DEUTERONOMY 9

Hear, O Israel: you are to cross the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, 2 a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, Who can stand up to the sons of Anak? 3 So you shall know today that Yehowah your God is he who crosses over before you as a consuming fire; he will destroy them and bring them down before your face; so you shall dispossess them and destroy them quickly, as Yehowah has promised you. 4 Do not say in your heart, after Yehowah your God has thrown them out before you, Yehowah has brought me in to possess this land because of my righteousness; for Yehowah is dispossessing them before you because of the wickedness of these nations. 5 You are not going in to possess their land because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart; but because of the wickedness of these nations Yehowah your God is dispossessing them before you, so as to establish the word which Yehowah swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6 So you shall know that Yehowah your God does not give you this good land for a possession because of your righteousness, for you are a stiffnecked people. 7 Remember and never forget how you provoked Yehowah your God to anger in the desert; from the day you went out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place you have been rebellious against Yehowah. 8 Even at Horeb you provoked Yehowah to anger, so that he was angered with you enough to destroy you. 9 When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which Yehowah made with you, I remained on the mountain for forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water; 10 and Yehowah gave to me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and inscribed with all the words which Yehowah spoke with you from the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. 11 And at the end of the forty days and forty nights, Yehowah gave to me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. 12 Then Yehowah said to me, Get up, go down quickly from here; for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they have turned aside quickly from the way which I commanded them: they have cast for themselves a metal image.

13 And Yehowah said to me, I have seen how this people is a stiffnecked people; 14 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 more numerous than them. 15 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 And I looked, and saw that you had sinned against Yehowah your God; you had cast for yourselves a metal calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which Yehowah had commanded you. 17 Then I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands, and broke them in pieces before your eyes. 18 And I fell down before Yehowah for forty days and forty nights as before; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed by doing wickedly in the eyes of Yehowah, provoking him to anger. 19 For I was alarmed at the anger and fury with which Yehowah was angry with you, enough to destroy you. But Yehowah heard me at that time also. 20 And Yehowah was very angry with Aaron, enough to destroy him; and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21 Then I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and I burnt it in the fire, and shattered it, grinding it thoroughly until it was as fine as dust; and I threw the dust into the brook which descended from the mountain.

22 And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked Yehowah to anger. 23 And when Yehowah sent you from Kadesh-barnea, and said, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; you rebelled against the word of Yehowah your God, and did not believe him or listen to his voice. 24 You have been rebellious against Yehowah from the day I knew you.

25 And I fell down before Yehowah for the whole of forty days and forty nights, because Yehowah had said he would destroy you. 26 And I prayed to Yehowah, and said, O Lord Yehowih, do not destroy thy people and thine inheritance whom thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, whom thou hast brought out of Egypt by a strong hand. 27 Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look at the stubbornness of this people, nor at their wickedness, nor at their sin, 28 or else the land from which thou hast brought us will say, Because Yehowah was unable to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the desert. 29 Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, whom thou hast brought out by thy great power and thine outstretched arm.