This is the beginning of the scenes that reveal the problems caused by the Children of Israel when they went out Egypt with Prophet Moses (swt) after being followed by Pharao and his soldiers, who were drowned in the sea, as aforementioned. The first anguish and disappointment caused by the Children of Israel is:

( و وَجَاوَزْنَا بِبَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ الْبَحْرَ فَأَتَوْا عَلَىٰ قَوْمٍ يَعْكُفُونَ عَلَىٰ أَصْنَامٍ لَّهُمْ ) (And We took the Children of Israel across the sea; then they came upon a people intent in devotion to [some] idols of theirs): As soon as they came to the shore, they passed by people who devoted themselves to worshipping their idols and kept vigil with them.

( قَالُوا يَا مُوسَى اجْعَل لَّنَا إِلَٰهًا كَمَا لَهُمْ آلِهَةٌ ) (They said, “O Moses, make for us a god just as they have gods.”): They uttered these words despite all the blessings of Allah (swt); saving them from Pharaoh and his soldiers by drowning them, splitting the sea by the staff of Prophet Moses (PBUH), which was a glorious miracle. They wanted to make a god by a thing which is made, even though Allah by His Perfection and Omnipotent Power, is the One Who creates all things.

( قَالَ إِنَّكُمْ قَوْمٌ تَجْهَلُونَ ) (He said, “Indeed, you are a people behaving ignorantly): The Prophet (PBUH) did not say to them: (You do not know), but rather he called them ignorant. There is a difference between being uninformed and being ignorant; or between illiteracy and ignorance. An illiterate person does not have information but would accept it gladly when it is given to him. While an ignorant person has a wrong idea about something and he holds on tight to it. As for the ignorant person, two intellectual processes are needed: the first one is to remove the wrong idea from his head, the second is to convince him with the correct information, which is the more difficult task. This is the difference between an illiterate or an ignorant person. Prophet Moses (PBUH) here used the exact description.