1Listen, Israel! Today you are about to cross the Jordan River to go in and conquer nations greater and more powerful than yourselves, with large cities fortified up to the sky,
2a great and tall people, the descendants of Anak, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, "Who can stand against the sons of Anak?"
3Understand today that Yahweh your God is the one who will go before you like a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you. So you will drive them out and make them perish quickly, just as Yahweh told you.
4After Yahweh your God has driven them out before you, don't ever say to yourselves, "Yahweh brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness." No, Yahweh is driving them out before you because of their wickedness.
5You are not going in to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your pure hearts, but because of the wickedness of these nations, Yahweh your God is driving them out before you. He is also doing this to fulfill the promise Yahweh made to your ancestors: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
6Understand, then, that Yahweh your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people.
7Remember, and don't forget, how you angered Yahweh your God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh.
8In Horeb, you also made Yahweh angry, and he was so furious with you that he wanted to destroy you.
9When I went up on the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant Yahweh made with you, I stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. I didn't eat bread or drink water.
10Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets, written with God's own finger. On them were all the words Yahweh spoke to you on the mountain from the fire on the day of the assembly.
11After forty days and forty nights, Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.
12Yahweh told me, "Get up and go down from here quickly, because your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned away from the path I commanded them to follow. They have made a metal idol for themselves!"
13Yahweh also said to me, "I have seen these people, and indeed, they are stubborn.
14Leave me alone so I can destroy them and erase their name from under the sky. I will make a nation from you that is mightier and greater than they are."
15So I turned and came down from the mountain, which was burning with fire. I had the two tablets of the covenant in my hands.
16I looked and saw that you had sinned against Yahweh your God. You had made a molten calf for yourselves. You had quickly turned away from the path Yahweh commanded you to follow.
17I grabbed the two tablets, threw them from my hands, and broke them right in front of you.
18I fell before Yahweh again, as I had the first time, for forty days and forty nights. I didn't eat bread or drink water, because of all the sin you committed by doing what was evil in Yahweh's sight and making him angry.
19I was afraid of Yahweh's anger and fury, which he had for you, intending to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time too.
20Yahweh was also angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, and I prayed for Aaron at that same time.
21I took the calf you made, which was your sin, and burned it with fire. I crushed it, grinding it into very fine dust, until it was like powder. Then I threw its dust into the stream that flowed down from the mountain.
22At Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth Hattaavah, you also made Yahweh angry.
23When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, "Go up and take possession of the land I have given you," you rebelled against the command of Yahweh your God. You didn't believe him or listen to his voice.
24You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day I first knew you.
25So I fell down before Yahweh for the forty days and forty nights I had been down, because Yahweh had said he would destroy you.
26I prayed to Yahweh and said, "Lord Yahweh, don't destroy your people and your inheritance, whom you have set free through your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
27Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don't pay attention to the stubbornness of these people, or their wickedness, or their sin,
28otherwise, the land from which you brought us might say, 'Because Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land he promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.'
29Yet, they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out with your great power and your outstretched arm."