Deuteronomy 9:16-19

Good News Translation

¹⁶ I saw that you had already disobeyed the command that the Lord your God had given you, and that you had sinned against him by making yourselves a metal idol in the form of a bull-calf. ¹⁷ So there in front of you I threw the stone tablets down and broke them to pieces. ¹⁸ Then once again I lay face downward in the Lord's presence for forty days and nights and did not eat or drink anything. I did this because you had sinned against the Lord and had made him angry. ^19 (A)I was afraid of the Lord's fierce anger, because he was furious enough to destroy you; but once again the Lord listened to me.