1Hear, O Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today to go in and dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to the heavens,
2a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’
3Know therefore 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, so that you may dispossess them and make them perish quickly, just as Yahweh has spoken to you.
4Do not say in your heart, when Yahweh your God thrusts them out from before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land’—for it is because of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh is dispossessing them from before you.
5Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God is dispossessing them from before you, and in order to establish the word that Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
6Know, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that Yahweh your God is giving you this good land to possess it, 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 went out from 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 so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you.
9When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that Yahweh cut with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water.
10And Yahweh gave to me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them was according to all the words that Yahweh spoke with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.
11And it happened at the end of forty days and forty nights that Yahweh gave to me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.
12Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made for themselves a cast image.’
13And Yahweh said to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.
14Let me alone, 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.’
15So I turned and went down from the mountain, while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were on my two hands.
16And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against Yahweh your God; you had made for yourselves a cast calf. You had quickly turned aside from the way that Yahweh had commanded you.
17So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my two hands, and I 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, doing what is evil in the eyes of Yahweh, provoking him to anger.
19For I was afraid before the anger and the wrath with which Yahweh was furious against you, enough to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time also.
20And with Aaron Yahweh was very angry, enough to destroy him; so I prayed also for Aaron at that time.
21And your sin that you had made, the calf, I took and burned it with fire, and I crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was as fine as dust, and I threw its dust into the stream that runs down from the mountain.
22And at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you kept provoking Yahweh to wrath.
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 mouth of Yahweh your God, and you did not believe him and did not obey his voice.
24You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day I knew you.
25So I fell down before Yahweh those forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because Yahweh had said he would destroy you.
26And I prayed to Yahweh and said, ‘O Lord Yahweh, 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 toward the stubbornness of this people, or toward their wickedness, or toward their sin,
28lest the land from which you brought us out 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.”
29For they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’
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