Deuteronomy 9:7-24

Expanded Bible

Remember the Lord’s Anger

⁷ Remember this and do not forget it: You made the Lord your God angry in the ·desert [wilderness]. You ·would not obey [rebelled against] the Lord from the day you left Egypt until you arrived here. ⁸ At ·Mount Sinai [^LHoreb; 1:6] you made the Lord angry—angry enough to destroy you [Ex. 32]. ⁹ When I went up on the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets with the ·Agreement [Covenant; Treaty] the Lord had ·made [^Lcut] with you, I stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights; I did not eat bread or drink water. ¹⁰ The Lord gave me two stone tablets, which God had written on with his own finger [^Cthe Ten Commandments; Ex. 20:2–17; 31:18]. On them were all the commands that the Lord gave to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day ·you were gathered there [of the assembly].

¹¹ When the forty days and forty nights were over, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets with the ·Agreement [Covenant; Treaty] on them. ¹² Then the Lord told me, “Get up and go down quickly from here, because the people you brought out from Egypt are ·ruining [corrupting] themselves. They have quickly turned away from ·what [^Lthe way] I commanded and have made an idol for themselves [^Ca golden calf; Ex. 32:3–4].”

¹³ The Lord said to me, “I have watched these people, and they are very ·stubborn [^Lstiff-necked]! ¹⁴ Get away so that I may destroy them and ·make the whole world forget who they are [^Lblot off their name from under heaven]. Then I will make another nation from you that will be bigger and stronger than they are.”

¹⁵ So I turned and came down the mountain that was burning with fire, and the two stone tablets with the ·Agreement [Covenant; Treaty] were in my hands. ¹⁶ When I looked, I saw you had sinned against the Lord your God and had made an idol in the shape of a calf. You had quickly turned away from ·what [^Lthe way] the Lord had ·told [commanded] you to do. ¹⁷ So I took the two stone tablets and threw them down, breaking them into pieces ·right in front of you [^Lbefore your eyes; Ex. 32:19].

¹⁸ Then I ·again [as before/formerly] bowed facedown on the ground before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I did not eat bread or drink water. You had sinned by doing what the Lord said was evil, and you made him angry. ¹⁹ I was afraid of the Lord’s anger and rage, because he was angry enough with you to destroy you, but the Lord listened to me ·again [^Lat that time]. ²⁰ And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but then I prayed for Aaron, too. ²¹ I took that sinful calf idol you had made and burned it in the fire. I crushed it into a powder like dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain [Ex. 32:20].

²² You also made the Lord angry at Taberah [Num. 11:3], Massah [Ex. 17:7], and Kibroth Hattaavah [Num. 11:34].

²³ Then the Lord sent you away from Kadesh Barnea and said, “Go up and ·take [possess] the land I have given you.” But you ·rejected [rebelled against] the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust him or ·obey him [^Llisten to his voice; Num. 13–14]. ²⁴ You have ·refused to obey [rebelled against] the Lord as long as I have^[a] known you.