CHAPTER 9
Hear,
O Israel.
Today
you
are about to cross
the Jordan
to go in
and dispossess
nations
greater
and stronger
than you,
with large
cities
fortified
to the heavens.
The people
are strong
and tall,
the descendants
of the Anakim.
You
know
about them
and you
have heard it said,
“Who
can stand up
to
the sons
of Anak?”
But understand
that
today
the LORD
your God
goes across
ahead of you
as a consuming
fire;
He
will destroy them
and subdue them
before you.
And you will drive them out
and annihilate them
swiftly,
as
the LORD
has told you.
When the LORD
your God
has driven them out
before you,
do not
say
in your heart,
“Because of my righteousness
the LORD
has brought me in
to possess
this
land.”
Rather, the LORD
will drive out
these
nations
before you
because of their wickedness.
It is not
by your righteousness
or uprightness
of heart
that you
are going in
to possess
their land,
but it is because
of their wickedness
that the LORD
your God
will drive out
these
nations
before you,
to
keep
the promise
He
swore
to your fathers,
to Abraham,
Isaac,
and Jacob.
Understand, then,
that
it is not
by your righteousness
that the LORD
your God
is giving
you this
good
land
to possess,
for
you
are a stiff-necked
people.
Remember this
and never
forget
how
you provoked
the LORD
your God
in the wilderness.
From
the day
you left
the land
of Egypt
until
you reached
this
place,
you have been
rebelling
against
the LORD.
When I went up
on the mountain
to receive
the tablets
of stone,
the tablets
of the covenant
that
the LORD
made
with you,
I stayed
on the mountain
forty
days
and forty
nights.
I ate
no
bread
and drank
no
water.
Then the LORD
gave
me the two
stone
tablets,
inscribed
by the finger
of God
with the exact
words
that
the LORD
spoke
to you
out of
the fire
on the mountain
on the day
of the assembly.
And
at the end
of forty
days
and forty
nights,
the LORD
gave
me the two
stone
tablets,
the tablets
of the covenant,
and the LORD
said
to me,
“Get up
and go down
from
here
at once,
for
your people
whom
you brought
out of Egypt
have corrupted themselves.
How quickly
they have turned aside
from the way
that
I commanded them;
they have made
for themselves
a molten image."
Let Me alone,
so that I may destroy them
and blot out
their name
from
under
heaven.
Then I will make
you into a nation
mightier
and greater
than they.”
So I went back
down
the mountain
while it
was blazing
with fire,
with the two
tablets
of the covenant
in
my hands.
And I saw
how
you had sinned
against the LORD
your God;
you had made
for yourselves
a molten
calf.
You had turned aside
quickly
from
the way
the LORD
had commanded you.
So I took hold
of the two
tablets
and threw
them out of
my hands,
shattering
them before your eyes.
Then I fell down
before
the LORD
for forty
days
and forty
nights,
as I had done the first time.
I did not
eat
bread
or drink
water
because of
all
the sin
you had committed
in doing
what was evil
in the LORD’s
sight
and provoking Him to anger.
For
I was afraid
of the anger
and wrath
that
the LORD
had directed
against you,
enough to destroy you.
But the LORD
listened
to me
this
time
as well.
And
I took
that
sinful thing,
the calf
you had made,
and burned it
in the fire.
Then I crushed it
and ground
it to
powder
as fine as dust,
and I cast
it
into
the stream
that came down
from
the mountain.
And when the LORD
sent you out
from Kadesh-barnea,
He said,
“Go up
and possess
the land
I have given
you.”
But you rebelled
against the command
of the LORD
your God.
You neither
believed Him
nor
obeyed Him.
So I fell down
before
the LORD
for forty
days
and
forty
nights
because
the LORD
had said
He would destroy
you.
And I prayed
to
the LORD
and said,
“O Lord
GOD,
do not
destroy
Your people,
Your inheritance,
whom
You redeemed
through Your greatness
and brought out
of Egypt
with a mighty
hand.
Remember
Your servants
Abraham,
Isaac,
and Jacob.
Overlook
the stubbornness
of this
people,
their wickedness
and sin.
Otherwise,
those in the land
from which
you brought us out
will say,
‘Because the LORD
was not
able
to bring
them into
the land
He had promised them,
and because He hated
them,
He has brought them out
to kill them
in the wilderness.’
But they
are Your people,
Your inheritance,
whom
You brought out
by Your great
power
and outstretched
arm.”