⁷The Lord spoke to Moses. He said, “Go down. Your people you brought up out of Egypt have become very sinful. ⁸They have quickly turned away from what I commanded them. They have made themselves a statue of a god that looks like a calf. They have bowed down and sacrificed to it. And they have said, ‘Israel, here is your god who brought you up out of Egypt.’

⁹“I have seen those people,” the Lord said to Moses. “They are stubborn. ¹⁰Now leave me alone. My anger will burn against them. I will destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

¹¹But Moses asked the Lord his God to show favor to the people. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people? You used your great power and mighty hand to bring them out of Egypt. ¹²Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out to hurt them. He wanted to kill them in the mountains. He wanted to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn away from your burning anger. Please take pity on your people. Don’t destroy them!

¹³“Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel. You made a promise. You took an oath in your name. You said, ‘I will make your children after you as many as the stars in the sky. I will give them all of this land I promised them. It will belong to them forever.’ ”

¹⁴Then the Lord took pity on his people. He didn’t destroy them as he had said he would.

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