The Golden Calf
Moses is on the mountain forty days and the people below conclude he is not coming back. They ask Aaron to make them gods to go before them; he collects their gold earrings, casts a calf, and builds an altar. His later explanation to Moses is one of the least convincing lines in scripture: he threw the gold into the fire, and out came this calf.
God tells Moses to stand aside so that his anger may burn against them, and offers to make a great nation of Moses instead. Moses refuses the offer and argues God out of it, on the grounds of God's own reputation and the promise sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Coming down and seeing the dancing, Moses smashes the tablets. The covenant is remade, and the episode becomes the standard reference point for Israel's unfaithfulness.
Where in scripture
[1] When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.” [2] Aaron said to them, “Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me.” [3] All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. [4] He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molten calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” …
Exodus 32:1–35 — opening verses
[1] Yahweh said to Moses, “Chisel two stone tablets like the first. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. [2] Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. [3] No one shall come up with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Do not let the flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.” [4] He chiseled two tablets of stone like the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets. [5] Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed Yahweh’s name. …
Exodus 34:1–10 — opening verses
[7] Remember, and don’t forget, how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you left the land of Egypt, until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. [8] Also in Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was angry with you to destroy you. [9] When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. [10] Yahweh delivered to me the two stone tablets written with God’s finger. On them were all the words which Yahweh spoke with you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly. …
Deuteronomy 9:7–21 — opening verses
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, a public-domain translation.
