DeuteronomyChapter 9

Tap any verse to comment or suggest a better wording.

¹Listen, Israel! Today you are about to cross the Jordan River. You will go in and take the land from nations bigger and stronger than you. Their cities are large, with walls that reach up to the sky. ²The people are strong and tall. They are the Anakim. You know about them. You have heard people say, "Who can stand up against the sons of Anak?" ³But know this today. The LORD your God is crossing over ahead of you like a fire that burns everything up. He will destroy them. He will bring them down in front of you. And you will drive them out and wipe them out fast, just as the LORD promised you. ⁴The LORD your God will drive them out in front of you. When he does, do not say to yourself, "The LORD brought me in to take this land because I do what is right." No, the LORD is driving out these nations in front of you because they are wicked. ⁵You are not going in to take their land because you do what is right or because your heart is honest. The LORD your God is driving out these nations in front of you because they are wicked. He is also doing it to keep the promise he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ⁶So understand this. The LORD your God is not giving you this good land to own because you do what is right. After all, you are a stubborn people.a ⁷Remember this, and never forget it. You made the LORD your God angry in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you got to this place, you have kept rebelling against the LORD. ⁸At Horeb you made the LORD angry. He was angry enough to destroy you. ⁹I went up on the mountain to get the stone tablets. They were the tablets of the covenant the LORD made with you. I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread, and I drank no water. ¹⁰Then the LORD gave me the two stone tablets. They were written by the finger of God. On them were the exact words the LORD spoke to you from the fire on the mountain. He spoke them on the day all of you gathered there. ¹¹At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets. They were the tablets of the covenant. ¹²Then the LORD said to me, "Get up and go down from here right now. Your people, the ones you brought out of Egypt, have become evil. They have turned away so fast from the way I commanded them! They have made an idol for themselves out of melted metal." ¹³The LORD also said to me, "I have seen these people. They really are a stubborn people. ¹⁴Leave me alone so I can destroy them. I will wipe out their name from under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation stronger and greater than they are." ¹⁵So I turned and went back down the mountain. The mountain was blazing with fire. The two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. ¹⁶Then I saw that you had sinned against the LORD your God. You had made yourselves a calf out of melted metal. You had quickly turned away from the way the LORD had commanded you. ¹⁷So I took the two tablets and threw them down from my hands. I smashed them to pieces right in front of you. ¹⁸Then I lay face down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, just like the first time. I ate no bread and drank no water. I did this because of all the sin you had done. You had done what was evil in the LORD's eyes, and you had made him angry. ¹⁹I was afraid of the LORD's anger and fury against you. He was angry enough to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me this time too. ²⁰The LORD was also angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. But at that time I prayed for Aaron too. ²¹Then I took that sinful thing you had made, the calf, and burned it in the fire. I crushed it and ground it into powder as fine as dust. Then I threw the dust into the stream that flowed down the mountain. ²²You also made the LORD angry at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah. ²³Then the LORD sent you out from Kadesh-barnea. He said, "Go up and take the land I have given you." But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You did not trust him, and you did not obey him. ²⁴You have been rebelling against the LORD ever since the day I first knew you. ²⁵So I lay face down before the LORD for those forty days and forty nights. I did it because the LORD had said he would destroy you. ²⁶I prayed to the LORD. I said, "Lord GOD, please do not destroy your people. They are your own special people. You redeemed them by your great power. You brought them out of Egypt with your mighty hand.b ²⁷Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Look past how stubborn these people are. Look past their wickedness and their sin. ²⁸If you don't, the people in the land you brought us out of will talk. They will say, 'The LORD was not able to bring them into the land he promised them. And he hated them. So he brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.' ²⁹But they are your people. They are your own special people. You brought them out by your great power and your strong arm."c