On the next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a grave sin. Now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I may be able to make atonement for your sin.”

So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Ah, this people has committed a grave sin in making a god of gold for themselves!"

"Now if you would only forgive their sin! But if you will not, then blot me out of the book that you have written.”

The Lord answered Moses: Only the one who has sinned against me will I blot out of my book.

Now, go and lead the people where I have told you. See, my angel will go before you. When it is time for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.

Thus the Lord struck the people for making the calf, the one that Aaron made.

The Lord spoke to Moses: Go! You and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt are to go up from here to the land about which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: I will give it to your descendants.

Driving out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, I will send an angel before you to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I myself will not go up in your company, because you are a stiff-necked people; otherwise I might consume you on the way.

When the people heard this painful news, they mourned, and no one wore any ornaments.

The Lord spoke to Moses: Speak to the Israelites: You are a stiff-necked people. Were I to go up in your company even for a moment, I would destroy you. Now off with your ornaments! Let me think what to do with you.

So, from Mount Horeb onward, the Israelites stripped off their ornaments.