11 But Moses sought the favorp of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?q 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’?r Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disasters on your people. 13 Remembert your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self:u ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the starsv in the sky and I will give your descendants all this landw I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’ ” 14 Then the Lord relentedx and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

15 Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant lawy in his hands.z They were inscribeda on both sides, front and back. 16 The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.b

17 When Joshuac heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is the sound of war in the camp.”

18 Moses replied:

“It is not the sound of victory,

it is not the sound of defeat;

it is the sound of singing that I hear.”