Deuteronomy 9:9-10:5

English Standard Version

^9 (A)When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain ^(B)forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰ And ^(C)the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire ^(D)on the day of the assembly. ¹¹ And at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. ¹² Then the Lord said to me, ^(E)‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have ^(F)turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’

The Golden Calf

^13 (G)“Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is ^(H)a stubborn people. ^14 (I)Let me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(J)blot out their name from under heaven. And ^(K)I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ ^15 (L)So I turned and came down from the mountain, and ^(M)the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And ^(N)I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden^[a] calf. ^(O)You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸ Then I ^(P)lay prostrate before the Lord ^(Q)as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, ^(R)in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. ¹⁹ For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. ^(S)But the Lord listened to me that time also. ²⁰ And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. ²¹ Then ^(T)I took the sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain.

²² “At ^(U)Taberah also, and at ^(V)Massah and at ^(W)Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. ²³ And ^(X)when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and ^(Y)did not believe him or obey his voice. ^24 (Z)You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.

^25 (AA)“So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. ^26 (AB)And I prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷ Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, ²⁸ lest the land from which you brought us say, ^(AC)“Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.” ^29 (AD)For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’

New Tablets of Stone

10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ^(AE)‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and ^(AF)make an ark of wood. ² And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and ^(AG)you shall put them in the ark.’ ³ So I made an ark ^(AH)of acacia wood, and ^(AI)cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ And ^(AJ)he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments^{[b] (AK)}that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire ^(AL)on the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and ^(AM)came down from the mountain and ^(AN)put the tablets in the ark that I had made. ^(AO)And there they are, as the Lord commanded me.”