Deuteronomy 9:13-20

9:13 Moreover, he said to me, “I have taken note of these people; they are a stubborn ¹  lot! 9:14 Stand aside ²  and I will destroy them, obliterating their very name from memory, ³  and I will make you into a stronger and more numerous nation than they are.”

9:15 So I turned and went down the mountain while it ⁴  was blazing with fire; the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. 9:16 When I looked, you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God and had cast for yourselves a metal calf; ⁵  you had quickly turned aside from the way he ⁶  had commanded you! 9:17 I grabbed the two tablets, threw them down, ⁷  and shattered them before your very eyes. 9:18 Then I again fell down before the Lord for forty days and nights; I ate and drank nothing because of all the sin you had committed, doing such evil before the Lord as to enrage him. 9:19 For I was terrified at the Lord’s intense anger ⁸  that threatened to destroy you. But he ⁹  listened to me this time as well. 9:20 The Lord was also angry enough at Aaron to kill him, but at that time I prayed for him ¹⁰  too.

[9:13]  ¹ tn Heb “stiff-necked.” See note on the word “stubborn” in 9:6.

[9:14]  ² tn Heb “leave me alone.”

[9:14]  ³ tn Heb “from under heaven.”

[9:15]  ³ tn Heb “the mountain.” The translation uses a pronoun for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[9:16]  ⁴ tn On the phrase “metal calf,” see note on the term “metal image” in v. 12.

[9:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 9:3.

[9:17]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text includes “from upon my two hands,” but as this seems somewhat obvious and redundant, it has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.

[9:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” Although many English versions translate as two terms, this construction is a hendiadys which serves to intensify the emotion (cf. NAB, TEV “fierce anger”).

[9:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 9:3.

[9:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “Aaron.” The pronoun is used in the translation to avoid redundancy.