The History of Israel’s Stubbornness

9:7 Remember—don’t ever forget9—how you provoked the Lord your God in the desert; from the time you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place you were constantly rebelling against him.10 9:8 At Horeb you provoked him and he was angry enough with you to destroy you. 9:9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained there11 forty days and nights, eating and drinking nothing. 9:10 The Lord gave me the two stone tablets, written by the very finger12 of God, and on them was everything13 he14 said to you at the mountain from the midst of the fire at the time of that assembly. 9:11 Now at the end of the forty days and nights the Lord presented me with the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. 9:12 And he said to me, “Get up, go down at once from here because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have sinned! They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a cast metal image.”15 9:13 Moreover, he said to me, “I have taken note of these people; they are a stubborn16 lot! 9:14 Stand aside17 and I will destroy them, obliterating their very name from memory,18 and I will make you into a stronger and more numerous nation than they are.”

9:15 So I turned and went down the mountain while it19 was blazing with fire; the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. 9:16 When I looked, you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God and had cast for yourselves a metal calf;20 you had quickly turned aside from the way he21 had commanded you! 9:17 I grabbed the two tablets, threw them down,22 and shattered them before your very eyes. 9:18 Then I again fell down before the Lord for forty days and nights; I ate and drank nothing because of all the sin you had committed, doing such evil before the Lord as to enrage him. 9:19 For I was terrified at the Lord’s intense anger23 that threatened to destroy you. But he24 listened to me this time as well. 9:20 The Lord was also angry enough at Aaron to kill him, but at that time I prayed for him25 too. 9:21 As for your sinful thing26 that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down,27 ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain. 9:22 Moreover, you continued to provoke the Lord at Taberah,28 Massah,29 and Kibroth-Hattaavah.30 9:23 And when he31 sent you from Kadesh-Barnea and told you, “Go up and possess the land I have given you,” you rebelled against the Lord your God32 and would neither believe nor obey him. 9:24 You have been rebelling against him33 from the very first day I knew you!