1Israel, listen to me. You are now about to go across the River Jordan. You will take over the land of the nations that live there. Those nations are greater and stronger than you are. Their large cities have walls that reach up to the sky.2The people who live there are Anakites. They are strong and tall. You know all about them. You have heard people say, ‘Who can stand up against the Anakites?’3But today you can be sure the LORD your God will go over there ahead of you. He is like a fire that will burn them up. He’ll destroy them. He’ll bring them under your control. You will drive them out. You will put an end to them quickly, just as the LORD has promised you.4The LORD your God will drive them out to make room for you. When he does, don’t say to yourself, ‘The LORD has done it because I am godly. That’s why he brought me here to take over this land.’ That isn’t true. The LORD is going to drive out those nations to make room for you because they are very evil.5You are not going in to take over their land because you have done what is right or honest. It’s because those nations are so evil. That’s why the LORD your God will drive them out to make room for you. He will do what he said he would do. He made a promise to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.6The LORD your God is giving you this good land to take as your own. But you must understand that it isn’t because you are a godly nation. In fact, you are stubborn.
Israel worshipped the golden calf
7Here is something you must remember. Never forget it. You made the LORD your God angry in the desert. You refused to obey him from the day you left Egypt until you arrived here.8At Mount Horeb you made the LORD angry enough to destroy you.9I went up the mountain. I went there to receive the tablets of the covenant law. They were made out of stone. It was the covenant the LORD had made with you. I stayed on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. I didn’t eat any food or drink any water.10The LORD gave me two stone tablets. The words on them were written by the finger of God. All the commandments the LORD gave you were written on the tablets. He announced them to you out of the fire on the mountain. He wrote them on the day you gathered together there.11The 40 days and 40 nights came to an end. Then the LORD gave me the two stone tablets. They were the tablets of the covenant law.12The LORD told me, ‘Go down from here right away. The people you brought out of Egypt have become very sinful. They have quickly turned away from what I commanded them. They have made a statue of a god for themselves.’13The LORD also said to me, ‘I have seen these people. They are so stubborn!14Do not try to stop me. I am going to destroy them. I will wipe them out from the earth. Then I will make you into a great nation. Your people will be stronger than they were. There will be more of you than there were of them.’15So I turned and went down the mountain. It was blazing with fire. I was carrying the two tablets of the covenant law.16When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the LORD your God. You had made for yourselves a metal statue of a god. It looked like a calf. You had quickly turned away from the path the LORD had commanded you to follow.17So I threw the two tablets out of my hands. You watched them break into pieces.18Then once again I fell down flat in front of the LORD with my face towards the ground. I lay there for 40 days and 40 nights. I didn’t eat any food or drink any water. You had committed a terrible sin. You had done an evil thing in the LORD’s sight. You had made him angry.19I was afraid of the LORD’s great anger. He was so angry with you he wanted to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me again.20And he was so angry with Aaron he wanted to destroy him too. But at that time I prayed for Aaron.21I also got that sinful calf you had made. I burned it in the fire. I crushed it and ground it into fine powder. Then I threw the powder into a stream that was flowing down the mountain.22You also made the LORD angry at Taberah, Massah and Kibroth Hattaavah.23The LORD sent you out from Kadesh Barnea. He said, ‘Go up and take over the land I have given you.’ But you refused to do what the LORD your God had commanded you to do. You didn’t trust him or obey him.24You have been refusing to obey the LORD as long as I’ve known you.25I lay down in front of the LORD with my face towards the ground for 40 days and 40 nights. I did it because the LORD had said he would destroy you.26I prayed to him. ‘LORD and King,’ I said, ‘don’t destroy your people. They belong to you. You set them free by your great power. You used your mighty hand to bring them out of Egypt.27Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Forgive the Israelites for being so stubborn. Don’t judge them for the evil and sinful things they’ve done.28If you do, the Egyptians will say, “The LORD wasn’t able to take them into the land he had promised to give them. He hated them. So he brought them out of Egypt to put them to death in the desert.”29But they are your people. They belong to you. You used your great power to bring them out of Egypt. You reached out your mighty arm and saved them.’
Deuteronomy 9
English Standard Version
Not Because of Righteousness
1“Hear, O Israel: you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, (De 4:38; De 11:31; De 12:10; Jos 1:11)2a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ (Nu 13:22; De 1:28)3Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you. (Ex 23:29; De 4:24; De 7:24; De 31:3; Jos 3:11)4“Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. (Le 18:24; Le 20:23; De 8:17; De 18:12; De 20:18)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 driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. (Ge 50:24; Tit 3:5)6“Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. (De 10:16)7Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. (Ex 14:11; Ex 15:24; Ex 16:2; Ex 17:2; Nu 11:4; Nu 14:2; Nu 14:11; Nu 14:41; Nu 20:2; Nu 21:5; Nu 25:2; De 9:24; De 31:27)8Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. (Ex 32:4; Ps 106:19)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 neither ate bread nor drank water. (Ex 24:12; Ex 24:15; Ex 24:18; Ex 34:28; 1Ki 19:8; Mt 4:2; Lu 4:1)10And the 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 out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. (Ex 19:17; Ex 31:18; De 4:10; De 10:4; De 18:16)11And at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.12Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’ (Ex 32:7; De 31:29; Jud 2:17)
The Golden Calf
13“Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stubborn people. (Ex 32:9; De 9:6)14Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ (Ex 17:14; Ex 32:10; Nu 14:12; De 7:24; De 25:19; De 29:20)15So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. (Ex 19:18; Ex 32:15; De 4:11; De 5:23)16And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden[1] calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. (Ex 32:19; De 31:29; Jud 2:17)17So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes.18Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. (Ex 34:28; De 4:25; De 9:9; De 10:10; Ps 106:23)19For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also. (Ex 32:14; Ex 33:17; De 10:10)20And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.21Then I took the sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain. (Ex 32:20)22“At Taberah also, and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. (Ex 17:7; Nu 11:1; Nu 11:34)23And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and did not believe him or obey his voice. (Nu 13:3; Nu 14:1; Ps 106:24)24You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you. (De 9:7; De 31:27)25“So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. (De 9:18)26And I prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. (Ex 32:11)27Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or 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 promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.” (Nu 14:16)29For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’ (De 4:20; 1Ki 8:51; Ne 1:10; Ps 95:7)