Deuteronomy 9

1Hear, Israel: today you are crossing the Jordan to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, with cities great and fortified up to the heavens.

2a great and tall people, the sons of Anak, whom you know, and of whom you have heard: ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’

3So know today that Yahweh your God is the one crossing over before you, a consuming fire. He will destroy them, and he will subdue them before you; and you will dispossess them and make them perish quickly, just as Yahweh has spoken to you.

4Do not say in your heart, when Yahweh your God drives them out from before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land,’ while because of the wickedness of these nations Yahweh is dispossessing them before you.

5It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God is driving them out before you, and in order to confirm the word that Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

6So know that it is not because of your righteousness that Yahweh your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

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

8Even at Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was angry with you enough to destroy you.

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

10And Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets, written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that Yahweh had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.

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

12And Yahweh said to me, 'Arise, go down quickly from here, because your people, whom you brought out from Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made for themselves a cast image.'

13Then Yahweh said to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.’

14Leave me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens; and I will make you into a nation mightier and more numerous than they are.

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

16And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against Yahweh your God: you had made for yourselves a cast-metal calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that Yahweh had commanded you.

17So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my two hands and shattered them before your eyes.

18Then I fell down before Yahweh, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all your sin that you had committed by doing what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, provoking him to anger.

19For I was afraid because of the anger and the wrath with which Yahweh was angry against you, to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me also at that time.

20And Yahweh was very angry with Aaron, to destroy him; and I also prayed for Aaron at that time.

21And I took your sin, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire; then I crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was as fine as dust, and I threw its dust into the stream that comes down from the mountain.

22And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, you kept provoking Yahweh to anger.

23And when Yahweh sent you 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 or listen to his voice.

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

25So I fell down before Yahweh for forty days and forty nights, because Yahweh had said he would destroy you.

26So I prayed to Yahweh and said, “Lord GOD, do not destroy your people and your inheritance, whom you redeemed by your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.”

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

28Otherwise the land from which you brought us out will say, ‘Because Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’

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