First ReadingExodus 32:7-14
From the Book of Exodus
7The Lord spoke to Moses, “Go, get down;for your people,whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt,have corrupted themselves!8They have turned away quickly out of the waywhich I commanded them.They have made themselves a molded calf,and have worshiped it,and have sacrificed to it,and said, ‘These are your gods,Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”
9The Lord said to Moses,“I have seen these people,and behold, they are a stiff-necked people.10Now therefore leave me alone,that my wrath may burn hot against them,and that I may consume them;and I will make of you a great nation.”
11Moses begged the Lord his God,and said, “Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people,that you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great powerand with a mighty hand?12Why should the Egyptians talk,saying, ‘He brought them out for evil,to kill them in the mountains,and to consume them from the surface of the earth’?Turn from your fierce wrath,and turn away from this evil against your people.13Remember Abraham, Isaac,and Israel, your servants,to whom you swore by your own self,and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky,and all this landthat I have spoken of I will give to your offspring,and they shall inherit it forever.’”
14So the Lord turned away from the evilwhich he said he would do to his people.