"The word 'Elohim', which is one of the most frequently used terms for God in the Torah and in contemporary Hebrew, is a curious word in that it functions both as a singular and a plural word. It is clearly not God's name, which we know to be spelled with the four Hebrew letters (hence the Tetragrammaton, represented in English by YHWH). Rather, Elohim, like the English 'God', is apparently God's job description. And when it appears in a singular context (e.g., the first three words of the Torah, Bere**** bara Elohim, 'In the beginning God created'), it clearly refers to the one true God. But every now and then the exact same word appears in a plural context, in which case it does not refer to God, but rather to other (false) gods or idols.
One such instance happens in Parashat Ki Tissa, when, following Moshe’s tardiness in descending from Mt. Sinai, the Israelites, recently freed from Egypt, request gods: 'Kum, aseh lanu elohim asher yelekhu lefaneinu' (Ex. 32:1). 'Come, make us gods who shall go before us,' they say, although many translations render that elohim incorrectly in the singular (e.g. JPS: 'Come, make us a god who shall go before us'). But the plural verb yelekhu ( 'who shall go') is a dead giveaway in Hebrew."
Exodus 30:11 – 34:35
jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com