¹² I will strike them down with a plague^(A) and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation^(B) greater and stronger than they.”^(C)

¹³ Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them.^{(D) 14} And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard^(E) that you, Lord, are with these people^(F) and that you, Lord, have been seen face to face,^(G) that your cloud stays over them,^(H) and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.^{(I) 15} If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, ¹⁶ ‘The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath,^(J) so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’^(K)

¹⁷ “Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: ¹⁸ ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.^(L) Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’^{(M) 19} In accordance with your great love, forgive^(N) the sin of these people,^(O) just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.”^(P)

²⁰ The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them,^(Q) as you asked.

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

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

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

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