Deuteronomy 9

1Hear, Israel: today you cross the Jordan to enter and drive out nations greater and stronger than you, cities vast and fortified reaching to the sky.

2A great and tall people, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and have heard: "Who can stand before the sons of Anak?"

3Know today that Yahweh your God himself advances before you as a consuming fire; he will annihilate them and subdue them before you, so you will drive them out and destroy them quickly, as Yahweh has spoken to you.

4Do not say in your heart, when Yahweh your God expels them from before you, “For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me to take possession of this land,” because Yahweh is dispossessing them from before you on account of the wickedness of these nations.

5Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart do you enter to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God drives them out from before you, and to fulfill the word that Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

6Know that Yahweh your God does not give you this good land to possess it on account of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

7Remember—never forget—how you angered Yahweh your God in the wilderness, from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place; you have rebelled against Yahweh.

8Even at Horeb you angered Yahweh, and Yahweh became furious with you to destroy you.

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

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

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

12Yahweh said to me, "Rise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out from Egypt have become corrupt; they have quickly turned aside from the way I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves."

13Yahweh said to me, "I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a stiff-necked people."

14Stand aside from me, that I may annihilate them and wipe out their name from under the heavens, and I will make you a mighty and numerous nation greater than they.

15I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were upon my two hands.

16I saw, and there you had sinned against Yahweh your God by making yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way Yahweh commanded you.

17I seized the two tablets and hurled them from my two hands, breaking them before your eyes.

18I fell prostrate before Yahweh as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all your sin which you committed by doing evil in Yahweh's sight to provoke him.

19For I feared the wrath and fury with which Yahweh was incensed against you to annihilate you. But Yahweh heeded me also at that time.

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

21I took your sin—the calf you made—burned it in the fire, beat it by grinding it thoroughly until it became dust, and threw its dust into the brook running down from the mountain.

22At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah you angered Yahweh.

23And when Yahweh sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, "Go up and possess the land I have given you," you rebelled against the command of Yahweh your God, and you neither trusted him nor obeyed his voice.

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

25I prostrated myself before Yahweh for forty days and forty nights, as I had prostrated myself, because Yahweh had said he would destroy you.

26I prayed to Yahweh and said, "Lord Yahweh, do not destroy your people and your inheritance, which you redeemed through your greatness, which you brought out from Egypt with a strong hand."

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

28Lest the land from which you brought us out say, “Because Yahweh lacked the power to bring them into the land he promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to destroy them in the wilderness.”

29They are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out with your great strength and your outstretched arm.