1
"Hear, O Israel: you are 1to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations 2greater and mightier than yourselves, cities great and fortified up to heaven,
2
a people great and tall, 3the sons of the Anakim, 4whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, 'Who can stand before the sons of Anak?'
3
Know therefore today that he who 5goes over before you 6as a consuming fire is the LORD your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. 7So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the LORD has promised you.
4
8"Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, 'It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,' whereas it is 9because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.
5
10Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm 11the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
6
"Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are 12a stubborn people.
7
Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. 13From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.
8
Even 14at Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, and the LORD was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you.
9
15When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I remained on the mountain 16forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.
10
And 17the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the LORD had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire 18on the day of the assembly.
11
And at the end of forty days and forty nights the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.
12
Then the LORD said to me, 19'Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have 20turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.'