Deut 9
1
Hear, O Israel: you are to pass over the Jordan this day, 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 say, Who can stand before the sons of Anak?
3
Know therefore this day, that YHWH your God is he who goes over before you as a devouring
fire; he will destroy them, and he will bring them down before you: so shall you drive
them out, and make them to perish quickly, as YHWH has spoken to you.
4
Speak not you in your heart, after that YHWH your God has thrust them out from before
you, saying, For my righteousness YHWH has brought me in to possess this land; whereas
for the wickedness of these nations YHWH does drive them out from before you.
5
Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to
possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations YHWH your God does drive
them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which YHWH swore to your
fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
6
Know therefore, that YHWH your God gives you not this good land to possess it for
your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people.
7
Remember, forget you not, how you provoked YHWH your God to anger in the wilderness:
from the day that you went forth out of the land of Egypt, until you came to this
place, you have been rebellious against YHWH.
8
Also in Horeb you provoked YHWH to anger, and YHWH was angry with you to destroy you.
9
When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables
of the covenant which YHWH made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and
forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water.
10
And YHWH delivered to me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and
on them [was written] according to all the words, which YHWH speak with you in the
mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.
11
And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that YHWH gave me the
two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.
12
And YHWH said to me, Arise, get you down quickly from hence; for your people that
you have brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned
aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.
13
Furthermore YHWH spoke to me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is
a stiff-necked people:
14
let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven;
and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.
15
So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount was burning with fire: and
the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.
16
And I looked, and, behold, you had sinned against YHWH your God; you had made you
a molten calf: you had turned aside quickly out of the way which YHWH had commanded
you.
17
And I took hold of the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them
before your eyes.
18
And I fell down before YHWH, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I did neither
eat bread nor drink water; because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that
which was evil in the sight of YHWH, to provoke him to anger.
19
For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith YHWH was wroth against
you to destroy you. But YHWH hearkened to me that time also.
20
And YHWH was very angry with Aaron to destroy him: and I prayed for Aaron also at
the same time.
21
And I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped
it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust: and I cast its dust
into the brook that descended out of the mount.
22
And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, you provoked YHWH to anger.
23
And when YHWH sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which
I have given you; then you rebelled against the commandment of YHWH your God, and
you believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.
24
You have been rebellious against YHWH from the day that I knew you.
25
So I fell down before YHWH the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because
YHWH had said he would destroy you.
26
And I prayed to YHWH, and said, O Lord YHWH, destroy not your people and your inheritance,
that you have redeemed through your greatness, that you have brought forth out of
Egypt with a mighty hand.
27
Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not to the stubbornness of
this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin,
28
lest the land whence you brought us out say, Because YHWH was not able to bring them
into the land which he promised to them, and because he hated them, he has brought
them out to slay them in the wilderness.
29
Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your great
power and by your outstretched arm.