’”
9 Then the Lord said, “I have seen what a stubborn, rebellious lot these people are. 10 Now leave me alone and my anger shall blaze out against them and destroy them all; and I will make you, Moses, into a great nation instead of them.”
11 But Moses begged God not to do it. “Lord,” he pleaded, “why is your anger so hot against your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and mighty miracles? 12 Do you want the Egyptians to say, ‘God tricked them into coming to the mountains so that he could slay them, destroying them from off the face of the earth’? Turn back from your fierce wrath. Turn away from this terrible evil you are planning against your people! 13 Remember your promise to your servants—to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. For you swore by your own self, ‘I will multiply your posterity as the stars of heaven, and I will give them all of this land I have promised to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’”
14 So the Lord changed his mind and spared them.
15 Then Moses went down the mountain, holding in his hands the Ten Commandments written on both sides of two stone tablets. 16 (God himself had written the commandments on the tablets.)
17 When Joshua heard the noise below them, of all the people shouting, he exclaimed to Moses, “It sounds as if they are preparing for war!”
18 But Moses replied, “No, it’s not a cry of victory or defeat, but singing.”
19 When they came near the camp, Moses saw the calf and the dancing, and in terrible anger he threw the tablets to the ground, and they lay broken at the foot of the mountain. 20 He took the calf and melted it in the fire, and when the metal cooled, he ground it into powder and spread it upon the water and made the people drink it.
21 Then he turned to Aaron. “What in the world did the people do to you,” he demanded, “to make you bring such a terrible sin upon them?”
22 “Don’t get so upset,” Aaron replied. “You know these people and what a wicked bunch they are. 23 They said to me, ‘Make us a god to lead us, for something has happened to this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt.’ 24 Well, I told them, ‘Bring me your gold earrings.’ So they brought them to me and I threw them into the fire, and . . . well . . . this calf came out!”
25 When Moses saw that the people had been committing adultery—at Aaron’s encouragement, and much to the amusement of their enemies— 26 he stood at the camp entrance and shouted, “All of you who are on the Lord’s side, come over here and join me.” And all the Levites came.
27 He told them, “Jehovah the God of Israel says, ‘Get your swords and go back and forth from one end of the camp to the other and kill even your brothers, friends, and neighbors.’” 28 So they did, and about three thousand men died that day.
29 Then Moses told the Levites, “Today you have ordained yourselves for the service of the Lord, for you obeyed him even though it meant killing your own sons and brothers; now he will give you a great blessing.”
30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin, but I will return to the Lord on the mountain—perhaps I will be able to obtain his forgiveness for you.”
31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, these people have sinned a great sin and have made themselves gods of gold. 32 Yet now if you will only forgive their sin—and if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”[a]
33 And the Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me will be blotted out of my book. 34 And now go, lead the people to the place I told you about, and I assure you that my Angel shall travel on ahead of you; however, when I come to visit these people, I will punish them for their sins.”
35 And the Lord sent a great plague upon the people because they had worshiped Aaron’s calf.
33 The Lord said to Moses, “Lead these people you brought from Egypt to the land I promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for I said, ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’ 2 I will send an Angel before you to drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 3 It is a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’; but I will not travel among you, for you are a stubborn, unruly people, and I would be tempted to destroy you along the way.”
4 When the people heard these stern words, they went into mourning and stripped themselves of their jewelry and ornaments.
5 For the Lord had told Moses to tell them, “You are an unruly, stubborn people. If I were there among you for even a moment, I would exterminate you. Remove your jewelry and ornaments until I decide what to do with you.” 6 So, after that, they wore no jewelry.
7 Moses always erected the sacred tent (the “Tent for Meeting with God,” he called it) far outside the camp, and everyone who wanted to consult with Jehovah went out there.
8 Whenever Moses went to the Tabernacle, all the people, when they saw it, stood and would rise and stand in their tent doors. 9 As he entered, the pillar of cloud would come down and stand at the door while the Lord spoke with Moses. 10 Then all the people worshiped from their tent doors, bowing low to the pillar of cloud. 11 Inside the tent the Lord spoke to Moses face-to-face, as a man speaks to his friend. Afterwards Moses would return to the camp, but the young man who assisted him, Joshua (son of Nun), stayed behind in the Tabernacle.
