Deuteronomy 9:9-21

When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the LORD made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I did not eat food or drink water. The LORD gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God; and on them were written all the words which the LORD had spoken to you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. It came about at the end of forty days and forty nights that the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. Then the LORD said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made (cast) a molten image for themselves.’ Furthermore, the LORD said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, they are stiff-necked (stubborn, obstinate) people. Let Me alone, so that I may destroy them and wipe out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ “So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the LORD your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf (idol). You had turned aside quickly from the way which the LORD had commanded you. [Ex 32:1-10] So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my two hands and smashed them before your very eyes! Then, as before, I fell down before the LORD for [another] forty days and forty nights; I did not eat food or drink water, because of all the sin you had committed by doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and absolute fury which the LORD held against you, [enough divine fury] to destroy you, but the LORD listened to me that time also. The LORD was very angry with Aaron, angry [enough] to destroy him, so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. I took your sinful thing, the calf which you had made, and burned it in the fire and thoroughly crushed it, grinding the metal thoroughly until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain.