Study Desk

"^(C1)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.

"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.

"So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my two hands, and smashed them to pieces before your eyes!

"^(C1)Then I fell down before the LORD ^(C2)like the first time, for forty days and nights; ^(C3)I neither ate bread nor drank water, ^(C4)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.

"For ^(C1)I was afraid of the anger and the rage with which the LORD was angry with you so as to destroy you; ^(C2)but the LORD listened to me that time as well.

"The LORD was also angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time.

"^(C1)And I took your ^(F1)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.

"Then at ^(C1)Taberah, at ^(C2)Massah, and at ^(C3)Kibroth-hattaavah you kept provoking the LORD to anger.

"And when the LORD sent you from ^(C1)Kadesh-barnea, saying, '^(C2)Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you,' you rebelled against the ^(F1)command of the LORD your God; ^(C3)you neither trusted Him nor listened to His voice.

"^(C1)You have been rebellious toward the LORD since the day I knew you.

"^(C1)So I fell down before the LORD for the forty days and nights, which I ^(F1)did because the LORD said He would destroy you.

"^(C1)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!

'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.

'Otherwise, the people of the land from which You brought us will say, "^(C1)Since the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which He had ^(F1)promised them, and since He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness!"

'Yet they are Your people, and ^(C1)Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your ^(C2)great power and Your outstretched arm.'