And Moses {implored Yahweh} his God, and he said, "Why, Yahweh, should {your anger blaze} against your people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand? Why should [the] Egyptians {say}, 'With evil [intent] he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth'? Turn from {your fierce anger} and relent concerning the disaster for your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by yourself, and you told them, 'I will multiply your offspring like the stars of the heavens, and all this land that I promised I will give to your offspring, and they will inherit [it] forever.'" read more.
And Yahweh relented concerning the disaster that he had {threatened} to do to his people.

And Moses returned to Yahweh, and he said, "Alas, this people has sinned a great sin and made for themselves gods of gold. And now if you will forgive their sin--and if not, please blot me from your scroll that you have written." And Yahweh said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me I will blot him from my scroll. read more.
And now go, lead the people to where I spoke to you. Look, my angel will go before you, and on the day [when] I punish I will punish them [for] their sin."

And [then] I lay prostrate {before} Yahweh, as earlier, forty days and forty nights; I did not eat food and I did not drink water because of all your sins that you committed, by doing evil in the eyes of Yahweh [and so] provoking him. For {I was in dread} from [being in] the presence of the anger and the wrath [with] which Yahweh was angry with you [so as] to destroy you, but Yahweh listened to me also {at that time}. And with Aaron Yahweh was {angry enough} to destroy him, and I prayed also for Aaron at that time. read more.
And your sinful thing that you had made, the molten calf, I took and I burned it with fire, and I crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was crushed to dust, and I threw its dust into {the stream that flowed down the mountain}. "And [also] at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked Yahweh to anger. And when Yahweh sent you [out] from Kadesh Barnea, {saying}, 'Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,' you rebelled against the command of Yahweh your God, and you did not believe him, and you did not listen to his voice. You have been rebellious toward Yahweh {from the day I have known you}. "And I lay prostrate before Yahweh through forty days, and through forty nights I prostrated myself, because Yahweh intended to kill you. And I prayed to Yahweh, and I said, 'Lord Yahweh, you must not destroy your people and your inheritance whom you redeemed in your greatness, whom you brought out from Egypt with a strong hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; you must not {pay attention to} the stubbornness of this people, to their wickedness and to their sin, lest [the people of] the land from which you brought us out from there say, "Because Yahweh was not able to bring them to the land that he {promised} to them and because of his hatred [toward] them, he has brought them out to kill them in the desert." For they [are] your people and your inheritance whom you brought with your great power and with your outstretched arm.'

And I stayed on the mountain [just] as [during] the former forty days and forty nights, and Yahweh listened to me also on that occasion; Yahweh was not willing to destroy you.

Verse Concepts

More Than One Month

God Unwilling

So he said he would exterminate them, had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to reverse his wrath from destroying [them].

Verse Concepts

election, responsibilities ofCalf worshipMoses, Significance Of

PlaguesGod Might Kill His PeopleAction Lest God Be Angry