Exodus 32:1–14

And the people seeing that Moses delayed to come down from the mount, gathering together against Aaron, said: Arise, make us gods, that may go before us: For as to this Moses, the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has befallen him.

²And Aaron said to them: Take the golden earrings from the ears of your wives, and your sons and daughters, and bring them to me.

³And the people did what he had commanded, bringing the earrings to Aaron.

⁴And when he had received them, he fashioned them by founders’ work, and made of them a molten calf. And they said: These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt.

⁵And when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, and made proclamation by a crier’s voice, saying To morrow is the solemnity of the Lord.

⁶And rising in the morning, they offered holocausts, and peace victims, and the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.

⁷And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Go, get thee down: thy people, which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, hath sinned.

⁸They have quickly strayed from the way which thou didst shew them: and they have made to themselves a molten calf, and have adored it, and sacrificing victims to it, have said: These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt.

⁹And again the Lord said to Moses: I see that this people is stiffnecked:

¹⁰Let me alone, that my wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them, and I will make of thee a great nation.

¹¹But Moses besought the Lord his God, saying: Why, O Lord, is thy indignation enkindled against thy people, whom thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, with great power, and with a mighty hand?

¹²Let not the Egyptians say, I beseech thee: He craftily brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains, and destroy them from the earth: let thy anger cease, and be appeased upon the wickedness of thy people.

¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou sworest by thy own self, saying: I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven: and this whole land that I have spoken of, I will give to your seed, and you shall possess it for ever:

¹⁴And the Lord was appeased from doing the evil which he had spoken against his people.