³ Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey.^(A) But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked^(B) people and I might destroy^(C) you on the way.”

⁹ “Lord,” he said, “if I have found favor^(A) in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us.^(B) Although this is a stiff-necked^(C) people, forgive our wickedness and our sin,^(D) and take us as your inheritance.”^(E)

¹² Then the Lord told me, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt.^(A) They have turned away quickly^(B) from what I commanded them and have made an idol for themselves.”

¹³ And the Lord said to me, “I have seen this people^(C), and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! ¹⁴ Let me alone,^(D) so that I may destroy them and blot out^(E) their name from under heaven.^(F) 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.^{(G) 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.^(H) 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^(I) prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water,^(J) because of all the sin you had committed,^(K) 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.^(L) But again the Lord listened to me.^{(M) 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^(N) and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.^(O)

²² You also made the Lord angry^(P) at Taberah,^(Q) at Massah^(R) and at Kibroth Hattaavah.^(S)

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

²⁵ I lay prostrate before the Lord those forty days and forty nights^(Y) because the Lord had said he would destroy you.^{(Z) 26} I prayed to the Lord and said, “Sovereign Lord, do not destroy your people,^(AA) your own inheritance^(AB) that you redeemed^(AC) by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.^{(AD) 27} Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness^(AE) of this people, their wickedness and their sin. ²⁸ Otherwise, the country^(AF) 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,^(AG) he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’^{(AH) 29} But they are your people,^(AI) your inheritance^(AJ) that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.^(AK)”