Exodus 32:11

32:11 But Moses sought the favor ¹  of 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?

Exodus 32:19

32:19 When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry. ²  He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain. ³ 

[32:11]  ¹ tn S. R. Driver (Exodus, 351) draws on Arabic to show that the meaning of this verb (חָלָה, khalah) was properly “make sweet the face” or “stroke the face”; so here “to entreat, seek to conciliate.” In this prayer, Driver adds, Moses urges four motives for mercy: 1) Israel is Yahweh’s people, 2) Israel’s deliverance has demanded great power, 3) the Egyptians would mock if the people now perished, and 4) the oath God made to the fathers.

[32:19]  ² tn Heb “and the anger of Moses burned hot.”

[32:19]  ³ sn See N. M. Waldham, “The Breaking of the Tablets,” Judaism 27 (1978): 442-47.