12 Moses talked there with the Lord and said to him, “You have been telling me, ‘Take these people to the Promised Land,’ but you haven’t told me whom you will send with me. You say you are my friend,[b] and that I have found favor before you; 13 please, if this is really so, guide me clearly along the way you want me to travel[c] so that I will understand you and walk acceptably before you. For don’t forget that this nation is your people.”
14 And the Lord replied, “I myself will go with you and give you success.”
15 For Moses had said, “If you aren’t going with us, don’t let us move a step from this place. 16 If you don’t go with us, who will ever know that I and my people have found favor with you, and that we are different from any other people upon the face of the earth?”
17 And the Lord had replied to Moses, “Yes, I will do what you have asked, for you have certainly found favor with me, and you are my friend.”[d]
18 Then Moses asked to see God’s glory.
19 The Lord replied, “I will make my goodness pass before you, and I will announce to you the meaning of my name[e] Jehovah, the Lord. I show kindness and mercy to anyone I want to. 20 But you may not see the glory of my face, for man may not see me and live. 21 However, stand here on this rock beside me. 22 And when my glory goes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed. 23 Then I will remove my hand, and you shall see my back but not my face.”
69 Meanwhile, as Peter was sitting in the courtyard, a girl came over and said to him, “You were with Jesus, for both of you are from Galilee.”[a]
70 But Peter denied it loudly. “I don’t even know what you are talking about,” he angrily declared.
71 Later, out by the gate, another girl noticed him and said to those standing around, “This man was with Jesus—from Nazareth.”
72 Again Peter denied it, this time with an oath. “I don’t even know the man,” he said.
73 But after a while the men who had been standing there came over to him and said, “We know you are one of his disciples, for we can tell by your Galilean[b] accent.”
74 Peter began to curse and swear. “I don’t even know the man,” he said.
And immediately the cock crowed. 75 Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said, “Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went away, crying bitterly.
27 When it was morning, the chief priests and Jewish leaders met again to discuss how to induce the Roman government to sentence Jesus to death.[c] 2 Then they sent him in chains to Pilate, the Roman governor.
3 About that time Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that Jesus had been condemned to die, changed his mind and deeply regretted what he had done,[d] and brought back the money to the chief priests and other Jewish leaders.
4 “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.”
“That’s your problem,” they retorted.
5 Then he threw the money onto the floor of the Temple and went out and hanged himself. 6 The chief priests picked the money up. “We can’t put it in the collection,” they said, “since it’s against our laws to accept money paid for murder.”
7 They talked it over and finally decided to buy a certain field where the clay was used by potters, and to make it into a cemetery for foreigners who died in Jerusalem. 8 That is why the cemetery is still called “The Field of Blood.”
9 This fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah which says,
“They took the thirty pieces of silver—the price at which he was valued by the people of Israel— 10 and purchased a field from the potters as the Lord directed me.”
11 Now Jesus was standing before Pilate, the Roman governor. “Are you the Jews’ Messiah?”[e] the governor asked him.
“Yes,” Jesus replied.
12 But when the chief priests and other Jewish leaders made their many accusations against him, Jesus remained silent.
13 “Don’t you hear what they are saying?” Pilate demanded.
14 But Jesus said nothing, much to the governor’s surprise.
33 Let all the joys of the godly well up in praise to the Lord, for it is right to praise him. 2 Play joyous melodies of praise upon the lyre and on the harp. 3 Compose new songs of praise to him, accompanied skillfully on the harp; sing joyfully.
4 For all God’s words are right, and everything he does is worthy of our trust. 5 He loves whatever is just and good; the earth is filled with his tender love. 6 He merely spoke, and the heavens were formed and all the galaxies of stars. 7 He made the oceans, pouring them into his vast reservoirs.
8 Let everyone in all the world—men, women, and children—fear the Lord and stand in awe of him. 9 For when he but spoke, the world began! It appeared at his command! 10 And with a breath he can scatter the plans of all the nations who oppose him, 11 but his own plan stands forever. His intentions are the same for every generation.
33 “Listen to my counsel—oh, don’t refuse it—and be wise. 34 Happy is the man who is so anxious to be with me that he watches for me daily at my gates, or waits for me outside my home! 35 For whoever finds me finds life and wins approval from the Lord. 36 But the one who misses me has injured himself irreparably. Those who refuse me show that they love death.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.