11. And Moses besought Jehovah his God and said, Why, Jehovah, doth thy wrath burn against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?
12. Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, For misfortune he has brought them out, to slay them on the mountains, and to annihilate them from the face of the earth? Turn from the heat of thine anger, and repent of this evil against thy people!
13. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou sworest by thyself, and saidst to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give to your seed, and they shall possess it for ever!
14. And Jehovah repented of the evil that he had said he would do to his people.
15. And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, with the two tables of the testimony in his hand--tables written on both their sides: on this side and on that were they written.
16. And the tables were God's work, and the writing was God's writing, engraven on the tables.
17. And Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, and said to Moses, There is a shout of war in the camp.
18. And he said, It is not the sound of a shout of victory, neither is it the sound of a shout of defeat: it is the noise of alternate singing I hear.
19. And it came to pass, when he came near the camp, and saw the calf and the dancing, that Moses' anger burned, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and shattered them beneath the mountain.
20. And he took the calf that they had made, and burned it with fire, and ground it to powder, and strewed it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it.
21. And Moses said to Aaron, What has this people done to thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin on them?
22. And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord burn! thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief.
23. And they said to me, Make us a god, who will go before us; for this Moses, the man that has brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what is become of him!
24. And I said to them, Who has gold? They broke it off, and gave it me, and I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.
25. And Moses saw the people how they were stripped; for Aaron had stripped them to their shame before their adversaries.
26. And Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, He that is for Jehovah, let him come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered to him.
27. And he said to them, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Put every man his sword upon his hip; go and return from gate to gate through the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbour.
28. And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.
29. And Moses said, Consecrate yourselves to-day to Jehovah, yea, every man with his son, and with his brother, and bring on yourselves a blessing to-day.