Êxodo 32

ARC · Chapter 32/40

1Mas vendo o povo que Moysés tardava em descer do monte, ajuntou-se o povo a Aarão, e disseram-*lhe: Levanta-te, faze-nos deuses, que vão adiante de nós: porque emquanto a este Moysés, a este homem que nos tirou da terra do Egypto, não sabemos o que lhe succedeu.

2E Aarão lhes disse: Arrancae os pendentes de oiro, que estão nas orelhas de vossas mulheres, e de vossos filhos, e de vossas filhas, e trazeim'os.

3Então todo o povo arrancou os pendentes de oiro, que estavam nas suas orelhas, e os trouxeram a Aarão,

4E elle os tomou das suas mãos, e formou o oiro com um buril, e fez d'elle um bezerro de fundição. Então disseram: Estes são teus deuses, ó Israel, que te tiraram da terra do Egypto.

5E Aarão, vendo isto, edificou um altar diante d'elle: e Aarão apregoou, e disse: Ámanhã será festa ao Senhor.

6E no dia seguinte madrugaram, e offereceram holocaustos, e trouxeram offertas pacificas; e o povo assentou-se a comer e a beber; depois levantaram-se a folgar.

7Então disse o Senhor a Moysés: Vae, desce; porque o teu povo, que fizeste subir do Egypto, se tem corrompido,

8E depressa se tem desviado do caminho que eu lhes tinha ordenado: fizeram para si um bezerro de fundição, e perante elle se inclinaram, e sacrificaram-lhe, e disseram: Estes são os teus deuses, ó Israel, que te tiraram da terra do Egypto.

9Disse mais o Senhor a Moysés: Tenho visto a este povo, e eis que é povo obstinado.

10Agora pois deixa-me que o meu furor se accenda contra elles, e os consuma: e eu te farei uma grande nação.

11Porém Moysés supplicou ao Senhor seu Deus, e disse: O Senhor, porque se accende o teu furor contra o teu povo, que tu tiraste da terra do Egypto com grande força e com forte mão?

12Porque hão de fallar os egypcios, dizendo: Para mal os tirou, para matal-os nos montes, e para destruil-os da face da terra? Torna-te da ira do teu furor, e arrepende-te d'este mal contra o teu povo.

13Lembra-te de Abrahão, de Isaac, e de Israel, os teus servos, aos quaes por ti mesmo tens jurado, e lhes disseste: Multiplicarei a vossa semente como as estrellas dos céus, e darei á vossa semente toda esta terra, de que tenho dito, para que a possuam por herança eternamente.

14Então o Senhor arrependeu-se do mal que dissera, que havia de fazer ao seu povo.

15E tornou-se Moysés, e desceu do monte com as duas taboas do testemunho na sua mão, taboas escriptas de ambas as bandas; de uma e de outra banda escriptas estavam,

16E aquellas taboas eram obra de Deus; tambem a escriptura era a mesma escriptura de Deus, esculpida nas taboas.

17E, ouvindo Josué a voz do povo que jubilava, disse a Moysés: Alarido de guerra ha no arraial.

18Porém elle disse: Não é alarido dos victoriosos, nem alarido dos vencidos, mas o alarido dos que cantam eu ouço.

19E aconteceu que, chegando elle ao arraial, e vendo o bezerro e as danças, accendeu-se o furor de Moysés, e arremessou as taboas das suas mãos, e quebrou-as ao pé do monte;

20E tomou o bezerro que tinham feito, e queimou-o no fogo, moendo-o até que se tornou em pó; e o espargiu sobre as aguas, e deu-o a beber aos filhos de Israel.

21E Moysés disse a Aarão: Que te tem feito este povo, que sobre elle trouxeste tamanho peccado?

22Então disse Aarão: Não se accenda a ira do meu senhor: tu sabes que este povo é inclinado ao mal

23E elles me disseram: Faze-nos deuses que vão adiante de nós; porque não sabemos que succedeu a este Moysés, a este homem que nos tirou da terra do Egypto.

24Então eu lhes disse: Quem tem oiro, arranque-o: e deram-m'o, e lancei-o no fogo, e saiu este bezerro.

25E vendo Moysés que o povo estava despido, porque Aarão o havia despido para vergonha entre os seus inimigos,

26Poz-se em pé Moysés na porta do arraial, e disse: Quem é do Senhor, venha a mim. Então se ajuntaram a elle todos os filhos de Levi.

27E disse-lhes: Assim diz o Senhor, o Deus de Israel: Cada um ponha a sua espada sobre a sua coxa: e passae e tornae pelo arraial de porta em porta, e mate cada um a seu irmão, e cada um a seu amigo, e cada um a seu proximo.

