14. Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they.’
15. “So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire. Now the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.
16. When I looked, you had indeed sinned against Adonai your God—you had made yourselves a metal calf. So quickly you had turned aside from the way Adonai had commanded you!
17. So I took hold of the two tablets, threw them out of my two hands, and smashed them before your eyes.
18. “Then I fell down before Adonai like the first time, for 40 days and 40 nights. I did not eat bread or drink water—because of all your sin that you committed, doing evil in Adonai’s sight, provoking Him to anger.
19. For I was afraid of the fierce wrath and fury which Adonai bore toward you—to destroy you. But Adonai listened to me that time also.
20. Adonai was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.
21. I took your sin—the calf you had made—and burned it in the fire. I crushed it, grinding it up so well that it was as fine as dust, and I threw its dust into the wadi flowing down from the mountain.
22. “Again at Taberah and Massah and Kibroth-hattaavah, you provoked Adonai to wrath.