NKJV Bible in 365 Days
The Golden Calf & Breaking Covenant — January 28
Exodus 32-34
Exodus 32
1 Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us [a] gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 365N 28.1
2 And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 365N 28.2
3 So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 365N 28.3
4 And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” 365N 28.4
5 So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord .” 365N 28.5
6 Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 365N 28.6
7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. 365N 28.7
8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ” 365N 28.8
9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a [b] stiff-necked people! 365N 28.9
10 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may [c] consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.” 365N 28.10
11 Then Moses pleaded with [d] the Lord his God, and said: “ Lord , why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 365N 28.11
12 Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. 365N 28.12
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” 365N 28.13
14 So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people. 365N 28.14
15 And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other they were written. 365N 28.15
16 Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. 365N 28.16
17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “ There is a noise of war in the camp.” 365N 28.17
18 But he said: “ It is not the noise of the shout of victory, Nor the noise of the cry of defeat, But the sound of singing I hear.” 365N 28.18
19 So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses’ anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 365N 28.19
20 Then he took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder; and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it. 365N 28.20
21 And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?” 365N 28.21
22 So Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 365N 28.22
23 For they said to me, ‘Make us gods that shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 365N 28.23
24 And I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out.” 365N 28.24
25 Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained (for Aaron had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies), 365N 28.25
26 then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on the Lord ’s side— come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. 365N 28.26
27 And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’ ” 365N 28.27
28 So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day. 365N 28.28
29 Then Moses said, [e] “Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord , that He may bestow on you a blessing this day, for every man has opposed his son and his brother.” 365N 28.29
30 Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. So now I will go up to the Lord ; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” 365N 28.30
31 Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! 365N 28.31
32 Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.” 365N 28.32
33 And the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. 365N 28.33
34 Now therefore, 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 visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin.” 365N 28.34
35 So the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made. 365N 28.35
Exodus 33
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Depart and go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’ 365N 28.36
2 And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 365N 28.37
3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I [a] consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked [b] people.” 365N 28.38
4 And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 365N 28.39
5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your [c] ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.’ ” 365N 28.40
6 So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb. 365N 28.41
7 Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp. 365N 28.42
8 So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. 365N 28.43
9 And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. 365N 28.44
10 All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door. 365N 28.45
11 So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. 365N 28.46
12 Then Moses said to the Lord , “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ 365N 28.47
13 Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” 365N 28.48
14 And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 365N 28.49
15 Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. 365N 28.50
16 For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.” 365N 28.51
17 So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.” 365N 28.52
18 And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” 365N 28.53
19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 365N 28.54
20 But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” 365N 28.55
21 And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 365N 28.56
22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. 365N 28.57
23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.” 365N 28.58
Exodus 34
1 And the Lord said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. 365N 28.59
2 So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there on the top of the mountain. 365N 28.60
3 And no man shall come up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain; let neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain.” 365N 28.61
4 So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him; and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone. 365N 28.62
5 Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord . 365N 28.63
6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord , the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 365N 28.64
7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” 365N 28.65
8 So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. 365N 28.66
9 Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked [a] people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.” 365N 28.67
10 And He said: “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do [b] marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord . For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. 365N 28.68
11 Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 365N 28.69
12 Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. 365N 28.70
13 But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images 365N 28.71
14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord , whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), 365N 28.72
15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice, 365N 28.73
16 and you take of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods. 365N 28.74
17 “You shall make no molded gods for yourselves. 365N 28.75
18 “The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt. 365N 28.76
19 “All [c] that open the womb are Mine, and every male firstborn among your livestock, whether ox or sheep. 365N 28.77
20 But the firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem him, then you shall break his neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. “And none shall appear before Me empty-handed. 365N 28.78
21 “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. 365N 28.79
22 “And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end. 365N 28.80
23 “Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the Lord God of Israel. 365N 28.81
24 For I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither will any man covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year. 365N 28.82
25 “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven, nor shall the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover be left until morning. 365N 28.83
26 “The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” 365N 28.84
27 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 365N 28.85
28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the [d] Ten Commandments. 365N 28.86
29 Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. 365N 28.87
30 So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 365N 28.88
31 Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses talked with them. 365N 28.89
32 Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them as commandments all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 365N 28.90
33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. 365N 28.91
34 But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded. 365N 28.92
35 And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him. 365N 28.93