28E os filhos de Levi fizeram conforme á palavra de Moysés: e cairam do povo aquelle dia uns tres mil homens.

29Porquanto Moysés tinha dito: Consagrae hoje as vossas mãos ao Senhor; porquanto cada um será contra o seu filho, e contra o seu irmão: e isto para elle vos dar hoje benção.

30E aconteceu que no dia seguinte Moysés disse ao povo: Vós peccastes grande peccado: agora porém subirei ao Senhor; porventura farei propiciação por vosso peccado.

31Assim tornou-se Moysés ao Senhor, e disse: Ora, este povo peccou peccado grande, fazendo para si deuses d'oiro.

32Agora pois perdoa o seu peccado, senão risca-me, peço-te, do teu Livro, que tens escripto.

33Então disse o Senhor a Moysés: Aquelle que peccar contra mim, a este riscarei eu do meu livro.

34Vae pois agora, conduze este povo para onde te tenho dito: eis que o meu anjo irá adiante de ti; porém no dia da minha visitação visitarei n'elles o seu peccado.

35Assim feriu o Senhor o povo, porquanto fizeram o bezerro que Aarão tinha feito.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

While Moses is on the mountain, the people pressure Aaron into making a golden calf to worship; God's anger burns and he threatens to destroy the people, but Moses intercedes; coming down, Moses breaks the tablets of the Law and severely punishes the idolatry.

Explanation

This is one of the most dramatic and theologically significant chapters in the book: while Moses was receiving the Law on the mountain, the people, impatient and anxious over his prolonged absence, quickly turn to idolatry, asking Aaron to fashion a visible, tangible god — a clear violation of the first and second commandments just given. Moses' courageous intercession in the face of God's justified anger, reminding him of his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is one of the most powerful examples of intercession in all of Scripture, showing how a person can literally 'appeal to God's own character' in prayer to plead for mercy. Moses' breaking of the tablets, though an act of understandable human anger, visually symbolizes the breaking of the very covenant the people had just made. The punishment that followed, though severe, distinguishes between those who turned wholly to evil and those who repented, showing that even amid judgment, God's justice seeks purification, not total and arbitrary destruction.

