1 Hear, O Israel: thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven,
2 a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the sons of Anak?
3 Know therefore this day, that theLordthy God is he which goeth over before thee as a devouring fire; he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thee: so shalt thou drive them out, and make them to perish quickly, as theLordhath spoken unto thee.
4 Speak not thou in thine heart, after that theLordthy God hath thrust them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness theLordhath brought me in to possess this land: whereas for the wickedness of these nations theLorddoth drive them out from before thee.
5 Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go in to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations theLordthy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may establish the word which theLordsware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
6 Know therefore, that theLordthy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.
7 Remember, forget thou not, how thou provokedst theLordthy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou wentest forth out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against theLord.
8 Also in Horeb ye provoked theLordto wrath, and theLordwas angry with you to have destroyed you.
9 When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which theLordmade with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water.
10 And theLorddelivered unto me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on themwas writtenaccording to all the words, which theLordspake with you in the mount out of 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 theLordgave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.
12 And theLordsaid unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.
13 Furthermore theLordspake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
14 let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.
15 So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.
16 And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against theLordyour God; ye had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which theLordhad commanded you.
17 And I took hold of the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes.
18 And I fell down before theLord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water; because of all your sin which ye sinned, in doing that which was evil in the sight of theLord, to provoke him to anger.
19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith theLordwas wroth against you to destroy you. But theLordhearkened unto me that time also.
20 And theLordwas very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.
21 And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.
22 And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, ye provoked theLordto wrath.
23 And when theLordsent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of theLordyour God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.
24 Ye have been rebellious against theLordfrom the day that I knew you.
25 So I fell down before theLordthe forty days and forty nights that I fell down; because theLordhad said he would destroy you.
26 And I prayed unto theLord, and said, O LordGODdestroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
27 Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin:
28 lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because theLordwas not able to bring them into the land which he promised unto them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.
29 Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy great power and by thy stretched out arm.