¹³ Furthermore, the Lord also said to me, “I have observed this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. ¹⁴ Leave me alone, so I can destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens. I will make you a greater and more numerous nation than they are.”

¹⁵ So I turned and climbed down the mountain that was blazing with fire, carrying the two tablets of the covenant in my two hands.