³⁰ The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin.^(A) But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement^(B) for your sin.”

³¹ So Moses went back to the Lord and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed!^(C) They have made themselves gods of gold.^{(D) 32} But now, please forgive their sin^(E)—but if not, then blot me^(F) out of the book^(G) you have written.”

²⁵ I lay prostrate before the Lord those forty days and forty nights^(A) because the Lord had said he would destroy you.^{(B) 26} I prayed to the Lord and said, “Sovereign Lord, do not destroy your people,^(C) your own inheritance^(D) that you redeemed^(E) by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.^{(F) 27} Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness^(G) of this people, their wickedness and their sin. ²⁸ Otherwise, the country^(H) 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,^(I) he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’^(J)

¹⁰ Now I had stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I did the first time, and the Lord listened to me at this time also. It was not his will to destroy you.^(A)