3. So all the people took off the gold rings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron.
4. He took the gold from their hands, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into an image of a calf.Then they said, “Israel, this is your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt! ”
5. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; then he made an announcement: “There will be a festival to the Lord tomorrow.”
6. Early the next morning they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented fellowship offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink, then got up to play.
7. The Lord spoke to Moses: “Go down at once! For your people you brought up from the land of Egypt have acted corruptly.
8. They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them; they have made for themselves an image of a calf. They have bowed down to it, sacrificed to it, and said, ‘Israel, this is your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.’ ”
9. The Lord also said to Moses: “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.
10. Now leave Me alone, so that My anger can burn against them and I can destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
11. But Moses interceded with the Lord his God: “Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a strong hand?
12. Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out with an evil intent to kill them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from Your great anger and relent concerning this disaster planned for Your people.
13. Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel — You swore to them by Your very self and declared, ‘I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and will give your offspring all this land that I have promised, and they will inherit it forever.’ ”
14. So the Lord relented concerning the disaster He said He would bring on His people.
15. Then Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides — inscribed front and back.
16. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was God’s writing, engraved on the tablets.
17. When Joshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a sound of war in the camp.”