For they said to me, ‘Make us gods, which shall go before us.
As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’ I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them take it off.’ So they gave it to me; and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
When Moses saw that the people were out of control, (for Aaron had let them lose control, causing derision among their enemies),