Deuteronomy 9

CLV^{(i) 1} Hear, Israel! Today you are ready to cross over the Jordan, to enter to tenant in the place of nations greater and more substantial than you, cities great and defended to the heavens, ² a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim whom you know and of whom you have heard it said:Who shall station himself before the sons of Anak? ³ Know then today that Yahweh your Elohim, He is the One crossing over before you as a devouring fire. He Himself shall exterminate them, and He Himself shall make them submit before you; yet you must evict them and destroy them quickly just as Yahweh has spoken to you. ⁴ Do not say in your heart when Yahweh your Elohim thrusts them out from before you, saying:Because of my own righteousness Yahweh brings me in to tenant this land. Rather it is because of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh is evicting them before your face. ⁵ It is not because of your own righteousness or the uprightness of your own heart that you are entering to tenant their country, for it is because of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh your Elohim is evicting them before your face, so that He may confirm the word that Yahweh had sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. ⁶ Know then that it is not because of your own righteousness that Yahweh your Elohim is giving to you this good land to tenant it, for you are a stiff-necked people. ⁷ Remember, do not forget that you provoked Yahweh your Elohim to wrath in the wilderness. From the day in which you went forth from the country of Egypt until you came to this place, you were rebellious against Yahweh. ⁸ And at Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh showed Himself angered with you enough to exterminate you. ⁹ When I ascended to the mountain to take down the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that Yahweh contracted with you, I dwelt on the mountain forty days and forty nights. Bread I did not eat, and water I did not drink. ¹⁰ Then Yahweh gave to me the two tablets of stone, written by the finger of Elohim, and on them were all the words just like those that Yahweh had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. ¹¹ It came to be at the end of forty days and forty nights that Yahweh gave to me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. ¹² Then Yahweh said to me:Arise! Go down quickly hence, for your people, whom you brought forth from Egypt have become corrupt. They have withdrawn quickly from the way which I had instructed them. They have made for themselves a molten calf. ¹³ And Yahweh spoke to me saying:I have seen this people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people. ¹⁴ Hold yourself back from Me so that I shall exterminate them and wipe out their name from under the heavens, and I shall make you into a more substantial and numerous nation than they. ¹⁵ Then I turned around and came down from the mountain while the mountain was consuming with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ Then I saw, and behold, you had sinned against Yahweh your Elohim. You had made for yourselves a molten calf. You had withdrawn quickly from the way about which Yahweh had enjoined on you. ¹⁷ So I grabbed the two tablets and flung them from my two hands and broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸ Then I cast myself down before Yahweh as the first time for forty days and forty nights. Bread I did not eat, and water I did not drink on account of all your sin which you had sinned by doing what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh your Elohim to provoke Him to vexation. ¹⁹ For I shrank away from the presence of the anger and the fury with which Yahweh was wrathful against you enough to exterminate you. But Yahweh hearkened to me even at that time. ²⁰ Against Aaron Yahweh showed Himself exceedingly angered, enough to exterminate him. So I prayed also about Aaron at that time. ²¹ As for your sin, which was the calf you had made, I took it, burned it with fire and pounded it, grinding it well until it was pulverized to soil, and I flung its soil into the watercourse that was descending from the mountain. ²² Also at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you were causing Yahweh to be wrathful. ²³ And when Yahweh sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying:Ascend and tenant the land that I give to you, then you defied the bidding of Yahweh your Elohim and did not put your trust in Him nor hearken to His voice. ²⁴ You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day I knew you. ²⁵ When I cast myself down before Yahweh (during the forty days and forty nights that I had cast myself down, for Yahweh had said He would exterminate you), ²⁶ then I prayed to Yahweh and said:My Lord Yahweh, do not bring ruin on Your people and Your allotment, whom You ransomed by Your greatness, whom You brought forth from Egypt by Your steadfast hand. ²⁷ Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Do not face against the obstinancy of this people, against their wickedness and their sin, ²⁸ lest the people of the country whence You brought us forth should say:Because Yahweh was unable to bring them into the land about which He had spoken to them, and because of His hatred of them He brought them forth to put them to death in the wilderness. ²⁹ Yet they are Your people and Your allotment whom You brought forth from Egypt by Your great vigor and by Your outstretched arm.