The Daily Audio Bible
Today's audio is from the CEV. Switch to the CEV to read along with the audio.
The Gold Calf
32 When the people saw that it took so long for Moses to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Get up, make a god[a] for us, who will go before us, because this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt—we do not know what has become of him.”
2 Aaron said to them, “Pull off the gold earrings from your wives and sons and daughters and bring them to me.”
3 All the people pulled off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and shaped it with an engraving tool and made it into a bull calf cast out of metal. Then they said, “This is your god, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”[b]
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it, and Aaron made a proclamation. He said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.”
6 They got up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought fellowship offerings. Then the people sat down to eat and to drink and got up to celebrate wildly.
7 The Lord spoke to Moses: “Hurry down, because your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves! 8 They have quickly turned from the way which I commanded them. They have made a calf for themselves out of metal and have worshipped it. They have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”
9 The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen these people, and they certainly are a stiff-necked people.[c] 10 So now leave me alone, so that my anger can burn hot against them, so that I may consume them and make you into a great nation.”
11 Moses begged the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your anger burn against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out for an evil purpose, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn back from your fierce anger and change your mind about inflicting disaster on your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self. You said to them, ‘I will multiply your seed[d] like the stars of the sky, and I will give all this land that I have spoken about to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.’”
14 Then the Lord changed his mind about the disaster which he said he would inflict on his people.
15 Moses turned and went down the mountain, with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hand—tablets that were written on both sides, written on one side and on the other. 16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is the noise of war in the camp.”
18 Moses said, “It is not the sound of people who shout for victory; neither is it the sound of people who cry because of defeat. But I do hear the sound of people who are celebrating.”
19 As soon as Moses came near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses’ anger burned. So he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20 He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water. Then he made the people of Israel drink it.
21 Moses said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you have brought such a great sin on them?”
22 Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn. You know these people. They are set on evil, 23 so they said to me, ‘Make a god for us, who will go ahead of us, because this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24 So I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, pull it off.’ So they gave it to me. I threw it into the fire and out came this calf.”
25 When Moses saw that the people were out of control (for Aaron had let them get so out of control that they were disgraced among their enemies), 26 Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Whoever is on the Lord’s side, come to me!”
All the descendants of Levi gathered themselves together to Moses. 27 He said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Every man is to strap his sword on his thigh and go back and forth throughout the camp, from one gate of the camp to the other, and every man is to kill his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.’” 28 The Levites did what Moses said, and that day about three thousand men from among the people fell. 29 Moses said, “Begin your service of the Lord today.[e] Yes, because every man among you took a stand against his son and against his brother, the Lord is bestowing a blessing on you today.”
30 On the next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a very serious sin. Now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can gain atonement for your sin.”
31 Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Yes, this people has committed a very serious sin: They have made a god of gold for themselves. 32 Yet now, if you will, please forgive their sin—and if not, please erase me from your book, which you have written.”
33 The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me is the one I will erase from my book. 34 Now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you. Look, my Angel shall go ahead of you. Nevertheless, when the right day comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.” 35 The Lord struck the people with a plague, because of what they had done with the calf that Aaron made.
33 The Lord spoke to Moses: “Depart. Go up from here, you and the people that you have brought up out of the land of Egypt. Go up to the land about which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob: ‘I will give it to your seed.’ 2 I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I myself will not go up among you, because you are a stiff-necked people, and I would consume you on the way.”
4 When the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and none of them put on their jewelry, 5 for the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go up among you for one moment, I would consume you. Therefore now take off your jewelry, while I determine what to do to you.’” 6 So the people of Israel stripped themselves of their jewelry at Mount Horeb.
