²³ And when the Lord sent you out from Kadesh Barnea,^(A) he said, “Go up and take possession^(B) of the land I have given you.” But you rebelled^(C) against the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust^(D) him or obey him. ²⁴ You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you.^(E)

²⁵ I lay prostrate before the Lord those forty days and forty nights^(F) because the Lord had said he would destroy you.^{(G) 26} I prayed to the Lord and said, “Sovereign Lord, do not destroy your people,^(H) your own inheritance^(I) that you redeemed^(J) by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.^{(K) 27} Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness^(L) of this people, their wickedness and their sin. ²⁸ Otherwise, the country^(M) from which you brought us will say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to take them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them,^(N) he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’^{(O) 29} But they are your people,^(P) your inheritance^(Q) that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.^(R)”

Tablets Like the First Ones

10 At that time the Lord said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets^(S) like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark.^{[a] 2} I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the ark.”^(T)

³ So I made the ark out of acacia wood^(U) and chiseled^(V) out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. ⁴ The Lord wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments^(W) he had proclaimed^(X) to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.^(Y) And the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I came back down the mountain^(Z) and put the tablets in the ark^(AA) I had made,^(AB) as the Lord commanded me, and they are there now.^(AC)