“Hear, O Israel: you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in
to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great
and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of
the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who
can stand before the sons of Anak?’ Know therefore today that he
who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the LORD your God.
He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive
them out and make them perish quickly, as the LORD has promised
you.
“Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust
them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the
LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because
of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them
out before you. Not because of your righteousness or the
uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land,
but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is
driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word
that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to
Jacob.
“Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this
good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a
stubborn people. Remember and do not forget how you provoked the
LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out
of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been
rebellious against the LORD. Even at Horeb you provoked the LORD to
wrath, and the LORD was so angry with you that he was ready to
destroy you. When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of
stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I
remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate
bread nor drank water. And the LORD gave me the two tablets of
stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the
words that the LORD had spoken with you on the mountain out of the
midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And at the end of
forty days and forty nights the LORD gave me the two tablets of
stone, the tablets of the covenant. Then the LORD said to me,
‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have
brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have turned aside
quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made
themselves a metal image.’
“Furthermore, the LORD said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and
behold, it is a stubborn people. Let me alone, that I may destroy
them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make of
you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ So I turned and came
down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. And
the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. And I looked,
and behold, you had sinned against the LORD your God. You had made
yourselves a golden calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way
that the LORD had commanded you. So I took hold of the two tablets
and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes.
Then I lay prostrate before the LORD as before, forty days and
forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all
the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight
of the LORD to provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger
and hot displeasure that the LORD bore against you, so that he was
ready to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me that time also.
And the LORD was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy
him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. Then I took the
sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire
and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as
dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from
the mountain.
“At Taberah also, and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you
provoked the LORD to wrath. And when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-
barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have
given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD
your God and did not believe him or obey his voice. You have been
rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.
“So I lay prostrate before the LORD for these forty days and
forty nights, because the LORD had said he would destroy you. And I
prayed to the LORD, ‘O Lord GOD, do not destroy your people and
your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom
you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your
servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness
of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, lest the land
from which you brought us say, “Because the LORD was not able to
bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he
hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the
wilderness.” For they are your people and your heritage, whom you
brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’
