15. Then Moses went down the mountain, and in his hands he had the two stone tablets with the Agreement on them. The commands were written on both sides of each stone, front and back.
16. God himself had made the tablets, and God himself had written the commands on the tablets.
17. When Joshua heard the sound of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “It sounds like war down in the camp.”
18. Moses answered:“It is not a shout of victory;it is not a cry of defeat.It is the sound of singing that I hear.”
19. When Moses came close to the camp, he saw the gold calf and the dancing, and he became very angry. He threw down the stone tablets that he was carrying and broke them at the bottom of the mountain.
20. Then he took the calf that the people had made and melted it in the fire. He ground it into powder. Then he threw the powder into the water and forced the Israelites to drink it.
21. Moses said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you? Why did you cause them to do such a terrible sin?”
22. Aaron answered, “Don’t be angry, master. You know that these people are always ready to do wrong.
23. The people said to me, ‘Moses led us out of Egypt, but we don’t know what has happened to him. Make us gods who will lead us.’
24. So I told the people, ‘Take off your gold jewelry.’ When they gave me the gold, I threw it into the fire and out came this calf!”
25. Moses saw that the people were acting wildly. Aaron had let them get out of control and become fools in front of their enemies.