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O Israel: You are about to cross over the Jordan today, to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities fortified with high walls reaching up to the sky. 2 The people are strong and tall, the descendants of the Anakim. You know about them and have heard it said: ‘Who can stand up to the sons of Anak?’ 3 But understand today that the Lord your God is crossing over before you as a devouring fire. He will defeat them and subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has promised you.
4 “After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The Lord has brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness’. Rather, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. 5 It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; for it is really because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you, in order to fulfil the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 Understand then, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.
7 “Remember this and never forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place. 8 At Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry enough with you to destroy you. 9 When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; and I did not eat any food or drank any water there. 10 The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, inscribed by the finger of God. On them were the exact words of His commandments that the Lord proclaimed to you from out of the fire on the mountain.
11 “At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. 12 Then the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go down from here immediately, because the people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned from the way that I commanded them; they have made a moulded metal idol for themselves’.
13 “And the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. 14 Let me alone, and I will destroy them and blot their name from under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they’.
15 “So I turned and went back down the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. 16 When I looked, I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God; you had made for yourselves a cast metal idol shaped in the image of a calf. You had quickly turned aside from the way that the Lord had commanded you. 17 So I took the two tablets and threw them down with both hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.
18 “Then I fell down and lay prostrate before the Lord as before, for forty days and forty nights; and I did not eat any food or drank any water because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord and provoking Him to anger. 19 I was afraid of the fierce anger and wrath of the Lord against you, for He was angry enough with you to destroy you.
“But the Lord listened to me that time also. 20 And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but I prayed for Aaron at that time too. 21 Then I took the sinful object you had made, the calf idol, and I burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I threw the dust into a stream that flowed down from the mountain.
22 “You also made the Lord very angry at Taberah, and Massah and Kibroth-hattaavah also.
23 “And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, He said, ‘Go up and possess the land I have given you’. But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You did not believe Him or obey Him. 24 You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I came to know you.
25 “So I fell down and lay prostrate before the Lord for those forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said He would destroy you. 26 I prayed to the Lord and said:
‘O Lord God, do not destroy your people, Your own inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of these people, and their wickedness and sin. 28 Otherwise, those in the land from which You brought us will 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”. 29 But they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm’.”