Deuteronomy 9:9-18

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.