Deuteronomy 9

1 Sh'ma ·Hear obey·, Israel [God prevails]! You are to pass over the Jordan [Descender] today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the sky,

2 a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have sh'ma ·heard obeyed· it said, “Who can stand before the sons of Anak?”

3 Know therefore today, that Adonai 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 you shall drive them out, and make them perish quickly, as Adonai has spoken to you.

4 Don’t say in your heart, after Adonai your God has thrust them out from before you, saying, “For my righteousness Adonai has brought me in to possess this land;” because Adonai drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations.

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 Adonai your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which Adonai swore to your fathers, to Abraham [Father of a multitude], to Isaac [Laughter], and to Jacob [Supplanter].

6 Know therefore, that Adonai your God does not give you this good land to possess for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people.

7 Remember, and don’t forget, how you provoked Adonai your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you left the land of Egypt [Abode of slavery], until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Adonai.

8 Also in Horeb [Desert] you provoked Adonai to wrath, and Adonai was angry with you to destroy you.

9 When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant which Adonai made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.

10 Adonai delivered to me the two stone tablets written with God’s finger. On them were all the words which Adonai spoke with you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly.

11 It came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that Adonai gave me the two stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant.

12 Adonai said to me, “Arise, get down quickly from here; for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt [Abode of slavery] have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside out of the way which I enjoined them. They have made a molten image for themselves!”

13 Furthermore Adonai spoke to me, saying, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.

14 Leave me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under the sky; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.”

15 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. The two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.

16 I looked, and behold, you had sinned ·deviated (from the standard goal)· against Adonai your God. You had made yourselves a molten calf. You had turned aside quickly out of the way which Adonai had enjoined you.

17 I took hold of the two tablets, and threw them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes.

18 I fell down before Adonai, as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your habitual sins ·missing the marks· which you sinned ·deviated (from the standard goal)·, in doing that which was evil in Adonai’s sight, to provoke him to anger.

19 I was terrified that because of how angry Adonai was at you, of how heatedly displeased he was, that he would destroy you. But Adonai sh'ma ·heard obeyed· me that time too.

20 Adonai was angry enough with Aaron [Light-bringer] to destroy him. I prayed for Aaron [Light-bringer] also at the same time.

21 I took your habitual sin ·missing the mark·, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire, and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. I threw its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain.

22 At Taberah, and at Massah [Testing], and at Kibroth Hattaavah, you provoked Adonai to wrath.

23 When Adonai sent you from Kadesh Barnea [Consecrated Son-inconstant], saying, “Go up and possess the land which I have given you,” you rebelled against the order of Adonai your God, and you didn’t trust him, nor sh'ma ·hear obey· his voice.

24 You have been rebellious against Adonai from the day that I knew you.

25 So I fell down before Adonai the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because Adonai had said he would destroy you.

26 I prayed to Adonai, and said, “'Adonay Adonai [Lord Yahweh], don’t destroy your people and your inheritance, that you have redeemed through your greatness, that you have brought out of Egypt [Abode of slavery] with a mighty hand.

27 Remember your servants, Abraham [Father of a multitude], Isaac [Laughter], and Jacob [Supplanter]. Don’t look at the stubbornness of this people, nor at their ethical wickedness, nor at their habitual sin ·missing the mark·,

28 lest the land you brought us out from say, ‘Because Adonai 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 kill 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.”