I”Listen, Israel: you’re crossing the Jordan today to come to dispossess nations bigger and stronger than you, big cities and fortified to the skies, 2a people big and tall, giants, of whom you have known, and of whom you have heard it said: ‘Who can stand in front of the giants?!’ 3So you shall know today that YHWH, your God: He is the one who is crossing in front of you, a consuming fire. He will destroy them, and He will subdue them in front of you, so you’ll dispossess them and destroy them quickly as YHWH has spoken to you.
4“Don’t say in your heart when YHWH pushes them from in front of you, saying, ‘Because of my virtue YHWH has brought me to take possession of this land,’ when it is because of these nations’ wickedness that YHWH dispossesses them from before you. 5It’s not because of your virtue and your heart’s integrity that you’re coming to take possession of their land, but it is because of these nations’ wickedness that YHWH, your God, dispossesses them from before you, and in order to uphold the thing that YHWH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 6So you shall know that it is not because of your virtue that YHWH, your God, gives you this good land to take possession of it, because you’re a hard-necked people. 7Remember—don’t forget!—that you made YHWH, your God, angry in the wilderness. From the day that you went out from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you’ve been rebellious toward YHWH. 8And you made YHWH angry at Horeb, and YHWH was so incensed at you as to destroy you. 9When I went up to the mountain to get the tablets of stones, the tablets of the covenant that YHWH made with you, and I stayed in the mountain forty days and forty nights, I didn’t eat bread and didn’t drink water. 10And YHWH gave me the two tablets of stones, written by the finger of God,176 and on them were all the words that YHWH had spoken with you at the mountain from inside the fire in the day of the assembly. IIAnd it was: at the end of forty days and forty nights YHWH gave me the two tablets of stones, the tablets of the covenant.
12“And YHWH said to me, ‘Get up. Go down quickly from here, because your people whom you brought out from Egypt has become corrupt. They’ve turned quickly from the way that I commanded them. They’ve made themselves a molten thing.’ 13And YHWH said to me, saying, ‘I’ve seen this people; and, here, it’s a hard-necked people. 14Hold back from me, and I’ll destroy them and wipe out their name from under the skies, and I’ll make you into a more powerful and numerous people than they.’
15“And I turned and went down from the mountain—and the mountain was burning in fire—and the two tablets of the covenant were on my two hands. l6And I saw! And, here, you’d sinned against YHWH, your God. You’d made yourselves a molten calf. You’d turned quickly from the way that YHWH had commanded you. 17And I grasped the two tablets and threw them from on my two hands and shattered them before your eyes.
l8“And I prostrated myself in front of YHWH like the first time, forty days and forty nights—I didn’t eat bread and didn’t drink water—over all your sin that you did, to do what was bad in YHWH’s eyes, to provoke Him, 19because I was dreading on account of the anger and the fury, that YHWH was so angry at you as to destroy you. But YHWH listened to me that time as well. 20And YHWH was very incensed at Aaron so as to destroy him,177 and I prayed for Aaron at that time as well. 2IAnd your sin that you made, the calf: I took it and burned it in fire and crushed it, grinding it well until it was thin as dust, and I threw its dust into the wadi that comes down from the mountain.
22“And at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah you were making YHWH angry. 23And when YHWH sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I’ve given you,’ then you rebelled at the word of YHWH, your God, and you didn’t trust Him and didn’t listen to His voice. 24You’ve been rebelling toward YHWH from the day I knew you.
25“So I prostrated myself in front of YHWH for the forty days and forty nights that I had fallen down because YHWH had said He would destroy you, 26and I prayed to YHWH and said, ‘My Lord YHWH, don’t destroy your people and your legacy whom you redeemed by your greatness, whom you brought out from Egypt with a strong hand. 27Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don’t look to this people’s hardness and to its wickedness and to its sin, 28or else the land from which you brought us out will say: Because YHWH wasn’t able to bring them to the land of which He spoke to them, and because He hated them, He brought them out to kill them in the wilderness! 29And they’re your people and your legacy, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’