The First Tent of Meeting
7 So Moses took a tent and set it up outside the camp, far away from the camp, and he called it the Tent of Meeting. Everyone who was seeking an answer from the Lord would go out to the Tent of Meeting, which was outside the camp. 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people got up and stood at their tent doors and watched Moses, until he had gone into the tent. 9 Whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stand at the door of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. 10 All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the door of the tent, and all the people would rise up and worship, all of them at their own tent door. 11 The Lord spoke to Moses face-to-face, as a man speaks to his friend. Moses would return again into the camp, but his assistant Joshua son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the tent.
Moses and God’s Goodness
12 Moses said to the Lord, “Look, you yourself have been telling me, ‘Lead this people up,’ 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 favor in my sight.’ 13 So now if I have found favor in your sight, please show me your ways, so that I may know you, so that I may find favor in your sight. Consider that this nation is your people.”
14 The Lord said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Moses said to him, “If your Presence is not going to go with me, do not send us up from here. 16 After all, how would people know that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Isn’t it in this way: that you go with us, so that we are distinguished, I and your people, from all the people who are on the face of the earth?”
17 The Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have said, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”
18 Then Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”
19 The Lord said, “I will make all my goodness pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord in your presence. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.” 20 He said, “You cannot see my face, for no human may see me and live.”
21 The Lord also said, “Look, there is a place next to me, where you shall stand on the rock. 22 It will happen that, while my glory passes by, I will put you in a crevice in the rock. I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back. But my face will not be seen.”
Peter Denies Jesus
69 Meanwhile Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant girl came to him and said, “You were also with Jesus the Galilean.”
70 But he denied it in front of everyone, saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
71 When Peter went out to the entryway, someone else saw him and said to those who were there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.”
72 Again Peter denied it with an oath and said, “I do not know the man.”
73 After a little while those who stood by came and said to Peter, “Surely you are also one of them because even your accent gives you away.”
74 Then he began to curse and to swear, “I do not know the man!” Just then the rooster crowed. 75 And Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.
27 Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people reached the decision to put Jesus to death. 2 They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pontius Pilate, the governor.
The End of Judas
3 Then when Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he felt remorse. He brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders 4 and said, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? That’s your problem.”
5 He threw the pieces of silver into the temple and left. Then he went out and hanged himself. 6 The chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, “It is not lawful to put these into the treasury, since it is blood money.” 7 They reached a decision to buy the potter’s field with the money, as a burial place for foreigners. 8 So that field has been called The Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:
They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price the sons of Israel had set for him, 10 and they gave them for the potter’s field, just as the Lord commanded me.[a]
Jesus’ Trial in Pilate’s Court
11 When Jesus stood in the presence of the governor, the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus said to him, “It is as you say.”
12 When he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. 13 Then Pilate said to him, “Don’t you hear how many things they are testifying against you?”
14 But he did not answer him—not even one word, so that the governor was very surprised.
Psalm 33
Blessed Is the Nation Whose God Is the Lord
Introductory Praise
1 Shout joyfully to the Lord, you righteous.
The praise of the upright is beautiful.
2 Thank the Lord with a lyre.
Make music for him with the ten-stringed harp.
3 Sing to him a new song.
Play skillfully and shout praises.
4 Yes, the word of the Lord is right,
and everything he does is trustworthy.
5 He loves righteousness and justice.
The mercy of the Lord fills the earth.
God’s Love in Creation
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made.
By the breath of his mouth he made the whole army of stars.[a]
7 He gathers the water of the sea into a heap.
He puts the depths into storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord.
Let all the inhabitants of the world revere him.
9 For he said, “Let it be,” and it was!
He gave a command, and there it stood.
God’s Rule of History
10 The Lord wrecks the plan of the nations.
He hinders the intentions of the peoples.
11 The plan of the Lord stands forever.
The intentions of his heart stand through all generations.
33 Listen to discipline and become wise.
Do not neglect it.
34 How blessed is the person who listens to me,
so that he can watch at my doors day after day,
so that he can stand guard beside my front door,
35 because whoever finds me finds life,
and he obtains favor from the Lord,
36 but whoever sins against me harms himself.
All who hate me love death.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.