Deuteronomy 9:12

9:12 And he said to me, “Get up, go down at once from here because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have sinned! They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a cast metal image.” ¹ 

Deuteronomy 10:10

10:10 As for me, I stayed at the mountain as I did the first time, forty days and nights. The Lord listened to me that time as well and decided not to destroy you.

Deuteronomy 20:19-20

20:19 If you besiege a city for a long time while attempting to capture it, ²  you must not chop down its trees, ³  for you may eat fruit ⁴  from them and should not cut them down. A tree in the field is not human that you should besiege it! ⁵  20:20 However, you may chop down any tree you know is not suitable for food, ⁶  and you may use it to build siege works ⁷  against the city that is making war with you until that city falls.

[9:12]  ¹ tc Heb “a casting.” The MT reads מַסֵּכָה (massekhah, “a cast thing”) but some mss and Smr add עֵגֶל (’egel, “calf”), “a molten calf” or the like (Exod 32:8). Perhaps Moses here omits reference to the calf out of contempt for it.

[20:19]  ² tn Heb “to fight against it to capture it.”

[20:19]  ³ tn Heb “you must not destroy its trees by chopping them with an iron” (i.e., an ax).

[20:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “you may eat from them.” The direct object is not expressed; the word “fruit” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[20:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “to go before you in siege.”

[20:20]  ³ tn Heb “however, a tree which you know is not a tree for food you may destroy and cut down.”

[20:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “[an] enclosure.” The term מָצוֹר (matsor) may refer to encircling ditches or to surrounding stagings. See R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 238.