Why did Israel keep drifting into idolatry?

¹When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.”

²Aaron said to them, “Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me.”

³All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.

⁴He received what they handed him, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molten calf; and they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

⁵When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh.”

⁶They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

⁷Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Go, get down; for your people, who you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves!

⁸They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten 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.’”

⁹Yahweh 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 Yahweh his God, and said, “Yahweh, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

¹²Why should the Egyptians speak, 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 repent of 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 seed as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.’”

¹⁴Yahweh repented of the evil which he said he would do to his people.

¹⁰Also all that generation were gathered to their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, who didn’t know Yahweh, nor yet the work which he had worked for Israel.

¹¹The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served the Baals;

¹²and they abandoned Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them: and they provoked Yahweh to anger.

¹³They abandoned Yahweh, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.

¹⁴Yahweh’s anger was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of raiders who plundered them; and he sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.

¹⁵Wherever they went out, the hand of Yahweh was against them for evil, as Yahweh had spoken, and as Yahweh had sworn to them: and they were very distressed.

¹⁶Yahweh raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them.

¹⁷Yet they didn’t listen to their judges; for they played the prostitute after other gods, and bowed themselves down to them: they turned aside quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked, obeying the commandments of Yahweh. They didn’t do so.

¹⁸When Yahweh raised them up judges, then Yahweh was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it grieved Yahweh because of their groaning by reason of those who oppressed them and troubled them.

¹⁹But when the judge was dead, they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them; they didn’t cease from their doings, nor from their stubborn way.

²⁰Yahweh’s anger was kindled against Israel; and he said, “Because this nation have transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not listened to my voice;

²¹I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations that Joshua left when he died;

²²that by them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of Yahweh to walk therein, as their fathers kept it, or not.”

²³So Yahweh left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.

¹⁶So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah.

¹⁷When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”

¹⁸He answered, “I have not troubled Israel; but you, and your father’s house, in that you have forsaken the commandments of Yahweh, and you have followed the Baals.

¹⁹Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel to Mount Carmel, and four hundred fifty of the prophets of Baal, and four hundred of the prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

²⁰So Ahab sent to all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together to Mount Carmel.

²¹Elijah came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you waver between the two sides? If Yahweh is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” The people answered him not a word.

²²Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of Yahweh; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred fifty men.

²³Let them therefore give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under; and I will dress the other bull, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under it.

²⁴You call on the name of your god, and I will call on Yahweh’s name. The God who answers by fire, let him be God.” All the people answered, “It is well said.”

²⁵Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one bull for yourselves, and dress it first; for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.”

²⁶They took the bull which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, “Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice, nor any who answered. They leaped about the altar which was made.

²⁷At noon, Elijah mocked them, and said, “Cry aloud; for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he has gone aside, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he sleeps and must be awakened.”

²⁸They cried aloud, and cut themselves in their way with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them.

²⁹It was so, when midday was past, that they prophesied until the time of the offering of the offering; but there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any who regarded.

³⁰Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me”; and all the people came near to him. He repaired the altar of Yahweh that was thrown down.

³¹Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom Yahweh’s word came, saying, “Israel shall be your name.”

³²With the stones he built an altar in Yahweh’s name. He made a trench around the altar, large enough to contain two measures of seed.

³³He put the wood in order, and cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, “Fill four jars with water, and pour it on the burnt offering, and on the wood.”

³⁴He said, “Do it a second time”; and they did it the second time. He said, “Do it a third time”; and they did it the third time.

³⁵The water ran around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water.

³⁶At the time of the offering of the offering, Elijah the prophet came near, and said, “Yahweh, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word.

³⁷Hear me, Yahweh, hear me, that this people may know that you, Yahweh, are God, and that you have turned their heart back again.”

³⁸Then the fire of Yahweh fell, and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

³⁹When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces. They said, “Yahweh, he is God! Yahweh, he is God!”