Golden calf 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. When Moses went up into Biblical Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments (), 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 (). Aaron gathered
Golden calf collecting the gold, and throwing it into the fire, and said it came out as a calf (). The Bible records that the tribe of Levi did not worship the golden calf. When Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said: 'Whosoever is on the 's side, let him come unto me.' And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them: 'Thus saith the , the God of Israel: Put ye every man his sword upon his thigh, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and