17. Now, when Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “That sounds like a battle in the camp.”
18. But Moses answered,“It is not the noise of victory,it is not the noise of defeat;the sound I hear is singing.”
19. As he drew near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. Then Moses’ anger burned, and he threw the tablets down and broke them on the base of the mountain.
20. Taking the calf they had made, he burned it in the fire and then ground it down to powder, which he scattered on the water and made the Israelites drink.
21. Moses asked Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you should lead them into a grave sin?”
22. Aaron replied, “Do not let my lord be angry. You know how the people are prone to evil.
23. They said to me, ‘Make us a god to go before us; as for this man Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’