Deuteronomy 9

Not Because of Your Righteousness

1“Hear, Israel! You are crossing the Jordan today to go in and dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified to the heavens, 2a people great and tall, the children of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the children of Anak?’ 3Know today that the LORD your God is the one crossing before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and subdue them before you, and you shall dispossess them and cause them to perish quickly, as the LORD has spoken to you. 4Do not say in your heart, when the LORD your God has driven them out from before you, ‘Because of my righteousness the LORD brought me in to possess this land,’ when because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD is dispossessing them before you. 5Not 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 dispossessing them before you, and in order to establish the word that the LORD swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6Know therefore 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.

Remember How You Provoked the LORD

7“Remember; do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God in the wilderness. From the day you came out from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD. 8Even at Horeb you provoked the LORD, and the LORD was angry with you enough to destroy you. 9When 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 ate no bread and drank no water. 10The 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 from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. 11At the end of forty days and forty nights the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

The Golden Calf

12“Then the LORD said to me, ‘Rise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out from Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made for themselves a cast image.’ 13The LORD spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and look, it is a stiff-necked people. 14Leave me alone, so that I may destroy them and wipe out their name from under the heavens, and I will make from you a nation mightier and more numerous than they.’ 15So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain burned with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16I saw, and look, you had sinned against the LORD your God. You had made for yourselves a cast calf. You had quickly turned aside from the way that the LORD had commanded you. 17I took hold of the two tablets, threw them from my two hands, and shattered them before your eyes. 18Then I fell down before the LORD as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water because of all your sin that you had committed, doing what was evil in the eyes of the LORD to provoke him to anger. 19For I was afraid of the anger and fury with which the LORD was angry against you to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me that time also. 20The LORD was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him, but I prayed for Aaron also at that time. 21Then I took your sin, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was as fine as dust. I threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.

Israel Repeatedly Provoked the LORD

22“At Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-Hattaavah you provoked the LORD. 23And when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land that I have given you,’ you rebelled against the mouth of the LORD your God and did not trust him or listen to his voice. 24You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day I knew you.

Moses Intercedes for Forty Days

25“So I fell down before the LORD the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because the LORD had said he would destroy you. 26I prayed to the LORD and said, ‘Lord GOD, do not destroy your people and your inheritance whom you redeemed by your greatness, whom you brought out from Egypt with a strong hand. 27Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not turn toward the stubbornness of this people or toward their wickedness or their sin, 28lest the land from which you brought us say, “Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land that he spoke to them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.” 29Yet they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.’