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Deuteronomy 9

1“Listen, Israel: today you are crossing the Jordan to enter and dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, with great towns fortified to the heavens, 2a great and tall people, the sons of the Anakim. You know them, and you have heard, ‘Who can stand against the sons of Anak?’ 3Know today that Yahweh your God is the one crossing before you, a consuming fire. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. You will dispossess them and quickly make them perish, as Yahweh promised you.

4“When Yahweh your God drives them out before you, do not say in your heart, ‘Because of my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land.’ It is because of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh is dispossessing them before you. 5It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are entering to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God is dispossessing them before you, and to establish the word Yahweh swore to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6Know that Yahweh your God 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 Yahweh your God in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. 8At Horeb you provoked Yahweh, and Yahweh was angry enough with you to destroy you. 9When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant Yahweh made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water. 10Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets, written with the finger of God. On them were all the words Yahweh spoke with you on the mountain, from within the fire, on the day of the assembly. 11At the end of forty days and forty nights, Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. 12Yahweh said to me, ‘Get up! Go down quickly from here, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way I commanded them; they have made themselves a cast image.’ 13Yahweh said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and look, they are a stiff-necked people. 14Leave me alone, and I will destroy them and wipe out their name from under the heavens. I will make you a nation mightier and more numerous than they are.’

15“I turned and came down the mountain. The mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16I looked, and there you were: you had sinned against Yahweh your God and made yourselves a cast calf. You had quickly turned aside from the way Yahweh commanded you. 17I grasped the two tablets, threw them from my two hands, and shattered them before your eyes. 18I fell down before Yahweh as before, forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in Yahweh’s eyes to provoke him. 19For I was afraid of the anger and wrath with which Yahweh was furious at you, enough to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time too. 20Yahweh was also very angry with Aaron, enough to destroy him, and I prayed for Aaron too at that time. 21I took your sin, the calf you had made, burned it in the fire, crushed it and ground it thoroughly until it was fine as dust. I threw its dust into the stream coming down from the mountain.

22“At Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah, too, you provoked Yahweh. 23When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land I have given you,’ you rebelled against the mouth of Yahweh your God. You did not trust him or listen to his voice. 24You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day I knew you.

25“So I fell down before Yahweh for those forty days and forty nights I lay prostrate, because Yahweh said he would destroy you. 26I prayed to Yahweh and said, ‘Lord Yahweh, do not ruin your people, your inheritance, whom you redeemed through your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a strong hand. 27Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not look at this people’s stubbornness, wickedness, or sin, 28or the people of the land you brought us out of will say, “Because Yahweh was unable to bring them into the land he promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.” 29Yet they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.’

Translation notes 4

9:1–6 — Heavens and stiff necks. The town fortifications “to the heavens” express their daunting height. “Stiff-necked” preserves the bodily image of stubborn resistance. The passage explicitly denies that Israel’s righteousness explains the gift of land; the English does not turn this into a statement about a later dispute over salvation.

9:9–18, 25 — Tablets and forty days. The finger of God and the tablets in Moses’ two hands are retained as concrete images. The narrative recounts forty-day periods and returns to the intercession in verse 25; the translation does not add a timetable that resolves every question about their relation.

9:12–21 — Your people and your sin. Yahweh calls Israel “your people” in addressing Moses; Moses calls them “your people” in addressing Yahweh. Verse 21 calls the calf “your sin,” identifying the object with the offense. It has not been translated as a purification offering. Moses’ prayer for Aaron is explicit here.

9:23–29 — Mouth, trust, and reputation. “Rebelled against the mouth” preserves a bodily expression for resisting Yahweh’s command. “The people of the land” makes explicit the human speakers represented by “the land” in verse 28. The prayer appeals both to the fathers and to how Egypt will explain Israel’s destruction.