¹² Now the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and ^[a]stay there, and ^(A)I will give you the stone tablets ^[b]with the Law and the ^[c]commandments which I have written for their instruction.”

Moses’ Face Shines

²⁹ And it came about, when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the ^(A)two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that ^(B)the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him.

¹³ So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, ^(A)the Ten ^[a]Commandments; and ^(B)He wrote them on two tablets of stone.

Moses Interceded

²² “These words the Lord spoke to your whole assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire, from the cloud, and from the thick darkness, with a great voice, and He added nothing more. ^(A)He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

¹⁰ The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone ^(A)written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. ¹¹ It came about ^(B)at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. ^12 (C)Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, because your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have behaved corruptly. They have ^(D)quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made a cast metal image for themselves.’ ¹³ The ^(E)Lord also said to ^[a]me, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a ^[b](F)stubborn people. ^14 (G)Leave Me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(H)wipe out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

¹⁵ “^(I)So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a cast metal image of a calf; you had quickly turned aside from the way that the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my two hands, and smashed them to pieces before your eyes! ^18 (J)Then I fell down before the Lord ^(K)like the first time, for forty days and nights; ^(L)I neither ate bread nor drank water, ^(M)because of all your sin which you had committed by doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. ¹⁹ For ^(N)I was afraid of the anger and the rage with which the Lord was angry with you so as to destroy you; ^(O)but the Lord listened to me that time as well. ²⁰ The Lord was also angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. ^21 (P)And I took your ^[c]sinful thing which you had made, the calf, and burned it in the fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.

²² “Then at ^(Q)Taberah, at ^(R)Massah, and at ^(S)Kibroth-hattaavah you kept provoking the Lord to anger. ²³ And when the Lord sent you from ^(T)Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘^(U)Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you,’ you rebelled against the ^[d]command of the Lord your God; ^(V)you neither trusted Him nor listened to His voice. ^24 (W)You have been rebellious toward the Lord since the day I knew you.

²⁵ “^(X)So I fell down before the Lord for the forty days and nights, which I ^[e]did because the Lord said He would destroy you. ^26 (Y)And I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Lord God, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand! ²⁷ Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not turn Your attention to the stubbornness of this people, or to their wickedness, or their sin. ²⁸ Otherwise, the people of the land from which You brought us will say, “^(Z)Since the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which He had ^[f]promised them, and since He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness!” ²⁹ Yet they are Your people, and ^(AA)Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your ^(AB)great power and Your outstretched arm.’