Deuteronomy 9:12-29

121Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have 2quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves.’ 13The 3Lord spoke further to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a 45stubborn people. 146Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and 7blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

15“8So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. 17I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and smashed them before your eyes. 189I fell down before the Lord, 10as at the first, forty days and nights; 11I neither ate bread nor drank water, 12because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger. 19For 13I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was wrathful against you in order to destroy you, 14but the Lord listened to me that time also. 20The Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. 2115I took your 16sinful thing, the calf which 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 its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain.

22“Again at 17Taberah and at 18Massah and at 19Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. 23When the Lord sent you from 20Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘21Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the 22command of the Lord your God; 23you neither believed Him nor listened to His voice. 2424You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you.

25“25So I fell down before the Lord the forty days and nights, which I 26did because the Lord had said He would destroy you. 2627I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness or their sin. 28Otherwise the land from which You brought us may say, “28Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which He had 29promised them and because He hated them He has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.” 29Yet they are Your people, even 30Your inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your 31great power and Your outstretched arm.’