When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!”

“Don’t be enraged, my lord,” Aaron replied. “You yourself know that the people are intent on evil.

They said to me, ‘Make us a god who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’

When the people heard this bad news, they mourned and didn’t put on their jewelry.

“If Your presence does not go,” Moses responded to Him, “don’t make us go up from here.