7. And Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Go, go down because your people behave corruptly, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt.
8. They have turned aside quickly from the way that I commanded them; they have made for themselves a cast-image bull calf, and they bowed to it, and they sacrificed to it, and they said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.’ ”
9. And Yahweh said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and, indeed, they are a stiff-necked people.
10. And now leave me alone so that my anger may blaze against them, and let me destroy them, and I will make you into a great nation.”
11. And Moses implored Yahweh his God, and he said, “Why, Yahweh, should your anger blaze against your people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?
12. Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger and relent concerning the disaster for your people.
13. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by yourself, and you told them, ‘I will multiply your offspring like the stars of the heavens, and all this land that I promised I will give to your offspring, and they will inherit it forever.’ ”
14. And Yahweh relented concerning the disaster that he had threatened to do to his people.
15. And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the testimony were in his hand, tablets written on their two sides; on the front and on the back they were written.
16. And the tablets, they were the work of God; and the writing, it was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.
17. And Joshua heard the sound of the people in their shouting, and he said to Moses, “A sound of war is in the camp.”
18. But he said, “There is not a sound of shouting of victory, and there is not a sound of shouting of defeat. I hear a sound of singing.”
19. And as he came near to the camp, he saw the bull calf and dancing, and Moses became angry, and he threw the tablets from his hand, and he broke them under the mountain.
20. And he took the bull calf that they had made, and he burned it with the fire, and he crushed it until it became fine, and he scattered it on the surface of the water, and he made the Israelites drink.
21. And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you brought on them such a great sin?”