Israel rejected Moses, so God rejected them and said that he would punish them.

Acts 7:39-43

39 “However, our ancestors did not want to obey Moses. Instead, while he was still on the mountain, they rejected him as their leader and decided that they wanted to return to Egypt. 40 So they told his older brother Aaron, ‘Make idols for us who will be our gods to lead us back to Egypt! As for that fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt we (exc) do not know what has happened to him!’ 41 So, they made out of gold an image that looked like a calf. Then they sacrificed animals and offered other things to honor that idol, and they sang and danced to honor the idol that they themselves had made. 42 So God rejected them. He abandoned them to worship the sun, moon and stars in the sky. This agrees with the words that one of the prophets wrote that God said,

You Israelite people [MTY], when you repeatedly killed animals and offered them as sacrifices during those 40 years that you were in the desert, ◄you most certainly were not offering them to me!/what makes you think that you were offering them to me?► [RHQ] 43 On the contrary, you carried with you from place to place the tent that contained the idol representing the god Molech that you worshipped. You also carried with you the image of the star called Rephan. Those were idols that you had made, and you worshipped them instead of me. So I will cause you to be taken away {people to take you} from your own country. You will be taken {They will take you} far from your homes to regions even farther than Babylon Country.”