Deuteronomy 9

Revised Geneva Translation

9 “Hear, O Israel. You shall pass over Jordan this day, to go in and to possess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and walled up to Heaven,

² “a people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say, ‘Who can stand before the children of Anak?’

³ “Understand, therefore, that this day, the LORD your God is He Who goes over before you, a consuming fire. He shall destroy them and He shall bring them down before your face. So you shall cast them out and destroy them suddenly, as the LORD has said to you.

⁴ “After the LORD your God has cast them out before you, do not speak in your heart, saying ‘Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land.’ Rather, for the wickedness of these nations, the LORD has cast them out before you.

⁵ “For it is not because of your righteousness, or for their upright heart, that you inherit their land. But it is because of the wickedness of those nations that the LORD your God casts them out before you, and so that He might perform the Word which the LORD your God swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁶ “Understand, therefore, that the LORD your God does not give you this good land to possess it because of your righteousness. For you are a stiff-necked people.

⁷ “Remember. Do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to anger in the wilderness. Since the day that you departed out of the land of Egypt, until you came into this place, you have rebelled against the LORD.

⁸ “Also in Horeb you provoked the LORD to anger, so that the LORD was angry with you, to destroy you,

⁹ “when I had gone up into the mount, to receive the Tablets of stone, the Tablets of the Covenant which the LORD made with you. And I stayed on the mount for forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.

¹⁰ “Then the LORD delivered me two Tablets of stone, written with the Finger of God. And on them were all the words which the LORD had said to you on the mount, out of the midst of the fire, on the day of the assembly.

¹¹ “And when the forty days and forty nights had ended, the LORD gave me the two Tablets of stone, the Tablets of the Covenant.

¹² “And the LORD said to me, ‘Arise. Get down quickly from here. For your people, which you have brought out of Egypt, are corrupt. They have quickly turned out of the way which I Commanded them. They have made themselves a molten image.’

¹³ “Furthermore, the LORD spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.

¹⁴ ‘Leave me alone, so that I may destroy them and put out their name from under Heaven. And I will make from you a mighty Nation, and greater than they are.’

¹⁵ “So I returned and came down from the mount. And the mount burnt with fire, and the two Tablets of the Covenant were in my two hands.

¹⁶ “Then I looked. And behold, you had sinned against the LORD your God. You had made yourself a molten calf, had turned quickly out of the way which the LORD had Commanded you.

¹⁷ “Therefore, I took the two Tablets and cast them out of my two hands and broke them, before your eyes.

¹⁸ “And I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as before. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sins which you had committed, doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to wrath.

¹⁹ “For I was afraid of the wrath and indignation with which the LORD was moved against you, to destroy you. Yet, the LORD also heard me at that time.

²⁰ “Likewise the LORD was very angry with Aaron, to destroy him. But at that time, I also prayed for Aaron.

²¹ “And I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burnt him with fire and stamped him and ground him small, even to very dust. And I cast its dust into the river that descended out of the mount.

²² “Also in Taberah, and in Massah, and in Kibroth Hattaavah, you provoked the LORD to anger.

²³ “Likewise, when the LORD sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you’, you rebelled against the Commandment of the LORD your God, and did not believe Him. Nor did you listen to His Voice.

²⁴ “You have been rebellious to the LORD since the day that I knew you.

²⁵ “Then I fell down before the LORD. For forty days and forty nights I fell down, because the LORD had said that He would destroy you.

²⁶ “And I prayed to the LORD, and said, ‘O LORD God, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance, which You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt by a mighty Hand.

²⁷ ‘Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not look to the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin,

²⁸ ‘lest the country from where you brought them, say, “Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which He promised them”, or “Because He hated them, He carried them out to kill them in the wilderness”.

²⁹ ‘Yet, they are Your people and Your inheritance, which You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched Arm.’”