Fun facts

  • Moses' plea to God, 'blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book' (v. 32), should he not forgive the people, is one of the most radical expressions of sacrificial intercession in all of Scripture, showing Moses' willingness to personally bear the consequences for the sake of the people he led.
  • The golden calf likely reflected the influence of Egyptian idolatry, where bulls and calves were associated with deities such as Apis, showing how, despite decades away from Egypt, cultural and religious remnants of that land still deeply shaped the mindset of the newly freed people.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Êxodo 32:1With Moses gone for weeks on the mountain, the people feared they had been left without leadership and without visible divine protection. Asking for a god who could “go before us” reflected a common custom among ancient peoples—having a physical image represent the deity guiding them, something Israel’s own God had already forbidden in the Ten Commandments.
  2. Êxodo 32:2Aaron asks the people to hand over the gold earrings belonging to their own families, perhaps hoping that sacrificing personal jewelry would cool their demand, but the people hand them over without hesitation.
  3. Êxodo 32:3The people comply without reluctance, handing over their gold earrings en masse for the idol they had asked Aaron to make.
  4. Êxodo 32:4The calf was a common symbol of strength and fertility in several religions of Egypt and Canaan, which likely inspired this choice of image. It’s notable that the text uses the plural “gods”—the KJV reads, “These be thy gods, O Israel”—even for a single statue, probably reflecting an ancient way of speaking about God.
  5. Êxodo 32:5With the calf finished, Aaron builds an altar and announces a feast “to the Lord”—the KJV has him proclaim, “To morrow is a feast to the Lord”—a strange attempt to blend idolatry with the name of the true God Himself.
  6. Êxodo 32:6The next day’s celebration combines formal sacrifices with feasting, drinking, and revelry—behavior that suggests a fertility ritual typical of the neighboring religions.
  7. Êxodo 32:7God interrupts the conversation on the mountain to warn Moses about what is happening below, calling the people “thy people”—the KJV has Him say, “for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves”—a deliberate rhetorical distancing.
  8. Êxodo 32:8God describes precisely what the people did: they quickly abandoned the commandment against idols and credited the calf with their deliverance from Egypt.
  9. Êxodo 32:9God sums up the problem in a single expression: the people are stubborn, or “stiffnecked,” as the KJV puts it—the image of someone who resists bending and being guided.
  10. Êxodo 32:10This is a moment of dramatic tension in the narrative: God proposes destroying the rebellious people and starting over through Moses, just as He once did through Abraham. It is Moses’s next words, defending the people, that change the course of the story.
  11. Êxodo 32:11Moses intercedes immediately, questioning why God’s anger would turn against the very people He had just freed with such great power.
  12. Êxodo 32:12Moses argues with practical reasoning: destroying the people now would give the Egyptians grounds to say that God brought them out of Egypt only to kill them in the wilderness.
  13. Êxodo 32:13Moses appeals to the ancient promise made to the patriarchs, reminding God of His own oath to multiply their descendants and give them the promised land.
  14. Êxodo 32:14This “repentance” of God, following Moses’s plea, is one of the most debated verses in the Old Testament regarding how to understand the relationship between God’s will and human pleading. Scholars don’t fully agree on how to interpret this change—whether it’s a new decision or a human way of narrating something already part of the plan.
  15. Êxodo 32:15Moses comes down from the mountain carrying the tablets of the law, written on both sides, not yet imagining the scene he was about to find.
  16. Êxodo 32:16It emphasizes that both the tablets and the writing on them were God’s direct work, making what Moses is about to do with them even more serious.
  17. Êxodo 32:17Joshua, who had been waiting for Moses on a lower part of the mountain, interprets the noise coming from the camp as the sound of battle.
  18. Êxodo 32:18Moses corrects Joshua’s interpretation: that sound is neither victory nor military defeat, but a noisy celebration, which is confirmed as soon as they draw near.
  19. Êxodo 32:19Seeing the calf and the feast with his own eyes, Moses reacts with such anger that he breaks the sacred tablets right at the foot of the mountain, even before confronting the people.
  20. Êxodo 32:20After destroying the idol, Moses ground the metal to fine powder and mixed it into the water the people drank. It’s a drastic way of showing, in practice, that this “god” was nothing but ordinary metal—the people literally swallowed the remains of what they had worshiped.
  21. Êxodo 32:21Moses confronts Aaron directly, asking what the people had done to deserve him leading them into such a grave sin in his absence.
  22. Êxodo 32:22Aaron tries to defend himself by blaming the people’s own tendency toward evil, minimizing his own role in making the idol.
  23. Êxodo 32:23Aaron repeats the people’s original request almost word for word, trying to justify his action as a response to pressure he couldn’t resist.
  24. Êxodo 32:24In Aaron’s version, the calf practically formed itself after he threw the gold into the fire—an explanation that omits the active work of shaping it already described earlier.
  25. Êxodo 32:25Moses realizes the people are out of control, shamefully exposed before possible enemies—a direct consequence of Aaron’s failed leadership at that moment.
  26. Êxodo 32:26Moses makes a public appeal at the entrance of the camp, and only the tribe of Levi joins him, showing that not everyone had taken part equally in the idolatry.
  27. Êxodo 32:27This is one of the harshest passages in the book of Exodus: an order for violent, immediate punishment against those who took part in the calf’s idolatry, carried out by the Levites themselves among their own people. The text neither softens nor morally justifies the episode—it simply records what happened.
  28. Êxodo 32:28The Levites carry out Moses’s harsh order, and about three thousand people die that day as a direct consequence of the calf’s idolatry.
  29. Êxodo 32:29Moses explains that acting against their own relatives in that specific moment was an act that consecrated the Levites to God’s service, placed above family ties.
  30. Êxodo 32:30The next day, Moses publicly acknowledges the gravity of the sin committed and decides to go back up the mountain to try to intercede for the people’s forgiveness.
  31. Êxodo 32:31Moses speaks with God again, admitting bluntly the gravity of what happened: the people made gods of gold for themselves.
  32. Êxodo 32:32Moses asks God that, if He will not forgive the people, He blot him out too—from a “book” the Bible mentions a few times (the KJV has Moses say, “blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book”), associated with the record of those who belong to God’s living people. It’s a gesture of extreme intercession: Moses would rather share the people’s fate than be saved alone.
  33. Êxodo 32:33God answers that responsibility for the sin falls on whoever actually sinned, and Moses is not required to share the same punishment for interceding.
  34. Êxodo 32:34God allows the journey to continue, with an angel guiding the people, but warns that the punishment for the sin does not disappear completely—it is only postponed to a future moment.
  35. Êxodo 32:35The chapter closes by confirming that God sent a plague on the people, an additional consequence beyond the one already caused by the Levites, directly tied to the calf’s idolatry.

Chapters

Our apps

Our apps →

Bible in Stories

The Bible told as a story, with audio and videos.

📱 Get the app

World in Stories

True stories of humanity that sound made up.

Feito! Pequenas Vitórias

A light daily routine for people who lose track of the day.