1. When the people saw that Moses had not come down from the mountain but was staying there a long time, they gathered round Aaron and said to him, “We do not know what has happened to this man Moses, who led us out of Egypt; so make us a god to lead us.”
2. Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold earrings which your wives, your sons, and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.”
3. So all the people took off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron.
4. He took the earrings, melted them, poured the gold into a mould, and made a gold bull calf.The people said, “Israel, this is our god, who led us out of Egypt!”
5. Then Aaron built an altar in front of the gold bull calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to honour the Lord.”
6. Early the next morning they brought some animals to burn as sacrifices and others to eat as fellowship offerings. The people sat down to a feast, which turned into an orgy of drinking and sex.
7. The Lord said to Moses, “Go back down at once, because your people, whom you led out of Egypt, have sinned and rejected me.
8. They have already left the way that I commanded them to follow; they have made a bull calf out of melted gold and have worshipped it and offered sacrifices to it. They are saying that this is their god, who led them out of Egypt.
9. I know how stubborn these people are.
10. Now, don't try to stop me. I am angry with them, and I am going to destroy them. Then I will make you and your descendants into a great nation.”
11. But Moses pleaded with the Lord his God and said, “Lord, why should you be so angry with your people, whom you rescued from Egypt with great might and power?
12. Why should the Egyptians be able to say that you led your people out of Egypt, planning to kill them in the mountains and destroy them completely? Stop being angry; change your mind and do not bring this disaster on your people.
13. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Remember the solemn promise you made to them to give them as many descendants as there are stars in the sky and to give their descendants all that land you promised would be their possession for ever.”
14. So the Lord changed his mind and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
15. Moses went back down the mountain, carrying the two stone tablets with the commandments written on both sides.
16. God himself had made the tablets and had engraved the commandments on them.
17. Joshua heard the people shouting and said to Moses, “I hear the sound of battle in the camp.”
18. Moses said, “That doesn't sound like a shout of victory or a cry of defeat; it's the sound of singing.”
19. When Moses came close enough to the camp to see the bull calf and to see the people dancing, he was furious. There at the foot of the mountain, he threw down the tablets he was carrying and broke them.
20. He took the bull calf which they had made, melted it, ground it into fine powder, and mixed it with water. Then he made the people of Israel drink it.