Deuteronomy - Chapter 9

1 Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven,

2 A people great and many and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak!

3 Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee.

4 Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.

5 Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness [the holiness] of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out [will destroy them] from before thee, and that he may perform the word [establish the covenant] which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6 Understand therefore to-day, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.

7 Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious [disobedient] against the LORD.

8 Also in Horeb ye provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you to have destroyed you.

9 When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:

10 And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

11 And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.

12 And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves [have transgressed]; they are quickly turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.

13 Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have spoken to thee once and again, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

14 Let me alone, suffer me utterly that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they, and more numerous than this.

15 So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire to heaven: and the two tables of the covenant [of the testimonies] were in my two hands.

16 And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the LORD your God, and had made you a molten calf [a molten image]: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the LORD had commanded you to keep.

17 And I took hold of the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes.

18 And I fell down [And I made my petition] before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also.

20 And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him utterly: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.

21 And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and pounded it and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.

22 And at Taberah [in the burning], and at Massah [in the temptation], and at Kibroth-hattaavah [at the graves of lust], ye provoked the LORD to wrath.

23 Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment [the word] of the LORD your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.

24 Ye have been rebellious against the LORD [disobedient in the things relating to the Lord] from the day that I knew you [from the day in which he became known to you].

25 Thus I fell down [prayed] before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down [prayed] at the first; because the LORD had said he would utterly destroy you.

26 I prayed therefore unto the LORD [to God], and said, O Lord GOD [King of gods], destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with thy great power, and with a mighty hand, and with thy high arm..

27 Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to whom thou swarest by thyself; look not unto the stubbornness [the hardness of heart] of this people, nor to their wickedness [their impieties], nor to their sin:

28 Lest the inhabitants of the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.

29 Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt by thy mighty power, and with thy mighty hand, and by thy stretched out arm.