Exodus 32:17-25

English Standard Version

¹⁷When ^(A)Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” ¹⁸But he said, “It is not the sound of ^(B)shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” ¹⁹And as soon as he came near the camp and ^(C)saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.

²¹And Moses said to Aaron, ^(D)“What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” ²²And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. ^(E)You know the people, that they are set on evil. ²³For ^(F)they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ²⁴So ^(G)I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”