Deuteronomy 9

1 Hear, O Israel: You are to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fenced up to heaven,

Listen, people of Israel! Shortly you're going to cross the Jordan to enter and take over the country from nations that are larger and stronger than you, that have large towns with walls that reach up into the sky.

2 A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak!

The people are strong and tall; they are the descendants of the Anakim. You all know about them and you have heard the saying, “Who could ever defeat the sons of Anak?”

3 Understand therefore this day, that the LORD your God is he which goes over before you; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before your face: so shall you drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD has said unto you.

But you should realize that today the Lord your God is going across ahead of you. He is like a consuming fire; he will destroy them and defeat them ahead of you. You will drive them out and quickly wipe them out, just as the Lord promised you.

4 Speak not you in your heart, after that the LORD your God has cast them out from before you, saying, For my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD does drive them out from before you.

When the Lord your God has driven them out ahead of you, don't think to yourselves, “It's because I'm such a good person that the Lord has brought me here to take over this land.” No, the Lord is driving out these nations ahead of you because of they're so wicked.

5 Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may perform the word which the LORD swore unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

It's not because you're so good or moral that you are going to take over their land. No, it's because of their wickedness that the Lord your God is driving out these nations ahead of you, to keep the promise he made to your fathers—m to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6 Understand therefore, that the LORD your God gives you not this good land to possess it for your righteousness; for you are a stubborn people.

You'd better believe that it's not because you're such good people that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to own, because you are stubborn, hard-hearted people.

7 Remember, and forget not, how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that you did depart out of the land of Egypt, until all of you came unto this place, all of you have been rebellious against the LORD.

Remember how you provoked the Lord your God in the desert! Don't ever forget it! From the time you left the land of Egypt until you arrived here, you've been constantly rebelling against the Lord.

8 Also in Horeb all of you provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you to have destroyed you.

At Horeb you provoked the Lord, making him so angry he was about to destroy you.

9 When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:

This was when I climbed up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets that recorded agreement the Lord made with you. I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, and I didn't eat or drink anything.

10 And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spoke with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

The Lord gave me the two stone tablets on which he'd written with his finger everything he'd told you when he spoke from the fire on the mountain when we were all assembled there.

11 And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.

After forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the agreement.

12 And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get you down quickly from behind; for your people which you have brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.

The Lord told me, “Hurry! Go down immediately, because your people that you led out of Egypt, are committing a terrible sin. They have disobeyed what I told them so quickly! They have made themselves an idol using molten metal.”

13 Furthermore the LORD spoke unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stubborn people:

The Lord also told me, “I have been watching these people, and they really are a stubborn and hard-hearted.

14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.

Leave me, so that I can destroy them and wipe out their name completely. Then I will turn you into a nation even more powerful and more important than them.”

15 So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.

I went back down the mountain while it was still on fire, carrying the two tablets of the agreement.

16 And I looked, and, behold, all of you had sinned against the LORD your God, and had made you a molten calf: all of you had turned aside quickly out of the way which the LORD had commanded you.

Then I saw how much you had sinned against the Lord your God by making for yourselves a molten calf. You had disobeyed what the Lord had told you so quickly.

17 And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes.

I threw the two tablets down, smashing them to pieces as you watched.

18 And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which all of you sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

Then I lay down on the ground before the Lord for forty days and forty nights, just as I had before. I didn't eat or drink anything because of all the sins you had committed by doing what was evil in the Lord's sight, making him angry.

19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was angry against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also.

I was terrified at how angry and furious the Lord was with you. He was ready to destroy you. But once again the Lord listened to me.

20 And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.

The Lord was so angry with Aaron he was ready to destroy him, but right then I prayed for Aaron too.

21 And I took your sin, the calf which all of you had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.

I took that abominable thing, the calf you'd made, and burned it. Then I crushed it up and ground it into dust, and I threw it into the stream that descended from the mountain.

22 And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibrothhattaavah, all of you provoked the LORD to wrath.

But you went on provoking the Lord at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah.

23 Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadeshbarnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then all of you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and all of you believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.

When the Lord had you leave Kadesh-barnea, he told you, “Go and take over the country that I've given you.” But you defied the command of the Lord your God. You didn't believe him and you didn't obey him.

24 All of you have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.

You have been rebelling against the Lord from the day I first knew you.

25 Thus I fell down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first; because the LORD had said he would destroy you.

So I lay down on the ground before the Lord for forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had threatened to destroy you.

26 I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, destroy not your people and your inheritance, which you have redeemed through your greatness, which you have brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

I prayed to the Lord, saying, “Please Lord, God, don't destroy your people that belong to you, the ones whom you rescued by your great ability and led out of Egypt by your power.

27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin:

Please remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Please disregard the stubbornness of this people and their wicked sin.

28 Lest the land whence you brought us out say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.

If you don't, those people back in Egypt will say, ‘The Lord brought them out to kill them in the desert because he couldn't take them to the land he'd promised them, and because he hated them.’

29 Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your mighty power and by your stretched out arm.

But they are your people, Lord! They belong to you! You led them out of Egypt by your amazing power and might!”