وَٱتَّخَذَ قَوْمُ مُوسَىٰ مِنۢ بَعْدِهِۦ مِنْ حُلِيِّهِمْ عِجْلًا جَسَدًا لَّهُۥ خُوَارٌ ۚ أَلَمْ يَرَوْا۟ أَنَّهُۥ لَا يُكَلِّمُهُمْ وَلَا يَهْدِيهِمْ سَبِيلًا ۘ ٱتَّخَذُوهُ وَكَانُوا۟ ظَـٰلِمِينَ
Wattakhaza qawmu Moosaa mim ba'dihee min huliyyihim 'ijlan jasadal lahoo khuwaar; alam yaraw annahoo laa yukallimuhum wa laa yahdeehim sabeelaa; ittakha zoohu wa kaanoo zaalimeen
I przygotował sobie lud Mojżesza - pod jego nieobecność Â ze swoich ozdób cielca, jakby prawdziwego, który pobekiwał . Czy oni nie widzieli, że ten cielec nie mówił z nimi ani też nie prowadził ich drogą prostą? Oni wzięli go sobie i byli niesprawiedliwi .
After Musa had gone, his people took for themselves, out of their ornaments, a calf — a body that lowed. Did they not see that it could not speak to them or guide them on any path? They took it up, and they were wrongdoers.
Three verses earlier the tablets are described as an admonition and a detailing of every matter, one thing that speaks and one that directs, and the calf is measured here against exactly those two. Khuwār is the particular word for a bull's low, so what the crowd took for a voice was an animal noise. The metal was their own jewellery, which means the god was assembled out of what they already owned.