A traveler writes: "We started to descend by the gorge on the northeast side of the mountain (Jethro's Path), by which possibly Moses may have descended when he heard the sounds of the camp before he could see what was taking place there. We were completely shut in by the sides of the gorge until just as we emerged near the bottom. There was no sound below for us to hear, but we could readily accept Mr. Palmeston's statement that he had distinctly heard the sounds of his own camp at the foot of the mountain which was entirely hidden from view. If the worship of the golden calf be supposed to have taken place anywhere in the neighborhood of the hill of Aaron this circumstance would be in striking conformity with the several other facts which singularly adapt this place to be the scene of the lawgiving."

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And the Lord spoke unto Moses, "Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed unto it, and said, 'These are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.'"

And the Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may grow hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation."

And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, "Lord, why doth thy wrath grow hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, saying, 'For evil did he bring them forth, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, 'I will multiply your family as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your family, and they shall inherit it for ever.'"

And the Lord repented of the evil which he said he would do unto his people.

And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, with the two tables of the testimony in his hand; tables that were written on both sides; on the one side and on [{208}] the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.

And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is a noise of war in the camp."

And he said, "It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear."