Exodus 32:3-6, 8; “And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD. 6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.”
When Moses and Joshua returned to camp with the second set of Tablets of the Testimony, they found fellow Israelites patiently waiting, which was a far different scene than the one Moses had come upon the first time he had trekked up Mt. Sinai.
Although they were behaving this time around, consequences for their past would carry a heavy toll.
