Open English Translation DEU Chapter 9

9 Listen Yisrael: Today you’ll cross the Yarden river to drive out peoples that are larger and more powerful than yourselves and who are protected in large, fortified cities with high walls. 2 The people themselves are tall and strong. (Some of these are descendants of the Anakites, and you’ve heard people say that no one can defeat the Anakites.) 3 You need to be confident that your god Yahweh will go ahead of you like a raging fire—he’ll destroy them and subdue them ahead of you, then you can drive them out and quickly eliminate them as Yahweh has told you to do.

4 After your god Yahweh has driven them out ahead of you, don’t go saying that it was thanks to your own goodness and innocence, because it’s because of the wickedness of those peoples that Yahweh is doing that. 5 Again, it’s not because of your obedience or goodness that you’re going in to occupy their land, but it’s because of the wickedness of those peoples that your god Yahweh will drive them out in front of you, and so that he can fulfill what he promised to your ancestors Abraham, Yitshak, and Yakov. 6 Actually, you’re a very stubborn people, so be very clear: it’s not because of your goodness and obedience that your god Yahweh is giving you this good land.

7 Never forget how you provoked your god Yahweh to get angry in the wilderness—you’ve been rebellious towards him the whole time from when you left Egypt until your arrival here. 8 Even at Horev (Mt. Sinai) you made Yahweh angry, in fact he was angry enough to destroy you. 9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets containing Yahweh’s agreement with you, I stayed up on the mountain for forty days and nights without eating or drinking.[ref] 10 Then Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets that had been written by God’s finger. They had the words spoken to you by Yahweh out from the fire on the mountain on the day of that assembly. 11 Then finally at the end of those forty days and nights, Yahweh gave me those two stone tablets with the agreement written on them.

12 Then he told me, ‘Now hurry and go down quickly from here, because your people who you brought out from Egypt, have become corrupted. They didn’t take at all long to turn away from following my instructions—they’ve already made a metal idol for themselves.’

13 Additionally, Yahweh said to me, ‘I’ve noticed that this group of people is very stubborn. 14 Move away and I’ll destroy them so they’ll never be remembered again, and I’ll make your descendants into a more powerful and more prestigious nation than they ever were.’

15 So I turned and headed back down the mountain that was still burning with fire, carrying the two tablets with the agreement written on them. 16 Then I looked, and wow, you certainly had disobeyed your god Yahweh. You’d cast a metal calf. You’d turned so quickly from the instructions that Yahweh had given you. 17 I grabbed those two stone tablets and threw them to the ground—shattering them right in front of your eyes. 18 Then I lay on the ground in front of Yahweh for forty days and nights without eating or drinking because of how you’d disobeyed Yahweh—doing evil things that provoked him into being angry. 19 Yes, I was afraid that in his terrible anger, Yahweh might destroy you, but he listened to me at that time.[ref] 20 Yahweh was angry enough to want to destroy Aharon, but I also interceded for him at that time. 21 I took that symbol of your disobedience—that calf idol that you all had made—and threw it into the fire, then I crushed it and ground it into dust, and threw the dust into the mountain stream.

22 You all also provoked Yahweh to get angry at Taberah,[ref] at Massah,[ref] and at Kivrot-Hattaavah.[ref] 23 Also when Yahweh sent you all from Kadesh-Barnea, saying, ‘Go in and take possession of the land that I’ve given to you,’ but you rebelled against your god Yahweh’s words, and you didn’t believe him and didn’t do what he said.[ref] 24 You’ve all been rebellious against Yahweh since the day I knew you back in Egypt.

25 So I lay on the ground in Yahweh’s presence for forty days and nights, because he said he’d destroy you all, 26 and I prayed, ‘My master Yahweh, these people belong to you. Don’t destroy them—they are people who you rescued and brought out of Egypt by using your strength and power. 27 Don’t forget what you promised your servants Abraham, Yitshak, and Yakov. Overlook the stubbornness, wickedness, and disobedience of these people 28 so that the people of Egypt where we were brought out from don’t say that you weren’t able to bring them to the land that you’d promised to give to them. They’ll say that you took them into the desert to kill them there because you hated them. 29 But they are your people and your inheritance, who you brought out of Egypt using your strength and power.’