17. So I threw down the two stones and smashed them before your very eyes.
18-20. I bowed down at the place of worship and prayed to the Lord, without eating or drinking for forty days and nights. You had committed a terrible sin by making that idol, and the Lord hated what you had done. He was angry enough to destroy all of you and Aaron as well. So I prayed for you and Aaron as I had done before, and this time the Lord answered my prayers.
21. It was a sin for you to make that idol, so I threw it into the fire to melt it down. Then I took the lump of gold, ground it into powder, and threw the powder into the stream flowing down the mountain.
22. You also made the Lord angry when you were staying at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-Hattaavah.
23. Then at Kadesh-Barnea the Lord said, “I am giving you the land, so go ahead and take it!” But since you didn't trust the Lord, you rebelled and disobeyed his command.
24. In fact, you've rebelled against the Lord for as long as he has known you.
25. After you had made the idol in the shape of a calf, the Lord said he was going to destroy you. So I bowed down in front of the sacred tent for forty days and nights,
26. and I prayed:Our Lord, please don't wipe out your people. You used your great power to rescue them from Egypt and to make them your very own.
27. Israel's ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob obeyed you faithfully. Think about them, and not about Israel's stubbornness, evil, and sin.
28. If you destroy your people, the Egyptians will say, “The Lord promised to give Israel land, but he wasn't powerful enough to keep his promise. In fact, he hated them so much that he took them into the desert and killed them.”
29. But you, our Lord, chose the people of Israel to be your own, and with your mighty power you rescued them from Egypt.