7. Here is something you must remember. Never forget it. You made the Lord your God angry in the desert. You refused to obey him from the day you left Egypt until you arrived here.
8. At Mount Horeb you made the Lord angry enough to destroy you.
9. I went up the mountain. I went there to receive the tablets of the covenant. They were made out of stone. It was the covenant the Lord had made with you. I stayed on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. I didn't eat any food or drink any water.
10. The Lord gave me two stone tablets. The words on them were written by the finger of God. All of the commandments the Lord gave you were written on the tablets. He announced them to you out of the fire on the mountain. He wrote them on the day you gathered together there.
11. The 40 days and 40 nights came to an end. Then the Lord gave me the two stone tablets. They were the tablets of the covenant.
12. The Lord told me, "Go down from here right away. The people you brought out of Egypt have become very sinful. They have quickly turned away from what I commanded them. They have made a metal statue of a god for themselves."
13. The Lord said to me, "I have seen these people. They are so stubborn!
14. Do not try to stop me. I am going to destroy them. I will wipe them out from the earth. Then I will make you into a great nation. Your people will be stronger than they were. There will be more of you than there were of them."
15. So I turned and went down the mountain. It was blazing with fire. I was carrying the two tablets of the covenant.
16. When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a metal statue of a god. It looked like a calf. You had quickly turned away from the path the Lord had commanded you to follow.