Deuteronomy 9

1 Hear, O Israel: You go this day across Jordan to inherit nations greater and stronger than yourselves, cities great and walled up to heaven;

Give ear, O Israel: today you are to go over Jordan, to take the heritage of nations greater and stronger than yourselves, and towns of great size with walls as high as heaven;

2 a people great and many and tall, the sons of Enac, whom you know, and concerning whom you have heard [say], Who can stand before the children of Enac?

A people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, of whom you have knowledge and of whom it has been said, All are forced to give way before the sons of Anak.

3 And you shall know today, that the Lord your God he shall go before your face: he is a consuming fire; he shall destroy them, and he shall turn them back before you, and shall destroy them quickly, as the Lord said to you.

Be certain then today that it is the Lord your God who goes over before you like an all-burning fire; he will send destruction on them, crushing them before you; and you will send them in flight, putting an end to them quickly, as the Lord has said.

4 Speak not in your heart, when the Lord your God has destroyed these nations before your face, saying, For my righteousness the Lord brought me in to inherit this good land.

And after the Lord has sent them in flight from before you, say not in your heart, Because of my righteousness the Lord has given me this land; when it is because of their evil-doing that the Lord is driving these nations out before you.

5 Not for your righteousness, nor for the holiness of your heart, do you go in to inherit their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord will destroy them from before you, and that he may establish the covenant, which the Lord sware to our fathers, to Abraam, and to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Not for your righteousness or because your hearts are upright are you going in to take their land; but because of the evil-doing of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and to give effect to his oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6 And you shall know today, that [it is] not for your righteousnesses the Lord your God gives you this good land to inherit, for you are a stiff-necked people.

Be certain then that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land as a reward for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people.

7 Remember, forget not, how much you provoked the Lord your God in the wilderness: from the day that you came forth out of Egypt, even till you came into this place, you continued to be disobedient towards the Lord.

Keep well in mind how you made the Lord your God angry in the waste land; from the day when you went out of Egypt till you came to this place, you have gone against the orders of the Lord.

8 Also in Choreb you provoked the Lord, and the Lord was angry with you to destroy you;

Again in Horeb you made the Lord angry, and in his wrath he would have put an end to you.

9 when I went up into the mountain to receive the tables of stone, the tables of the covenant, which the Lord made with you, and I was in the mountain forty days and forty nights, I ate no bread and drank no water.

When I had gone up into the mountain to be given the stones on which was recorded the agreement which the Lord made with you, I was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights without taking food or drinking water.

10 And the Lord gave me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God, and on them there had been written all the words which the Lord spoke to you in the mountain in the day of the assembly.

And the Lord gave me the two stones with writing on them done by the finger of God: on them were recorded all the words which the Lord said to you on the mountain out of the heart of the fire, on the day of the great meeting.

11 And it came to pass after forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant.

Then at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me those stones, the stones of the agreement.

12 And the Lord said to me, Arise, go down quickly from hence, for your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have transgressed; they have gone aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them, and have made themselves a molten image.

And the Lord said to me, Get up now, and go down quickly from this place; for the people you have taken out of Egypt have given themselves over to evil; they have quickly been turned from the way in which I gave them orders to go; they have made themselves a metal image.

13 And the Lord spoke to me, saying, I have spoken to you once and again, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people.

And then the Lord said to me, I have seen that this people is stiff-necked:

14 And now suffer me utterly to destroy them, and I will blot out their name from under heaven, and will make of you a nation great and strong, and more numerous than this.

Let me send destruction on them till their very name is cut off; and I will make of you a nation greater and stronger than they.

15 And I turned and went down from the mountain; and the mountain burnt with fire to heaven; and the two tables of the testimonies [were] in my two hands.

So turning round I came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire; and the two stones of the agreement were in my hands.

16 And when I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God, and had made to yourselves a molten image, and had gone astray out of the way, which the Lord commanded you to keep;

And I saw that you had done evil against the Lord, and had made for yourselves a metal image of a young ox: you had quickly been turned from the way in which the Lord had given you orders to go.

17 then I took hold of the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and broke them before you.

And I let the stones go from my hands, and they were broken before your eyes.

18 And I made my petition before the Lord as also at the first forty days and forty nights: I ate no bread and drank no water, on account of all your sins which you sinned in doing evil before the Lord God to provoke him.

And I went down on my face before the Lord, as at the first, for forty days and forty nights, without taking food or drinking water, because of all your sin, in doing evil in the eyes of the Lord and moving him to wrath.

19 And I was greatly terrified because of the wrath and anger, because the Lord was provoked with you utterly to destroy you; yet the Lord listened to me at this time also.

For I was full of fear because of the wrath of the Lord which was burning against you, with your destruction in view. But again the Lord's ear was open to my prayer.

20 And he was angry with Aaron to destroy him utterly, and I prayed for Aaron also at that time.

And the Lord, in his wrath, would have put Aaron to death: and I made prayer for Aaron at the same time.

21 And your sin which you had made, [even] the calf, I took, and burnt it with fire, and pounded it and ground it down till it became fine; and it became like dust, and I cast the dust into the brook that descended from the mountain.

And I took your sin, the image which you had made, and put it in the fire and had it hammered and crushed very small till it was only dust: and the dust I put in the stream flowing down from the mountain.

22 Also in the burning, and in the temptation, and at the graves of lust, you provoked the Lord.

Again at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you made the Lord angry.

23 And when the Lord sent you forth from Cades Barne, saying, Go up and inherit the land which I give to you, then you disobeyed the word of the Lord your God, and believed him not, and listened not to his voice.

And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and take the land which I have given you; you went against the orders of the Lord your God, and had no faith in him, and would not give ear to his voice.

24 You were disobedient in the things relating to the Lord from the day in which he became known to you.

From the day when I first had knowledge of you, you have gone against the word of the Lord.

25 And I prayed before the Lord forty days and forty nights, the number that I prayed [before], for the Lord said that he would utterly destroy you.

So I went down on my face in prayer before the Lord for forty days and forty nights as I did at first; because the Lord had said that he would put an end to you.

26 And I prayed to God, and said, O Lord, King of gods, destroy not your people and your inheritance, whom you did redeem, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with your great power, and with your strong hand, and with your high arm.

And I made prayer to the Lord and said, O Lord God, do not send destruction on your people and your heritage, to whom, by your great power, you have given salvation, whom you have taken out of Egypt by the strength of your hand.

27 Remember Abraam, and Isaac, and Jacob your servants, to whom you sware by yourself: look not upon the hardness of heart of this people, and their impieties, and their sins.

Keep in mind your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not looking at the hard heart of this people, or their evil-doing and their sin:

28 Lest the inhabitants of the land whence you brought us out speak, saying, Because the Lord could not bring them into the land of which he spoke to them, and because he hated them, has he brought them forth to kill them in the wilderness.

Or it may be said in the land from which you have taken them, Because the Lord was not able to take them into the land which he said he would give them, and because of his hate for them, he has taken them out to put them to death in the waste land.

29 And these [are] your people and your portion, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with your great strength, and with your mighty hand, and with your high arm.

But still they are your people and your heritage, whom you took out by your great power and by your stretched-out arm.