Deuteronomy 9

Hear, O Israel: today you are crossing the Jordan, to go in to dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, cities great and walled up to heaven,

a people great and many and tall, the sons of Enak, whom you yourself know and of whom you have heard: 'Who shall stand before the face of the sons of Enak?'

And you shall know today that the Lord your God, he it is who goes before your face; he is a consuming fire; he will utterly destroy them, and he will turn them back from before your face, and you shall destroy them, just as the Lord said to you.

Do not say in your heart, when the Lord your God consumes these nations from before your face, saying, 'Because of my righteous deeds the Lord brought me in to inherit this good land'; rather, it is because of the ungodliness of these nations that the Lord will utterly destroy them from before your face.

Not because of your righteousness, nor because of the holiness of your heart, do you go in to inherit their land; but because of the ungodliness of these nations the Lord will utterly destroy them from before your face, and that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, to Abraam and to Isaak and to Iakob.

And you shall know today that it is not because of your righteous deeds that the Lord your God gives you this good land to inherit, for you are a stiff-necked people.

Remember, do not forget, how greatly you provoked the Lord your God in the wilderness. From the day you came out of Egypt until you came to this place, you continued being disobedient in the things toward the Lord.

And at Choreb you provoked the Lord, and the Lord was angry with you, to destroy you utterly.

When I went up into the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, I remained in the mountain forty days and forty nights; bread I did not eat and water I did not drink.

And the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, written by the finger of God; and upon them had been written all the words which the Lord spoke to you in the mountain on the day of the assembly.

And it came to pass, after forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.

And the Lord said to me: Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have acted lawlessly; they have quickly turned aside from the way which you commanded them; they have made for themselves a cast image.

And the Lord said to me: I have spoken to you once and twice, saying, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.

Let me alone, that I may utterly destroy them, and I will blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make you into a nation great and strong and far more numerous than this one.

And I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets were upon my two hands.

And I saw that you had sinned before the Lord your God, and had made for yourselves a cast image, and had turned aside from the way which the Lord commanded you;

and I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them in pieces before you.

And I prayed before the Lord a second time, just as also the first time, forty days and forty nights; bread I did not eat and water I did not drink, on account of all your sins which you sinned, in doing what is evil before the Lord your God, to provoke him.

And I was terrified because of the anger and the wrath, for the Lord was provoked with you, to destroy you utterly. And the Lord listened to me also at that time.

And with Aaron the Lord was exceedingly angry, to destroy him utterly; and I prayed also for Aaron at that time.

And your sin which you had made, the calf, I took it and burned it with fire and cut it in pieces, grinding it exceedingly until it became fine, and it became like dust; and I threw the dust into the torrent that runs down from the mountain.

And at the Burning and at the Testing and at the Graves of Craving you were provoking the Lord your God.

And when the Lord sent you out from Kades Barne, saying, 'Go up and inherit the land which I give you,' then you disobeyed the word of the Lord your God, and did not believe him, and did not listen to his voice.

You were disobedient in the things toward the Lord from the day he became known to you.

And I prayed before the Lord forty days and forty nights, as many as I prayed; for the Lord had said he would utterly destroy you.

And I prayed to God and said: Lord, Lord, King of the gods, do not utterly destroy your people and your portion, which you redeemed by your great strength, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt by your great strength and by your mighty hand and by your uplifted arm.

Remember Abraam and Isaak and Iakob your servants, to whom you swore by yourself; do not look upon the hardness of this people, and their ungodly deeds and their sins,

lest the inhabitants of the land out of which you brought us say, 'Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.'

And these are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt by your great strength and by your uplifted arm.