Not for your righteousness
1Hear, Israel: today you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities fortified up to the sky, 2a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, “Who can stand up to the sons of Anak?” 3Know today that Yahweh your God is the one who crosses over ahead of you, a consuming fire. He will destroy them and subdue them before you, and you will drive them out and wipe them out quickly, as Yahweh has promised you. 4After Yahweh your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land because of my righteousness.” It is because of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh is driving them out before you. 5It is not because of your righteousness or the honesty of your heart that you are going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh your God is driving them out before you, and in order to fulfill the word Yahweh swore to your fathers — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that Yahweh your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.
Remember Horeb and the golden calf
7Remember — do not forget — how you provoked Yahweh your God to anger in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. 8Even at Horeb you provoked Yahweh to anger, and Yahweh was angry enough with you to destroy you. 9When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant Yahweh made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water. 10Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone, written by the finger of God, containing all the words Yahweh had spoken to you at the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. 11At the end of the forty days and forty nights, Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. 12Yahweh said to me, “Get up, go down quickly from here, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned away from the path I commanded them; they have made themselves a cast image.” 13Yahweh also said to me, “I have seen this people, and indeed, they are a stubborn people. 14Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make of you a nation stronger and more numerous than they are.” 15So I turned and came down from the mountain, while it was blazing with fire, with the two tablets of the covenant in my two hands. 16I looked, and there you had sinned against Yahweh your God — you had made yourselves a cast calf. You had quickly turned away from the path Yahweh had commanded you. 17I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands, shattering them before your eyes. 18Then I fell down before Yahweh again, as before, forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water, because of the whole sin you had committed in doing what was evil in Yahweh’s eyes, provoking him to anger. 19For I was afraid of the fierce anger with which Yahweh was angry enough with you to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time as well. 20Yahweh was also very angry with Aaron, angry enough to destroy him, so at that time I also prayed for Aaron. 21As for your sin, the calf you had made, I took it and burned it in the fire. I crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was fine as dust, and I threw its dust into the stream flowing down from the mountain.
A rebellious people, and Moses’ plea
22At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, you also provoked Yahweh to anger. 23And when Yahweh sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land I have given you,” you rebelled against the word of Yahweh your God. You did not trust him or listen to his voice. 24You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day I have known you. 25So I fell down before Yahweh for those forty days and forty nights, because Yahweh had said he would destroy you. 26I prayed to Yahweh, “Lord Yahweh, do not destroy your people, your own inheritance, whom you redeemed by your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Pay no attention to the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness, or their sin, 28or the land from which you brought us may 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.’ 29But they are your people, your inheritance, whom you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.”
