⁶ Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.^(A)

The Golden Calf

⁷ Remember this and never forget how you aroused the anger^(B) of the Lord your God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious^(C) against the Lord.^{(D) 8} At Horeb you aroused the Lord’s wrath^(E) so that he was angry enough to destroy you.^{(F) 9} When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant^(G) that the Lord had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days^(H) and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water.^{(I) 10} The Lord gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God.^(J) On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.^(K)

¹¹ At the end of the forty days and forty nights,^(L) the Lord gave me the two stone tablets,^(M) the tablets of the covenant. ¹² Then the Lord told me, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt.^(N) They have turned away quickly^(O) from what I commanded them and have made an idol for themselves.”

¹³ And the Lord said to me, “I have seen this people^(P), and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! ¹⁴ Let me alone,^(Q) so that I may destroy them and blot out^(R) their name from under heaven.^(S) And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.”

¹⁵ So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.^{(T) 16} When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf.^(U) You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.

¹⁸ Then once again I fell^(V) prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water,^(W) because of all the sin you had committed,^(X) doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and so arousing his anger. ¹⁹ I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you.^(Y) But again the Lord listened to me.^{(Z) 20} And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too. ²¹ Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust^(AA) and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.^(AB)

²² You also made the Lord angry^(AC) at Taberah,^(AD) at Massah^(AE) and at Kibroth Hattaavah.^(AF)

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

²⁵ I lay prostrate before the Lord those forty days and forty nights^(AL) because the Lord had said he would destroy you.^{(AM) 26} I prayed to the Lord and said, “Sovereign Lord, do not destroy your people,^(AN) your own inheritance^(AO) that you redeemed^(AP) by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.^{(AQ) 27} Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness^(AR) of this people, their wickedness and their sin. ²⁸ Otherwise, the country^(AS) 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,^(AT) he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’^{(AU) 29} But they are your people,^(AV) your inheritance^(AW) that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.^(AX)”