The Golden Calf

32 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain,^(A) they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods^[a] who will go before^(B) us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”^(C)

² Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings^(D) that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.”

⁴ He took what they handed him and made it into an idol^(A) cast in the shape of a calf,^(B) fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods,^[a](C) Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”^(D)

¹⁷ You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold.^(A)