Deuteronomy 9:13–26

13 And the Lord said to me, “I have seen this peoplen, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! 14 Let me alone,o so that I may destroy them and blot outp their name from under heaven.q And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.”

15 So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.r 16 When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf.s You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. 17 So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.

18 Then once again I fellt prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water,u because of all the sin you had committed,v doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and so arousing his anger. 19 I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you.w But again the Lord listened to me.x 20 And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too. 21 Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dusty and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.z

22 You also made the Lord angrya at Taberah,b at Massahc and at Kibroth Hattaavah.d

23 And when the Lord sent you out from Kadesh Barnea,e he said, “Go up and take possessionf of the land I have given you.” But you rebelledg against the command of the Lord your God. You did not trusth him or obey him. 24 You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you.i

25 I lay prostrate before the Lord those forty days and forty nightsj because the Lord had said he would destroy you.k 26 I prayed to the Lord and said, “Sovereign Lord, do not destroy your people,l your own inheritancem that you redeemedn by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.o