Deuteronomy 9

1Hear, O Israel: You go this day across the Jordan to inherit nations greater and stronger than yourselves, cities great and walled up to heaven; 2a people great and many and tall, the sons of Anak, whom you know, and concerning whom you have heard it said, Who can stand before the children of Anak? 3And you shall know today, that the Lord your God, He shall go before your face; He is a consuming fire; He shall destroy them, and He shall turn them back before you, and shall destroy them quickly, as the Lord had said to you. 4Speak not in your heart, when the Lord your God has destroyed these nations before your face, saying, For my righteousness the Lord brought me in to inherit this good land. 5Not for your righteousness, nor for the holiness of your heart, do you go in to inherit their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord shall destroy them from before you, and that He may establish the covenant, which the Lord swore to our fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6And you shall know this day, that it is not for your righteousnesses that the Lord your God gives to you this good land to inherit, for you are a stiff-necked people. 7Remember, forget not, how much you provoked the Lord your God in the wilderness; from the day that you came forth out of Egypt, even till you came into this place, you continued to be disobedient toward the Lord. 8Also in Horeb you provoked the Lord, and the Lord was angry with you, to destroy you; 9when I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant, which the Lord made with you, and I was in the mountain forty days and forty nights, I ate no bread and drank no water. 10And the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them there had been written all the words which the Lord spoke to you in the mountain, in the day of the assembly. 11And it came to pass after forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. 12And the Lord said to me, Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have transgressed; they have gone aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them, and have made themselves a molten image. 13And the Lord spoke to me, saying, I have spoken to you once and again, saying, I have seen this people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people. 14And now I shall utterly destroy them, and I will blot out their name from under heaven, and will make of you a nation great and strong, and more numerous than this. 15And I turned and went down from the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire to heaven; and the two tablets of the testimonies were in my two hands. 16And when I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God, and had made for yourselves a molten image, and had gone astray out of the way, which the Lord commanded you to keep; 17then I took hold of the two tablets, and cast them out of my hands, and broke them before you. 18And I made my petition before the Lord as also at the first forty days and forty nights: I ate no bread and drank no water, on account of all your sins which you sinned in doing evil before the Lord God, to provoke Him. 19And I was greatly terrified because of the wrath and anger, because the Lord was provoked with you utterly, to destroy you; yet the Lord hearkened to me at this time also. 20And He was angry with Aaron to destroy him utterly, and I prayed for Aaron also at that time. 21And your sin which you had made, the calf, I took it, and I burned it with fire, and pounded it and ground it down till it became fine; and it became like dust, and I cast the dust into the brook that descended from the mountain. 22Also in the burning, and in the temptation, and at the Graves of Lust, you provoked the Lord. 23And when the Lord sent you forth from Kadesh Barnea, saying, Go up and inherit the land which I give to you, then you disobeyed the word of the Lord your God, and believed Him not, and hearkened not to His voice. 24You were disobedient in the things relating to the Lord from the day in which He became known to you. 25And I prayed before the Lord forty days and forty nights, the number that I prayed before, for the Lord said that He would utterly destroy you. 26And I prayed to God, and said, O Lord, King of gods, destroy not Your people and Your inheritance, whom You redeemed, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with Your great power, and with Your strong hand, and with Your outstretched arm. 27Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Your servants, to whom You swore by Yourself: look not upon the hardness of heart of this people, and their wickedness, and their sins. 28Lest the inhabitants of the land from which You brought us out speak, saying, Because the Lord could not bring them into the land of which He spoke to them, and because He hated them, has He brought them forth to slay them in the wilderness. 29And these are Your people and Your portion, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with Your great strength, and with Your mighty hand, and with Your outstretched arm.
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