1Hear, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and drive out nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls reaching to the sky.
2The people there are strong and tall — the Anakites. You know about them and have heard it said, 'Who can stand up against the Anakites?'
3But today understand that the LORD your God is the one who goes before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. You will drive them out and eliminate them quickly, just as the LORD promised.
4After the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, 'The LORD brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.' No, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.
5It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God is driving them out before you, in order to fulfill the word he swore to your ancestors — to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
6Understand that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.
7Remember this and never forget how you provoked the LORD your God to anger in the wilderness. You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day you left Egypt until you arrived here.
8At Horeb you provoked the LORD to anger and his wrath was so intense he was ready to destroy you.
9When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets — the tablets of the covenant the LORD made with you — I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water.
10The LORD gave me the two stone tablets, written by the finger of God, and on them were all the words the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly.
11At the end of forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets — the tablets of the covenant.
12Then the LORD said to me, 'Get up! Go down from here quickly, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned away from what I commanded them and made a cast idol.'
13The LORD also said to me, 'I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stubborn people.
14Leave me alone so I can destroy them and wipe out their name from under the sky. Then I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they are.'
15So I turned and came down from the mountain that was blazing with fire, carrying the two tablets of the covenant in both hands.
16I looked and there you had sinned against the LORD your God — you had made a cast calf for yourselves. You had turned aside quickly from the way the LORD had commanded you.
17So I grabbed the two tablets and threw them down, shattering them before your eyes.
18Then I fell face down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done before. I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed by doing what was evil in the LORD's sight and provoking him.
19I was afraid of the fierce anger of the LORD directed against you — he was ready to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me again.
20The LORD was also angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too.
21I took the sinful thing you had made — the calf — and burned it up. Then I crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was as fine as dust, and I threw the dust into the stream that flows down from the mountain.
22At Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah, you also provoked the LORD to anger.
23And when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, 'Go up and take possession of the land I have given you,' you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You did not trust him or obey him.
24You have been rebellious against the LORD as long as I have known you.
25I lay face down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights because the LORD had said he would destroy you.
26I prayed to the LORD and said, 'Sovereign LORD, do not destroy your people — your own inheritance whom you redeemed by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
27Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not look at the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness, or their sin,
28or the Egyptians will say, "The LORD couldn't bring them into the land he promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness."
29But they are your people — your inheritance — whom you brought out by your great strength and your outstretched arm.'