9. The Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people.
10. Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation."
11. Then Moses entreated the Lord his God, and said, "O Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
12. Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, 'With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth'? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people.
13. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, 'I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'"
14. So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.
15. Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets which were written on both sides; they were written on one side and the other.
16. The tablets were God's work, and the writing was God's writing engraved on the tablets.
17. Now when Joshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is a sound of war in the camp."
18. But he said, "It is not the sound of the cry of triumph, Nor is it the sound of the cry of defeat; But the sound of singing I hear."
19. It came about, as soon as Moses came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing; and Moses' anger burned, and he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.
20. He took the calf which they had made and burned it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it over the surface of the water and made the sons of Israel drink it.
21. Then Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you, that you have brought such great sin upon them?"
22. Aaron said, "Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, that they are prone to evil.
23. For they said to me, 'Make a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'