Deuteronomy 9

1 “Hear, O Israel: You are passing over the Jordan today to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the heavens,

Hear, O Israel: Thou shalt go over the Jordan this day; to possess nations very great, and stronger than thyself, cities great, and walled up to the sky,

2 a people great and tall, sons of Anakim, whom you have known, and [of whom] you have heard: Who stations himself before sons of Anak?

A People great and tall, the sons of the Enacims, whom thou hast seen, and heard of, against whom no man is able to stand.

3 And you have known today that your God YHWH [is] He who is passing over before you [as] a consuming fire; He destroys them, and He humbles them before you, and you have dispossessed them, and destroyed them quickly, as YHWH has spoken to you.

Thou shalt know therefore this day that the Lord thy God himself will pass over before thee, a devouring and consuming fire, to destroy and extirpate and bring them to nothing before thy face quickly, as he hath spoken to thee.

4 You do not speak in your heart (in your God YHWH’s driving them away from before you), saying, In my righteousness YHWH has brought me in to possess this land; but in YHWH dispossessing these nations from your presence, [it is because of] their being wicked.

Say not in thy heart, when the Lord thy God shall have destroyed them in thy sight: For my justice hath the Lord brought me in to possess this land, whereas these nations are destroyed for their wickedness.

5 [It is] not in your righteousness and in the uprightness of your heart [that] you are going in to possess their land, but in YHWH dispossessing these nations from your presence, [it is because of] their being wicked, and in order to establish the word which YHWH has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob;

For it is not for thy justices, and the uprightness of thy heart that thou shalt go in to possess their lands: but because they have done wickedly, they are destroyed at thy coming in: and that the Lord might accomplish his word, which he promised by oath to thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6 and you have known that [it is] not in your righteousness [that] your God YHWH is giving this good land to you to possess it, for you [are] a people stiff of neck.

Know therefore that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this excellent land in possession for thy justices, for thou art a very stiffnecked people.

7 Remember [and] do not forget that [with] which you have made your God YHWH angry in the wilderness; from the day that you have come out of the land of Egypt until your coming to this place, you have been rebellious against YHWH;

Remember, and forget not how then provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that thou camest out of Egypt unto this place, thou hast always strove against the Lord.

8 even in Horeb you have made YHWH angry, and YHWH shows Himself angry against you—to destroy you.

For in Horeb also thou didst provoke him, and he was angry, and would have destroyed thee,

9 In my going up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone (tablets of the covenant which YHWH has made with you), then I abide on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I have not eaten bread and I have not drunk water;

When I went up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you: and I continued in the mount forty days and nights, neither eating bread, nor drinking water.

10 and YHWH gives to me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them [is] according to all the words which YHWH has spoken with you on the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, in the day of the assembly.

And the Lord gave me two tables of stone written with the finger of God, and containing all the words that he spoke to you in the mount from the midst of the Are, when the people were assembled together.

11 And it comes to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights, YHWH has given the two tablets of stone to me—tablets of the covenant.

And when forty days were passed, and as many nights, the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant,

12 Then YHWH says to me, Rise, go down, hurry from here, for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have done corruptly; they have quickly turned aside from the way which I have commanded them—they have made a molten thing for themselves!

And said to me: Arise, and go down from hence quickly: for thy people, which thou hast brought out of Egypt, have quickly forsaken the way that thou hast shewn them, and have made to themselves a molten idol.

13 And YHWH speaks to me, saying, I have seen this people, and behold, it [is] a people stiff of neck.

And again the Lord said to me: I see that this people is stiffnecked:

14 Desist from Me, and I destroy them, and blot out their name from under the heavens, and I make you become a nation more mighty and numerous than it.

Let me alone that I may destroy them, and abolish their name from under heaven, and set thee over a nation, that is greater and stronger than this.

15 And I turn and come down from the mountain, and the mountain is burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant [are] on my two hands,

And when I came down from the burning mount, and held the two tables of the covenant with both hands,

16 and I see, and behold, you have sinned against your God YHWH; you have made a molten calf for yourselves; you have quickly turned aside from the way which YHWH has commanded you.

And saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God, and had made to yourselves a molten calf, and had quickly forsaken his way, which he had shewn you:

17 And I lay hold on the two tablets, and cast them out of my two hands, and break them before your eyes,

I cast the tables out of my hands, and broke them in your sight.

18 and I throw myself before YHWH, as at first, [for] forty days and forty nights; I have not eaten bread and I have not drunk water, because of all your sins which you have sinned by doing evil in the eyes of YHWH, to make Him angry.

And I fell down before the Lord as before, forty days and nights neither eating bread, nor drinking water, for all your sins, which you had committed against the Lord, and had provoked him to wrath:

19 For I have been afraid because of the anger and the fury with which YHWH has been angry against you, to destroy you; and YHWH also listens to me at this time.

For I feared his indignation and anger, wherewith being moved against you, he would have destroyed you. And the Lord heard me this time also.

20 And YHWH has showed Himself very angry with Aaron, to destroy him, and I also pray for Aaron at that time.

And he was exceeding angry against Aaron also, and would have destroyed him, and I prayed in like manner for him.

21 And I have taken your sin, the calf which you have made, and I burn it with fire, and beat it, grinding well until it [is] small as dust, and I cast its dust into the brook which is going down out of the mountain.

And your sin that you had committed, that is, the calf, I took, and burned it with fire, and breaking it into pieces, until it was as small as dust, I threw it into the torrent, which cometh down from the mountain.

22 And in Taberah, and in Massah, and in Kibroth-Hattaavah, you have been making YHWH angry;

At the burning also, and at the place of temptation, and at the graves of lust you provoked the Lord:

23 also in YHWH’s sending you from Kadesh-Barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given to you; then you provoke the mouth of your God YHWH, and have not given credence to Him, nor listened to His voice.

And when he sent you from Cadesbarne, saying: Go up, and possess the land that I have given you, and you slighted the commandment of the Lord your God, and did not believe him, neither would you hearken to his voice:

24 You have been rebellious against YHWH from the day of my knowing you.

But were always rebellious from the day that I began to know you.

25 And I throw myself before YHWH—the forty days and the forty nights when I had thrown myself—because YHWH has commanded to destroy you;

And I lay prostrate before the Lord forty days and nights, in which I humbly besought him, that he would not destroy you as he had threatened:

26 and I pray to YHWH, and say, Lord YHWH, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have ransomed in Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a strong hand;

And praying, I said: O Lord God, destroy not thy people, and thy inheritance, which thou hast redeemed in thy greatness, whom thou hast brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.

27 be mindful of Your servants, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; do not turn to the stiffness of this people, and to its wickedness, and to its sin,

Remember thy servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: look not on the stubbornness of this people, nor on their wickedness and sin:

28 lest the land from which You have brought us out says, Because of YHWH’s want of ability to bring them into the land of which He has spoken to them, and because of His hating them, He brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.

Lest perhaps the inhabitants of the land, out of which thou hast brought us, say: The Lord could not bring them into the land that he promised them, and he hated them: therefore he brought them out, that he might kill them in the wilderness,

29 And they [are] Your people and Your inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm!”

Who are thy people and thy inheritance, whom thou hast brought out by thy great strength, and in thy stretched out arm.