Exodus 32:1-8 ▼

1 Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!”

2 So Aaron told them, “Take off the gold earrings that are on your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”

3 Then all the people took off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron.

4 He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before the calf and proclaimed: “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.”

6 So the next day they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.

7 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.

8 How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it. They have sacrificed to it and said, ‘These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’ ”