Deuteronomy 9:12-29

121Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, because your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have behaved corruptly. They have 2quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made a cast metal image for themselves.’ 13The 3Lord also said to 4me, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a 56stubborn people. 147Leave Me alone, that I may destroy them and 8wipe out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

15“9So 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 cast metal image of a calf; you had quickly turned aside from the way that the Lord had commanded you. 17So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my two hands, and smashed them to pieces before your eyes! 1810Then I fell down before the Lord 11like the first time, for forty days and nights; 12I neither ate bread nor drank water, 13because of all your sin which you had committed by doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. 19For 14I was afraid of the anger and the rage with which the Lord was angry with you so as to destroy you; 15but the Lord listened to me that time as well. 20The Lord was also angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. 2116And I took your 17sinful thing which you had made, the calf, and burned it in the fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.

22“Then at 18Taberah, at 19Massah, and at 20Kibroth-hattaavah you kept provoking the Lord to anger. 23And when the Lord sent you from 21Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘22Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you,’ you rebelled against the 23command of the Lord your God; 24you neither trusted Him nor listened to His voice. 2425You have been rebellious toward the Lord since the day I knew you.

25“26So I fell down before the Lord for the forty days and nights, which I 27did because the Lord said He would destroy you. 2628And I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Lord God, do not destroy Your people, 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 turn Your attention to the stubbornness of this people, or to their wickedness, or their sin. 28Otherwise, the people of the land from which You brought us will say, “29Since the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which He had 30promised them, and since He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness!” 29Yet they are Your people, and 31Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your 32great power and Your outstretched arm.’