Israel’s Rebellions Reviewed
1 “Hear, O Israel: Youareto cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven,
2 a people great and tall, thedescendants of the Anakim, whom you know, andofwhomyou hearditsaid,‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’
3 Therefore understand today that theLordyour GodisHe whogoes over before youasaconsuming fire.He will destroy them and bring them down before you;so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as theLordhas said to you.
4 “Do not think in your heart, after theLordyour God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness theLordhas brought me in to possess this land’; butitisbecause of the wickedness of these nationsthattheLordis driving them out from before you.
5 Itisnot because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heartthatyou go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nationsthattheLordyour God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill theword which theLordswore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
6 Therefore understand that theLordyour God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for youareastiff-necked people.
7 “Remember! Do not forget how youprovoked theLordyour God to wrath in the wilderness.From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against theLord.
8 Alsoin Horeb you provoked theLordto wrath, so that theLordwas angryenoughwith you to have destroyed you.
9 When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which theLordmade with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days andforty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.
10 Then theLorddelivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on themwereall the words which theLordhad spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the firein the day of the assembly.
11 And it came to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights,thattheLordgave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.
12 “Then theLordsaid to me,‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly; they havequickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molded image.’
13 “FurthermoretheLordspoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeedthey are a stiff-necked people.
14 Let Me alone, that I may destroy them andblot out their name from under heaven;and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’
15 “So I turned and came down from the mountain, andthe mountain burned with fire; and the two tablets of the covenantwerein my two hands.
16 AndI looked, and behold, you had sinned against theLordyour God—had made for yourselves a molded calf! You had turned aside quickly from the way which theLordhad commanded you.
17 Then I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands andbroke them before your eyes.
18 And Ifell down before theLord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of theLord, to provoke Him to anger.
19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which theLordwas angry with you, to destroy you.But theLordlistened to me at that time also.
20 And theLordwas very angry with Aaronandwould have destroyed him; so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.
21 Then I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed itandgrounditvery small, until it was as fine as dust; and Ithrew its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain.
22 “Also atTaberah andMassah andKibroth Hattaavah you provoked theLordto wrath.
23 Likewise,when theLordsent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of theLordyour God, andyou did not believe Him nor obey His voice.
24 You have been rebellious against theLordfrom the day that I knew you.
25 “Thus I prostrated myself before theLord; forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself, because theLordhad said He would destroy you.
26 Therefore I prayed to theLord, and said: ‘O LordGod, do not destroy Your people andYour inheritance whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
27 Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or their sin,
28 lest the land from which You brought us should say, “Because theLordwas not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.”
29 Yet theyareYour people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.’