Deuteronômio 9:15 Comentário: Chizkuni, Ramban, Sforno & Tur HaArokh

ואפן וארד מן ההר, I turned around and descended from the Mountain,” on the same day, the seventeenth day in Tammuz.

SO I TURNED AND CAME DOWN FROM THE MOUNT. I have already explained in its place¹³²Ibid., Verse 11 (Vol. II, pp. 558-561). that before Moses came down from the mountain [and burned the calf] he prayed for them,¹³³Exodus 32:11-13. and, as a result of his prayer, it was said to him, And the Eternal repented of the evil which He said He would do unto His people.¹³⁴Ibid., Verse 14. The word “repented” here is an anthropomorphism (Ibn Ezra). Now, however, he did not mention it because he wanted to give them a [general] review of the great burden and suffering that he undertook for their sake — that they caused him to break the Tablets, to pray for them forty days and forty nights, and also to pray on behalf of Aaron because G-d was very angry with him.¹³⁵Further, Verse 20. Afterwards he mentioned the first supplication¹³⁶Ibid., Verses 25-29. with which he [immediately] before he came down from the mountain besought the face of the Eternal his G-d¹³⁷Exodus 32:11. not to destroy them.

וההר בוער באש, so that you actually committed the sin (golden calf) while the “King” i.e. the presence of the Shechinah, was actually still in your immediate vicinity.