Exodus 32:21-29

²¹Then Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” ²²And Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, that they are prone to evil. ²³For they said to me, ‘Make a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we do not know what happened to him.’ ²⁴So I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ Then they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

²⁵Now when Moses saw that the people were out of control—for Aaron had let them get out of control to the point of being an object of ridicule among their enemies— ²⁶Moses then stood at the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. ²⁷And he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘Every man of you put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.’ ” ²⁸So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day. ²⁹Then Moses said, “Dedicate yourselves today to the Lord—for every man has been against his son and against his brother—in order that He may bestow a blessing upon you today.”