1 Hear, O Israel: You are crossing over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the heavens,

2 a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you have known, and of whom you have heard it said, Who can stand before the sons of Anak?

3 Therefore understand today that Jehovah your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; thus you shall dispossess them and destroy them quickly, as Jehovah has spoken to you.

4 Do not think in your heart, after Jehovah your God has cast them out before you, saying, Because of my righteousness Jehovah has brought me in to possess this land; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that Jehovah is driving them out before you.

5 It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that Jehovah your God is driving them out before you, and that He may fulfill the word which Jehovah has sworn to your fathers; to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6 Therefore understand that Jehovah your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

7 Remember; do not forget how you provoked Jehovah your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Jehovah.

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

9 When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which Jehovah had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.

10 And Jehovah gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which Jehovah had spoken to you on the mountain from 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 Jehovah had given me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

12 And Jehovah said to me, Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly; they have quickly turned aside from the way which I have commanded them; they have made themselves a molten image.

13 Furthermore Jehovah spoke to me, saying, I have seen this people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people.

14 Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens; 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; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.

16 And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against Jehovah your God, and had made for yourselves a molten calf! You had turned aside quickly from the way which Jehovah had commanded you.

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

18 And I fell down before Jehovah, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you had sinned in doing evil in the eyes of Jehovah, to provoke Him to anger.

19 For I was afraid of the anger and fury with which Jehovah had been angry with you, to destroy you. But Jehovah gave heed to me at that time also.

20 And Jehovah was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him; and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.

21 And I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed and ground it thoroughly, until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that was coming down from the mountain.

22 Also at Taberah and Massah and Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked Jehovah to wrath.

23 Likewise, when Jehovah sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you, then you rebelled against the mouth of Jehovah your God, and you did not believe Him nor obey His voice.

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

25 Thus I prostrated myself before Jehovah; forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself, because Jehovah had thought to annihilate you.

26 Therefore I prayed to Jehovah, and said: O Lord Jehovah, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

27 Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or their sin,

28 lest the land from which You have brought us should say, Because Jehovah was not able to bring them to the land which He promised 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, whom You have brought out by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm.