1 “Hear, O Yisra’ĕl: You are passing over the Yardĕn today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and stronger than yourself, cities great and walled up to the heavens,
2 a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anaqim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who does stand before the descendants of Anaq?’
3 “And you shall know today that יהוה your Elohim is He who is passing over before you as a consuming fire – He does destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall dispossess them and destroy them quickly, as יהוה has said to you.
4 “Do not think in your heart, after יהוה your Elohim has driven them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness יהוה has brought me in to possess this land.’ But it is because of the wrong of these nations that יהוה is driving them out from before you.
5 “It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wrong of these nations that יהוה your Elohim drives them out from before you, in order to establish the word which יהוה swore to your fathers, to Aḇraham, to Yitsḥaq, and to Ya‛aqoḇ.
6 “And you shall know that יהוה your Elohim is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.
7 “Remember, do not forget how you provoked to wrath יהוה your Elohim in the wilderness. From the day that you came out of the land of Mitsrayim until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against יהוה.
8 “Even in Ḥorĕḇ you made יהוה wroth, so that יהוה was enraged with you, to destroy you.
9 “When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which יהוה made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I did not eat bread nor did I drink water.
10 “Then יהוה gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of Elohim, and on them were all the Words which יהוה had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.
11 “And it came to be, at the end of forty days and forty nights, that יהוה gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.
12 “Then יהוה said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Mitsrayim have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them, they have made themselves a moulded image.’
13 “And יהוה spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and look, they are a stiff-necked people.
14 ‘Leave Me alone, so that I destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens, and make of you a nation stronger and greater than they.’
15 “So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.
16 “And I looked and saw that you had sinned against יהוה your Elohim, and had made for yourselves a moulded calf! You had quickly turned aside from the way which יהוה had commanded you.
17 “And I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes,
18 “and I fell down before יהוה, as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I did not eat bread and I did not drink water, because of all your sins which you committed in doing evil in the eyes of יהוה, to provoke Him.
19 “For I was afraid of the displeasure and rage with which יהוה was wroth with you, to destroy you. But יהוה listened to me that time once more.
20 “And יהוה was very enraged with Aharon, to destroy him, so I prayed for Aharon at that time also.
21 “And I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.
22 “And at Taḇ‛ĕrah and at Massah and at Qiḇroth Hatta’awah you made יהוה wroth.
23 “And when יהוה sent you from Qaḏĕsh Barnĕa, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the mouth of יהוה your Elohim, and you neither trusted Him nor listened to His voice.
24 “You have been rebellious against יהוה from the day that I knew you.
25 “So I fell down before יהוה the forty days and forty nights, for I fell down because יהוה had said He would destroy you.
26 “And I prayed to יהוה, and said, ‘O Master יהוה, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have redeemed in Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Mitsrayim with a strong hand.
27 ‘Remember Your servants, Aḇraham, Yitsḥaq, and Ya‛aqoḇ. Do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wrong or on their sin,
28 lest the land from which You brought us should say, “Because יהוה was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.”
29 ‘And they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm.’