^4 (A)And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden^[a] calf. And they said, ^(B)“These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

¹⁸ Even ^(A)when they had made for themselves a golden^[a] calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ ^(B)and had committed great blasphemies,

¹⁶ And ^(A)I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden^[a] calf. ^(B)You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you.

⁴¹ And ^(A)they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and ^(B)were rejoicing in ^(C)the works of their hands.

⁸ They have turned aside quickly out of the way that ^(A)I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’”

The Folly of Idolatry

^9 (A)All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. ^10 (B)Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing?

²⁸ So the king took counsel and ^(A)made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. ^(B)Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

²¹ For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they ^(A)became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ^22 (B)Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and ^(C)exchanged the glory of ^(D)the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.