Chapter 9

Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven,

A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak!

Understand therefore this day, that YHVH thy ELOHIYM is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as YHVH hath said unto thee.

Speak not thou in thine heart, after that YHVH thy ELOHIYM hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness YHVH hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations YHVH doth drive them out from before thee.

Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations YHVH thy ELOHIYM doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which YHVH sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Understand therefore, that YHVH thy ELOHIYM giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.

Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst YHVH thy ELOHIYM to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against YHVH.

Also in Horeb ye provoked YHVH to wrath, so that YHVH was angry with you to have destroyed you.

When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which YHVH made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:

And YHVH delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of ELOHIYM; and on them was written according to all the words, which YHVH spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that YHVH gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.

And YHVH said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.

Furthermore YHVH spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.

So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.

And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against YHVH your ELOHIYM, and had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which YHVH had commanded you.

And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes.

And I fell down before YHVH, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of YHVH, to provoke him to anger.

For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith YHVH was wroth against you to destroy you. But YHVH hearkened unto me at that time also.

And YHVH was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.

And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.

And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibrothhattaavah, ye provoked YHVH to wrath.

Likewise when YHVH sent you from Kadeshbarnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of YHVH your ELOHIYM, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.

Ye have been rebellious against YHVH from the day that I knew you.

Thus I fell down before YHVH forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first; because YHVH had said he would destroy you.

I prayed therefore unto YHVH, and said, O ADONAY YHVH, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin:

Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because YHVH was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.

Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm.