Deuteronomy 9

1Hear, Israel: today you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities fortified up to the sky,

2a people great and tall, the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand against the descendants of Anak?’

3Understand today that Yahweh your God is the one who goes across ahead of you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and destroy them quickly, as Yahweh has promised you.

4When Yahweh your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘It is because of my righteousness that Yahweh has brought me in to take possession of this land.’ It is because of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh is driving them out before you.

5It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to take possession of their land. It is because of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh your God is driving them out before you, and in order to fulfill the promise that Yahweh swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

6Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that Yahweh your God is giving you this good land to take possession of, for you are a stiff-necked people.

7Remember and do not forget how you provoked Yahweh your God to anger in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh.

8Even at Horeb you provoked Yahweh to anger, and Yahweh was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you.

9When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that Yahweh had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.

10Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets written by the finger of God. On them were all the words that Yahweh had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly.

11At the end of forty days and forty nights, Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.

12Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Get up and go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way I commanded them; they have made a cast idol for themselves.’

13Yahweh also said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.

14Leave me alone, so that I may destroy them and wipe out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they are.’

15So I turned and went down from the mountain while the mountain was blazing with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.

16When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against Yahweh your God. You had made yourselves a metal calf. You had quickly turned aside from the way that Yahweh had commanded you.

17So I took hold of the two tablets, threw them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes.

18Then I lay prostrate before Yahweh as before, forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed by doing what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, provoking him to anger.

19For I was afraid of the anger and fury that Yahweh felt against you, enough to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time also.

20Yahweh was very angry with Aaron, enough to destroy him, and at that time I prayed for Aaron too.

21Then I took the sinful thing you had made, the calf, and burned it in the fire. I crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was as fine as dust, and I threw its dust into the stream that flows down from the mountain.

22You also provoked Yahweh to anger at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah.

23And when Yahweh sent you out from Kadesh-barnea and said, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ you rebelled against the command of Yahweh your God. You did not trust him or listen to his voice.

24You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day I first knew you.

25So I lay prostrate before Yahweh those forty days and forty nights, because Yahweh had said he would destroy you.

26I prayed to Yahweh and said, ‘Lord Yahweh, do not destroy your people, your own inheritance, whom you redeemed by your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

27Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not look at the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness, or their sin.

28Otherwise the land you brought us out of will say, “Because Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land he promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.”

29But they are your people, your inheritance, whom you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.’