1 “Hear, O Israel: You will be passing over the Jordan today to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the heavens, 2 a people great and tall, sons of Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard: Who stationed himself before sons of Anak? 3 And you know today that your God YHWH is He who will be passing over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them, and humble them before you, and you will dispossess them, and destroy them quickly, as YHWH has spoken to you. 4 You will not speak in your heart (in your God YHWH’s driving them away from before you), saying, In my righteousness YHWH has brought me in to possess this land. But in YHWH dispossessing these nations from your presence, it is because of their being wicked. 5 It is not in your righteousness and in the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to possess their land, but in YHWH dispossessing these nations from your presence, it is because of their being wicked, and in order to establish the word which YHWH has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 6 And you will know that it is not in your righteousness that your God YHWH is giving this good land to you to possess it, for you are a people stiff of neck. 7 Remember and do not forget that with which you have made your God YHWH angry in the wilderness. From the day that you came out of the land of Egypt until your coming to this place, you were rebellious against YHWH. 8 Even in Horeb you made YHWH angry, and YHWH showed Himself angry against you—to destroy you. 9 In my going up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone (tablets of the covenant which YHWH had made with you), then I abode on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. I had not eaten bread and I had not drunk water. 10 And YHWH gave to me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them was according to all the words which YHWH had spoken with you on the mountain, out of the middle of the fire, in the day of the assembly. 11 And it came to pass, at the end of 40 days and 40 nights, YHWH had given the two tablets of stone to me—tablets of the covenant. 12 Then YHWH said to me, Rise, go down, hurry from here, for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have done corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I have commanded them—they have made a molten thing for themselves! 13 And YHWH spoke to me, saying, I have seen this people, and look, it are a people stiff of neck. 14 Desist from Me, and I will destroy them, and blot out their name from under the heavens, and I will make you become a nation more mighty and numerous than it. 15 And I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were on my two hands, 16 and I saw, and look, you had sinned against your God YHWH. You had made a molten calf for yourselves. You had quickly turned aside from the way which YHWH had commanded you. 17 And I laid hold on the two tablets, and threw them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes, 18 and I threw myself before YHWH, as at first, for 40 days and 40 nights. I had not eaten bread and I had not drunk water, because of all your sins which you had sinned by doing evil in the eyes of YHWH, to make Him angry. 19 For I had been afraid because of the anger and the fury with which YHWH had been angry against you, to destroy you. And YHWH also listened to me at this time. 20 And YHWH had showed Himself very angry with Aaron, to destroy him, and I also prayed for Aaron at that time. 21 And I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burnt it with fire, and beat it, grinding well until it was small as dust, and I threw its dust into the brook which was going down out of the mountain. 22 And in Taberah, and in Massah, and in Kibroth-Hattaavah, you were making YHWH angry. 23 Also in YHWH’s sending you from Kadesh-Barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given to you. Then you provoked the mouth of your God YHWH, and had not given credence to Him, nor listened to His voice. 24 You have been rebellious against YHWH from the day of my knowing you. 25 And I threw myself before YHWH—the 40 days and the 40 nights when I had thrown myself—because YHWH had commanded to destroy you. 26 And I prayed to YHWH, and said, Lord YHWH, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have ransomed in Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a strong hand. 27 Be mindful of Your servants, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Do not turn to the stiffness of this people, and to its wickedness, and to its sin, 28 lest the land from which You have brought us out says, Because of YHWH’s want of ability to bring them into the land of which He has spoken to them, and because of His hating them, He brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness. 29 And they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm!”