1 “Listen, O Israel! Today you are about to cross the Jordan River to take over the land belonging to nations much greater and more powerful than you. They live in cities with walls that reach to the sky!
2 The people are strong and tall—descendants of the famous Anakite giants. You’ve heard the saying, ‘Who can stand up to the Anakites?’
3 But recognize today that the lord your God is the one who will cross over ahead of you like a devouring fire to destroy them. He will subdue them so that you will quickly conquer them and drive them out, just as the lord has promised.
4 “After the lord your God has done this for you, don’t say in your hearts, ‘The lord has given us this land because we are such good people!’ No, it is because of the wickedness of the other nations that he is pushing them out of your way.
5 It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land. The lord your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
6 You must recognize that the lord your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not—you are a stubborn people.
7 “Remember and never forget how angry you made the lord your God out in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until now, you have been constantly rebelling against him.
8 Even at Mount Sinai you made the lord so angry he was ready to destroy you.
9 This happened when I was on the mountain receiving the tablets of stone inscribed with the words of the covenant that the lord had made with you. I was there for forty days and forty nights, and all that time I ate no food and drank no water.
10 The lord gave me the two tablets on which God had written with his own finger all the words he had spoken to you from the heart of the fire when you were assembled at the mountain.
11 “At the end of the forty days and nights, the lord handed me the two stone tablets inscribed with the words of the covenant.
12 Then the lord said to me, ‘Get up! Go down immediately, for the people you brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned away from the way I commanded them to live! They have melted gold and made an idol for themselves!’
13 “The lord also said to me, ‘I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are.
14 Leave me alone so I may destroy them and erase their name from under heaven. Then I will make a mighty nation of your descendants, a nation larger and more powerful than they are.’
15 “So while the mountain was blazing with fire I turned and came down, holding in my hands the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant.
16 There below me I could see that you had sinned against the lord your God. You had melted gold and made a calf idol for yourselves. How quickly you had turned away from the path the lord had commanded you to follow!
17 So I took the stone tablets and threw them to the ground, smashing them before your eyes.
18 “Then, as before, I threw myself down before the lord for forty days and nights. I ate no bread and drank no water because of the great sin you had committed by doing what the lord hated, provoking him to anger.
19 I feared that the furious anger of the lord, which turned him against you, would drive him to destroy you. But again he listened to me.
20 The lord was so angry with Aaron that he wanted to destroy him, too. But I prayed for Aaron, and the lord spared him.
21 I took your sin—the calf you had made—and I melted it down in the fire and ground it into fine dust. Then I threw the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.
22 “You also made the lord angry at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah.
23 And at Kadesh-barnea the lord sent you out with this command: ‘Go up and take over the land I have given you.’ But you rebelled against the command of the lord your God and refused to put your trust in him or obey him.
24 Yes, you have been rebelling against the lord as long as I have known you.
25 “That is why I threw myself down before the lord for forty days and nights—for the lord said he would destroy you.
26 I prayed to the lord and said, ‘O Sovereign lord, do not destroy them. They are your own people. They are your special possession, whom you redeemed from Egypt by your mighty power and your strong hand.
27 Please overlook the stubbornness and the awful sin of these people, and remember instead your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
28 If you destroy these people, the Egyptians will say, “The Israelites died because the lord wasn’t able to bring them to the land he had promised to give them.” Or they might say, “He destroyed them because he hated them; he deliberately took them into the wilderness to slaughter them.”
29 But they are your people and your special possession, whom you brought out of Egypt by your great strength and powerful arm.’