14. Get away. I will destroy them. I will make the whole world forget who they are. Then I will make another nation from you. It will be bigger and stronger than they are.”
15. So I turned and came down the mountain. The mountain was burning with fire. And the two stone tablets with the agreement were in my hands.
16. When I looked, I saw you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made an idol in the shape of a calf. You had quickly turned away from what the Lord had told you to do.
17. So I took the two stone tablets and threw them down. I broke them into pieces right in front of you.
18. Then I again bowed facedown on the ground before the Lord. I did this for 40 days and 40 nights. I did not eat bread or drink water. You had sinned by doing what the Lord said was evil. You made him angry.
19. I was afraid of the Lord’s anger and rage. He was angry enough with you to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me again.
20. And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. But then I prayed for Aaron, too.
21. I took that sinful calf idol you had made. And I burned it in the fire. I crushed it into a powder like dust. And I threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.
22. You also made the Lord angry at Taberah, Massah and Kibroth Hattaavah.
23. Then the Lord sent you away from Kadesh Barnea. He said, “Go up and take the land I have given you.” But you would not obey the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust him or obey him.
24. You have refused to obey the Lord as long as I have known you.
25. The Lord had said he would destroy you. So I threw myself down in front of him for those 40 days and 40 nights.
26. I prayed to the Lord. I said, “Lord God, do not destroy your people. They are your own people. You freed them and brought them out of Egypt by your great power and strength.
27. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Don’t look at how stubborn these people are. Don’t look at their sin and evil.
28. Otherwise, Egypt will say, ‘The Lord was not able to take his people into the land he promised them. He hated them. So he took them into the desert to kill them.’
29. But they are your people, Lord. They are your own people. You brought them out of Egypt with your great power and strength.”