1»Hear, O Israel, you are about to cross the Jordan River. You will force out nations that are larger and mightier than you, with big cities that have sky-high walls. 2»Their people are tall and strong. They are descendants of Anakim. You know all about them. You also heard it said: Who can oppose the descendants of Anak? 3»Understand today that Jehovah your God is the one who is going ahead of you like a consuming ragingdevouring fire. He will wipe them out. Then he will use you to crush their power. You will take possession of their land and will quickly destroy them as Jehovah promised you. 4»When Jehovah your God expels these people right before your very eyes, do not say to yourselves: ‘Jehovah brought us here to possess this land because we live right are righteous.’ This is not the case. It is because these nations are so wicked that Jehovah is forcing them out of your way. 5»It is not because you have been living right or because you are so honest that you enter to take possession of their land. It is because these people are so wicked that Jehovah your God is forcing them out of your way. It is also because Jehovah wants to confirm the promise he swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6»Understand this! It is not because you have been living right that Jehovah your God is giving you this good land to possess. You are a rebellious and impossible stiff-neckedstubborn people! 7»Never forget how you made Jehovah your God angry in the desert. You rebelled against Jehovah from the day you left Egypt until you came here. 8»Even at Mount Horeb you made Jehovah so angry that he wanted to destroy you. 9»When I went up on the mountain to get the stone tablets, the tablets of the promise that Jehovah made to you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights without food or water. 10»Then Jehovah gave me the two stone tablets inscribed by God’s finger Holy Spirit. On them were written all the words Jehovah spoke to you from the fire on the mountain on the day of the assembly. 11»At the end of forty days and nights Jehovah gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. 12»Jehovah said to me: ‘Go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them. They have made a cast-idol for themselves.’ 13»‘Jehovah spoke further to me: ‘I have seen this people. They are a very stubborn people. 14»‘Leave me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ 15»So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire. I carried the two stone tablets of the covenant in my two hands. 16»I saw that you had indeed sinned against Jehovah your God. You made yourselves an idol, cast in the shape of a calf. You turned aside quickly from the way Jehovah had commanded you. 17»I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and smashed them before your eyes. 18»I fell down before Jehovah. Like the first, forty days and nights I did not eat or drink. This was because of all your sin you committed in doing what was evil in the sight of Jehovah to provoke Him to anger. 19»I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure from Jehovah. For he was wrathful against you to the point of destroying you! But Jehovah listened to me that time also. 20»Jehovah was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him! So I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. 21»I took your sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it. I ground it very small until it was as fine as dust. I threw its dust into the brook that flowed down the mountain. 22»Again at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked Jehovah to anger. 23»‘Jehovah sent you from Kadesh-barnea. He said: ‘Go up and possess the land I have given you.’ Then you rebelled against the command of Jehovah your God. You did not believe him. You did not listen to his voice! 24»You have rebelled against Jehovah from the day I knew you. 25»So I fell down prostrate before Jehovah the forty days and forty nights. I did this because Jehovah said he would destroy you. 26»I prayed to Jehovah and said: ‘O Jehovah our God, do not destroy your people for they are your inheritance. You have redeemed them through your greatness. You brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27»‘»Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not look at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness or their sin. 28»‘»The land from which you brought us may say: »Jehovah was not able to bring them into the land he promised them and because he hated them he has brought them out to slay them in the desert wilderness.« 29»Even now they are your people, your inheritance, whom you brought out by your great power and outstretched arm.«