Deuteronomy 9

1 Listen, people of Israel! Shortly you're going to cross the Jordan to enter and take over the country from nations that are larger and stronger than you, that have large towns with walls that reach up into the sky.

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

2 The people are strong and tall; they are the descendants of the Anakim. You all know about them and you have heard the saying, “Who could ever defeat the sons of Anak?”

a people great and many and tall, the sons of Enac, whom thou knowest, and concerning whom thou hast heard [say], Who can stand before the children of Enac?

3 But you should realize that today the Lord your God is going across ahead of you. He is like a consuming fire; he will destroy them and defeat them ahead of you. You will drive them out and quickly wipe them out, just as the Lord promised you.

And thou shalt know to-day, that the Lord thy God he shall go before thy face: he is a consuming fire; he shall destroy them, and he shall turn them back before thee, and shall destroy them quickly, as the Lord said to thee.

4 When the Lord your God has driven them out ahead of you, don't think to yourselves, “It's because I'm such a good person that the Lord has brought me here to take over this land.” No, the Lord is driving out these nations ahead of you because of they're so wicked.

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

5 It's not because you're so good or moral that you are going to take over their land. No, it's because of their wickedness that the Lord your God is driving out these nations ahead of you, to keep the promise he made to your fathers—m to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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

6 You'd better believe that it's not because you're such good people that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to own, because you are stubborn, hard-hearted people.

And thou shalt know to-day, that [it is] not for thy righteousnesses the Lord thy God gives thee this good land to inherit, for thou art a stiff-necked people.

7 Remember how you provoked the Lord your God in the desert! Don't ever forget it! From the time you left the land of Egypt until you arrived here, you've been constantly rebelling against the Lord.

Remember, forget not, how much thou provokedst the Lord thy God in the wilderness: from the day that ye came forth out of Egypt, even till ye came into this place, ye continued to be disobedient toward the Lord.

8 At Horeb you provoked the Lord, making him so angry he was about to destroy you.

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

9 This was when I climbed up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets that recorded agreement the Lord made with you. I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, and I didn't eat or drink anything.

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.

10 The Lord gave me the two stone tablets on which he'd written with his finger everything he'd told you when he spoke from the fire on the mountain when we were all assembled there.

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.

11 After forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the agreement.

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.

12 The Lord told me, “Hurry! Go down immediately, because your people that you led out of Egypt, are committing a terrible sin. They have disobeyed what I told them so quickly! They have made themselves an idol using molten metal.”

And the Lord said to me, Arise, go down quickly from hence, for thy people whom thou broughtest 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.

13 The Lord also told me, “I have been watching these people, and they really are a stubborn and hard-hearted.

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

14 Leave me, so that I can destroy them and wipe out their name completely. Then I will turn you into a nation even more powerful and more important than them.”

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

15 I went back down the mountain while it was still on fire, carrying the two tablets of the agreement.

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

16 Then I saw how much you had sinned against the Lord your God by making for yourselves a molten calf. You had disobeyed what the Lord had told you so quickly.

And when I saw that ye 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;

17 I threw the two tablets down, smashing them to pieces as you watched.

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

18 Then I lay down on the ground before the Lord for forty days and forty nights, just as I had before. I didn't eat or drink anything because of all the sins you had committed by doing what was evil in the Lord's sight, making him angry.

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 ye sinned in doing evil before the Lord God to provoke him.

19 I was terrified at how angry and furious the Lord was with you. He was ready to destroy you. But once again the Lord listened to me.

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 hearkened to me at this time also.

20 The Lord was so angry with Aaron he was ready to destroy him, but right then I prayed for Aaron too.

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

21 I took that abominable thing, the calf you'd made, and burned it. Then I crushed it up and ground it into dust, and I threw it into the stream that descended from the mountain.

And your sin which ye 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.

22 But you went on provoking the Lord at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah.

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

23 When the Lord had you leave Kadesh-barnea, he told you, “Go and take over the country that I've given you.” But you defied the command of the Lord your God. You didn't believe him and you didn't obey him.

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

24 You have been rebelling against the Lord from the day I first knew you.

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

25 So I lay down on the ground before the Lord for forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had threatened to destroy you.

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.

26 I prayed to the Lord, saying, “Please Lord, God, don't destroy your people that belong to you, the ones whom you rescued by your great ability and led out of Egypt by your power.

And I prayed to God, and said, O Lord, King of gods, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, whom thou didst redeem, whom thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt with thy great power, and with thy strong hand, and with thy high arm.

27 Please remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Please disregard the stubbornness of this people and their wicked sin.

Remember Abraam, and Isaac, and Jacob thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thyself: look not upon the hardness of heart of this people, and their impieties, and their sins.

28 If you don't, those people back in Egypt will say, ‘The Lord brought them out to kill them in the desert because he couldn't take them to the land he'd promised them, and because he hated them.’

Lest the inhabitants of the land whence thou broughtest 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 slay them in the wilderness.

29 But they are your people, Lord! They belong to you! You led them out of Egypt by your amazing power and might!”

And these [are] thy people and thy portion, whom thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt with thy great strength, and with thy mighty hand, and with thy high arm.