40 They told Aaron, “Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt – we don’t know what has happened to him!”
41 That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and revelled in what their own hands had made.
42 But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:‘ “Did you bring me sacrifices and offeringsfor forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?
43 You have taken up the tabernacle of Molekand the star of your god Rephan,the idols you made to worship.Therefore I will send you into exile” beyond Babylon.
44 ‘Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.
45 After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David,
46 who enjoyed God’s favour and asked that he might provide a dwelling-place for the God of Jacob.