Understand today that the <sc>Lordsc> your God who goes before you is a devouring fire; he will defeat and subdue them before you. You will dispossess and destroy them quickly just as he<n id="1" /> has told you.

The <sc>Lordsc> gave me the two stone tablets, written by the very finger<n id="1" /> of God, and on them was everything<n id="2" /> he<n id="3" /> said to you at the mountain from the midst of the fire at the time of that assembly.

As for your sinful thing<n id="1" /> that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down,<n id="2" /> ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.

The <sc>Lordsc><n id="1" /> then wrote on the tablets the same words,<n id="2" /> the ten commandments,<n id="3" /> which he<n id="4" /> had spoken to you at the mountain from the middle of the fire at the time of that assembly, and he<n id="5" /> gave them to me.

You must not worship the <sc>Lordsc> your God the way they do!<n id="1" /> For everything that is abhorrent<n id="2" /> to him,<n id="3" /> everything he hates, they have done when worshiping their gods. They even burn up their sons and daughters before their gods!p>

You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza<n id="1" /> and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the <sc>Lordsc> your God. It will be an abandoned ruin<n id="2" /> forever &#8211; it must never be rebuilt again.

This accords with what happened at Horeb in the day of the assembly. You asked the <sc>Lordsc> your God: &#8220;Please do not make us hear the voice of the <sc>Lordsc> our<n id="1" /> God any more or see this great fire any more lest we die.&#8221;