Deuteronomy 9:18-29

181I fell down before the Lord, 2as at the first, forty days and nights; 3I neither ate bread nor drank water, 4because 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 5I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was wrathful against you in order to destroy you, 6but 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. 217I took your 8sinful 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 9Taberah and at 10Massah and at 11Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. 23When the Lord sent you from 12Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘13Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the 14command of the Lord your God; 15you neither believed Him nor listened to His voice. 2416You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you.

25“17So I fell down before the Lord the forty days and nights, which I 18did because the Lord had said He would destroy you. 2619I 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, “20Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which He had 21promised them and because He hated them He has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.” 29Yet they are Your people, even 22Your inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your 23great power and Your outstretched arm.’