11. But Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, "Lord, why does your fury burn against your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and amazing force?
12. Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He had an evil plan to take the people out and kill them in the mountains and so wipe them off the earth’? Calm down your fierce anger. Change your mind about doing terrible things to your own people.
13. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, whom you yourself promised, ‘I’ll make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky. And I’ve promised to give your descendants this whole land to possess for all time.’"
14. Then the Lord changed his mind about the terrible things he said he would do to his people.
15. Moses then turned around and came down the mountain. He carried the two covenant tablets in his hands. The tablets were written on both sides, front and back.
16. The tablets were God’s own work. What was written there was God’s own writing inscribed on the tablets.
17. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "It sounds like war in the camp."
18. But Moses said,"It isn’t the sound of a victory song.It isn’t the sound of a song of defeat.The sound of party songs is what I hear."
19. When he got near the camp and saw the bull calf and the dancing, Moses was furious. He hurled the tablets down and shattered them in pieces at the foot of the mountain.
20. He took the calf that they had made and burned it in a fire. Then he ground it down to crushed powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.
21. Moses said to Aaron, "What did these people do to you that you led them to commit such a terrible sin?"
22. Aaron replied, "Don’t get angry with me, sir. You know yourself that these people are out of control.
23. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who can lead us. As for this man Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t have a clue what has happened to him.’