^3 (A)Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; ^(B)but I will not go up among you, ^(C)lest I consume you on the way, for you are a ^(D)stiff-necked people.”

⁹ And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, ^(A)it is a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰ Now therefore ^(B)let me alone, that ^(C)my wrath may burn hot against them and ^(D)I may consume them, in order that ^(E)I may make a great nation of you.”

⁸ and ^(A)I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and ^(B)to bring them up out of that land to a ^(C)good and broad land, a land ^(D)flowing with milk and honey, to the place of ^(E)the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

⁶ “Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are ^(A)a stubborn people. ⁷ Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. ^(B)From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ Even ^(C)at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. ^9 (D)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 ^(E)forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰ And ^(F)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 ^(G)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, ^(H)‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have ^(I)turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’

The Golden Calf

^13 (J)“Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is ^(K)a stubborn people.

¹⁵ And he said to him, ^(A)“If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. ¹⁶ For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? ^(B)Is it not in your going with us, ^(C)so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

¹⁷ And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, ^(D)for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”

^51 (A)“You stiff-necked people, ^(B)uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. ^(C)As your fathers did, so do you.

¹³ Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet ^(A)if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die. ¹⁴ Again, ^(B)though I say to the wicked, ^(C)‘You shall surely die,’ yet ^(D)if he turns from his sin and does what is just and right, ¹⁵ if the wicked ^(E)restores the pledge, ^(F)gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks ^(G)in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die. ^16 (H)None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he shall surely live.

^5 (A)that I may confirm the oath that I swore to your fathers, ^(B)to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day.” Then I answered, “So be it, Lord.”