The people were frightened, and ran and hid themselves. But the trumpet sounded, and God descended upon the mountain.
And a voice called to Moses: "Again say to the people that they shall not come up into the mountain. But thou, and Aaron with thee, come thou up into the mountain."
And Moses and Aaron obeyed. And there, upon the mountain top, they beheld the glory of God, like a great cloud of glory.
Then Moses and Aaron went down into the valley to tell the people what they had seen. And when they had told the people, Moses went back into the mountain; for God had told him to come there alone, that he might tell him how to guide the great multitude that had been given to his charge.
[Illustration: MOSES BREAKING THE TABLETS OF THE LAW.]
It was from Mt. Sinai that God gave to Moses the tablets upon which were written the Ten Commandments; for Moses was in the mountain forty days and forty nights, listening to the words that God spoke to him.
And when so many days had gone by and Moses did not return, then the people began to be frightened.
"Moses has gone away and left us," they wailed, "and we have no gods to guide us. Let us make a golden calf and set it up before us that we may worship it." And so they built an altar, and placed the golden calf upon it, and held a great feast.
They were in the midst of their feast when Moses came down from the mountain, the tablets in his hands.
"What is this?" he thundered, as he drew near and heard the music and saw the dancing and the feasting.
The people were frightened. Some of them ran to hide; and so angry was Moses that he hurled the tablets of stone from him and broke them in pieces.
"Why didst thou allow this thing to be done?" asked Moses of Aaron.
"The people gave me their gold to melt, and it came out from the fire a golden calf," answered Aaron weakly.
Then Moses took the calf and ground it to powder; and the 3,000 idolatrous men among them he commanded to be slain.
Then Moses went again up into the mountain, and again wrote the ten commandments upon tablets of stone, and again carried them to the people.
And now that the children of Israel might have a place for worship, the Lord commanded that the people should make a tabernacle, and that in it should be kept the sacred tablets.