DEḆARIM 9

1 “Hear, O Yisra’ĕl: You are passing over the Yardĕn today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and stronger than yourself, cities great and walled up to the shamayim,

2 a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anaqim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who stands before the descendants of Anaq?’

3 “And you shall know today that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 your Elohim is He who is passing over before you as a consuming fire – He destroys them and subdues them before you. So you shall dispossess them and destroy them quickly, as 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 has said to you.

4 “Do not think in your heart, after 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 your Elohim has driven them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 has brought me in to possess this land.’ But it is because of the wickedness of these nations that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 is driving them out from before you.

5 “It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 your Elohim drives them out from before you, in order to establish the word which 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 swore to your fathers, to Aḇraham, to Yitsḥaq, and to Ya’aqoḇ.

6 “And you shall know that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 your Elohim is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

7 “Remember, do not forget how you provoked to wrath 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 your Elohim in the wilderness. From the day that you came out of the land of Mitsrayim until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.

8 “Even in Ḥorĕḇ you made 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 wroth, so that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 was enraged with you, to destroy you.

9 “When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the Covenant which 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I did not eat bread nor did I drink water.

10 “Then 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of Elohim, and on them were all the Words which 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

11 “And it came to be, at the end of forty days and forty nights, that 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the Covenant.

12 “Then 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 said to me, ‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Mitsrayim have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the Way which I commanded them, they have made themselves a moulded image.’

13 “And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and look, they are a stiff-necked people.

14 ‘Leave Me alone, so that I destroy them and blot out their name from under the shamayim, and make of you a nation stronger and greater than they.’

15 “So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire. And the two tablets of the Covenant were in my two hands.

16 “And I looked and saw that you had sinned against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 your Elohim, and had made for yourselves a moulded calf! You had quickly turned aside from the Way which 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 had commanded you.

17 “And I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes,

18 and I fell down before 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 , as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I did not eat bread and I did not drink water, because of all your sins which you committed in doing evil in the eyes of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, to provoke Him.

19 “For I was afraid of the displeasure and rage with which 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 was wroth with you, to destroy you. But 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 listened to me that time once more.

20 “And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 was very enraged with Aharon, to destroy him, so I prayed for Aharon at that time also.

21 “And I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.

22 “And at Taḇ’ĕrah and at Massah and at Qiḇroth ha’Tta’awah you 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 made wroth.

23 “And when 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 sent you from Qaḏĕsh Barnĕa, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 your Elohim, and you neither trusted Him nor listened to His voice.

24 “You have been rebellious against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 from the day that I knew you.

25 “So I fell down before 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 the forty days and forty nights, for I fell down because 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 had said He would destroy you.

26 “And I prayed to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄. and said, O Aḏonai 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have redeemed in Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Mitsrayim with a strong hand.

27 ‘Remember Your servants, Aḇraham, Yitsḥaq, and Ya’aqoḇ. Do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or on their sin,

28 lest the land from which You brought us should say, “Because 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 was 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 ‘And they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm.’