Golden calf 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) Aaron built an altar before the calf and proclaimed the next day to be a feast to the . 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
Moses (Skoryk) people, which he conceived as having a great potential but weakened by political division. The poem, based on the Moses of the Bible, sees Moses, after forty years leading the Children of Israel in the desert, under attack from a revolt by Dathan and Abiram . Moses leaves the camp to meditate; in his absence the Israelites worship the Golden Calf. In the desert Moses is tempted by an evil spirit, Azazel, and also by the ghost of his mother Jochebed, who seek to get him to renounce God (Jehovah). Jehovah creates a storm in which Moses is swept away.