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Then the Lord said to Moses: “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.

They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a molten calf; they have bowed down before it and sacrificed to it and said: ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt.’”

And the Lord said to Moses:

“I see that these people are stiff-necked.

Now, just leave me that my anger may blaze against them. I will destroy them, but of you, I will make a great nation.”

But Moses implored the Lord, his God, saying:

“Why, O Lord, should your anger burst against your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with a mighty hand?

Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the promise you yourself swore: I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land I spoke about I will give to them as an everlasting inheritance.”

The Lord then changed his mind and would not yet harm his people.

 

Punishment