Deuteronomy 9:13-21

English Standard Version

The Golden Calf

¹³^(A)“Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is ^(B)a stubborn people. ¹⁴^(C)Let me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(D)blot out their name from under heaven. And ^(E)I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ ¹⁵^(F)So I turned and came down from the mountain, and ^(G)the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶And ^(H)I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden^[a] calf. ^(I)You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸Then I ^(J)lay prostrate before the Lord ^(K)as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, ^(L)in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. ¹⁹For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. ^(M)But the Lord listened to me that time also. ²⁰And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. ²¹Then ^(N)I took the sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain.