12 Then the Lord said to me, n‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have oturned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’

The Golden Calf

13 p“Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is ga stubborn people. 14 qLet me alone, that I may destroy them and rblot out their name from under heaven. And sI will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ 15 tSo I turned and came down from the mountain, and uthe mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 And vI looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden1 calf. wYou had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. 17 So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. 18 Then I xlay prostrate before the Lord yas before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, zin doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. aBut the Lord listened to me that time also. 20 And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21 Then bI took the sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain.

22 “At cTaberah also, and at dMassah and at eKibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. 23 And fwhen the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and gdid not believe him or obey his voice. 24 hYou have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.

25 x“So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. 26 iAnd I prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, 28 lest the land from which you brought us say, j“Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.” 29 kFor they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’