14. Leave me alone, and let me destroy them, and let me blot out their name from under heaven, and let me make you into a nation mightier and more numerous than they!’
15. “And I turned, and I went down the mountain, as the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.
16. And I looked, and indeed you had sinned against Yahweh your God; you had made for yourselves an image of a calf of cast metal; you had turned quickly from the way that Yahweh had commanded for you.
17. And I took hold of the two tablets, and I threw them out of my two hands and smashed them before your eyes.
18. And then I lay prostrate before Yahweh, as earlier, forty days and forty nights; I did not eat food and I did not drink water because of all your sins that you committed, by doing evil in the eyes of Yahweh and so provoking him.
19. For I was in dread from being in the presence of the anger and the wrath with which Yahweh was angry with you so as to destroy you, but Yahweh listened to me also at that time.
20. And with Aaron Yahweh was angry enough to destroy him, and I prayed also for Aaron at that time.
21. And your sinful thing that you had made, the molten calf, I took and I burned it with fire, and I crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was crushed to dust, and I threw its dust into the stream that flowed down the mountain.
22. “And also at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked Yahweh to anger.
23. And when Yahweh sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ you rebelled against the command of Yahweh your God, and you did not believe him, and you did not listen to his voice.
24. You have been rebellious toward Yahweh from the day I have known you.
25. “And I lay prostrate before Yahweh through forty days, and through forty nights I prostrated myself, because Yahweh intended to kill you.
26. And I prayed to Yahweh, and I said, ‘Lord Yahweh, you must not destroy your people and your inheritance whom you redeemed in your greatness, whom you brought out from Egypt with a strong hand.
27. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; you must not pay attention to the stubbornness of this people, to their wickedness and to their sin,