<P> According to the Bible, the golden calf (עֵגֶּל הַזָהָב' ēggel hazāhāv) was an idol (a cult image) made by the Israelites during Moses' absence, when he went up to Mount Sinai . In Hebrew, the incident is known as ḥēṭ' ha'ēggel (חֵטְא הַעֵגֶּל) or "The Sin of the Calf". It is first mentioned in Exodus 32: 4 . </P> <P> Bull worship was common in many cultures . In Egypt, whence according to the Exodus narrative the Hebrews had recently come, the Apis Bull was a comparable object of worship, which some believe the Hebrews were reviving in the wilderness; alternatively, some believe the God of Israel was associated with or pictured as a calf / bull deity through the process of religious assimilation and syncretism . Among the Egyptians' and Hebrews' neighbors in the ancient Near East and in the Aegean, the Aurochs, the wild bull, was widely worshipped, often as the Lunar Bull and as the creature of El . </P> <P> When Moses went up into Biblical Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments (Exodus 24: 12 - 18), he left the Israelites for forty days and forty nights . The Israelites feared that he would not return and demanded that Aaron make them "gods" to go before them (Exodus 32: 1). Aaron gathered up the Israelites' golden earrings and ornaments, constructed a "molten calf" and they declared: "These (be) thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt ." (Exodus 32: 4) </P> <P> Aaron built an altar before the calf and proclaimed the next day to be a feast to the LORD . So they rose up early the next day and "offered burnt - offerings, and brought peace - offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play ." (Exodus 32: 6) God told Moses what the Israelites were up to back in camp, that they had turned aside quickly out of the way which God commanded them and he was going to destroy them and start a new people from Moses . Moses besought and pleaded that they should be spared (Exodus 32: 11 - 14), and God "repented of the evil which He said He would do unto His people ." </P>

Who made the golden calf in the bible