The wrath of the Lord, appeased by Moses, is now turned against Moses himself. When he sees the fault his people committed, he throws down the tablets of the Covenant and breaks them at the foot of the mountain (19). He also destroys the golden calf, burns it, and makes the people drink its ashes mixed with water (20). The punishment is carried out by those loyal to Moses: the Levites, who apparently were not corrupted by the worship of the calf (27f); through executing the death penalty, they are consecrated and blessed (29). It is important to remember that the symbols used are meant to convey ideas. We should not interpret the passage literally, as doing so ruins the symbolic meaning and, above all, distorts the theological message it held then and can hold for us today, which is: loyalty to the God of liberation and life requires a complete rejection of anything that opposes the divine plan. When people worship other gods or pursue other projects, they are heading straight toward destruction.