1 Hear, Israel: today you are crossing the Jordan to go in and take possession of peoples greater and stronger than you—cities {arim: walled urban centers} vast and heavily fortified, rising to the heavens {bashamayim: sky realm}.
2 They are a people great and tall, the sons of Anakim {anakim: legendary giants}; you have known of them and you have heard it said, “Who can stand before the sons of Anak {anak: ancestral giant}?”
3 So know today that the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheicha, Covenant Defender} is the One going across ahead of you like a consuming fire {esh: purifying force}; He will destroy them and bring them under before you, and you will drive them out and cause them to perish quickly, just as the LORD has spoken to you.
4 After the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha, Righteous Judge} has driven them away from before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness {tsidkat: just standing} the LORD has brought me in to possess this land.” Instead, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is dispossessing them before you.
5 It is not because of your righteousness {tsidqatekha: moral rightness} or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to possess their land; rather, because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha, Covenant Enforcer} is dispossessing them before you, and so that He may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
6 Know, then, that the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha, Covenant Giver} is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness {tsidkatkha: moral uprightness}, for you are a stiff-necked people.
7 Remember—do not forget—how you provoked the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha, Covenant Judge} to anger in the wilderness {bamidbar: desolate region}; from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.
8 At Horeb you provoked the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Judge} to wrath, and the LORD became angry with you, so that He was ready to destroy {lehashmid: utterly wipe out} you.
9 When I ascended the mountain to receive the stone tablets—the tablets of the covenant which the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Giver} had made with you—I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I did not eat bread {lechem: staple provision} and I did not drink water.
10 The LORD {YHWH, Covenant Lawgiver} imparted to me the two stone tablets, etched by the finger of God {Elohim, Sovereign Authority}; on them were recorded every word He spoke to you on the mountain, from the midst of the fire, on the day of the assembly.
11 When the forty days and forty nights were completed, the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Giver} gave me the two tablets {luḥot: engraved slabs}—the tablets of the covenant.
12 Then the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Judge} said to me, “Get up and go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out from Egypt have corrupted themselves; they have quickly turned aside from the way {derekh: covenant path} I commanded them—they have made a molten image for themselves.”
13 And the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge} said to me, "I have watched this people {am: covenant community}, and indeed, they are stiff-necked."
14 Let Me {YHWH, Divine Judge} alone, that I might destroy them and blot out their name {shmam: collective reputation} from under the heavens; then I will make you into a nation mightier and more numerous than they are.
15 So I turned and went down from the mountain; the mountain was burning with fire {baesh: consuming flame}, and the two tablets {luchot: engraved slabs} of the covenant were in my two hands.
16 I observed, and behold, you had transgressed against the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikhem, Covenant Keeper} by fashioning for yourselves a calf, a cast image {massekkha: molten idol}. You had then hastily strayed from the way that the LORD had commanded you.
17 Then I seized the two tablets {luchot: stone inscriptions}, hurled them from my two hands, and broke them before your eyes {eineikhem: direct witnesses}.
18 Then I fell down before the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge}, just as I had at the first, for forty days and forty nights; I did not eat bread {lechem: basic sustenance}, nor did I drink water, because of all your sins which you had committed in doing evil in the sight of the LORD and provoking Him.
19 For I was afraid because of the anger {af: fiery indignation} and the wrath with which the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge} was enraged against you, so as to destroy you; yet the LORD listened to me at that time.
20 The LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge} was extremely angry with Aaron, purposing his destruction {hashmido: complete annihilation}, but I also prayed for him at that time.
21 And I took your sin {chatat: moral failure}—the calf you had made—and I burned it in the fire; then I crushed it thoroughly, grinding it until it was as fine {dak: crushed thinly} as dust; and I cast the dust into the stream that descends from the mountain.
22 At Taberah, at Massah {Massah: site of testing}, and at Kibrot Hatta’avah, you stirred the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge} to wrath.
23 And when the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Commander} sent you forth from Kadesh Barnea with the message “Go up and take possession of the land I have given you,” you turned against the mouth {pi: spoken command} of the LORD your God, and you did not trust Him nor did you heed His voice.
24 You have been rebellious {mamrim: defiant stance} against the LORD {YHWH, Faithful Judge} from the day I first knew you.
25 So I prostrated myself before the LORD {YHWH, Intercessory Advocate} for forty days and forty nights, once more, because He had declared to destroy {lehashmid: utter annihilation} you.
26 And I prayed to the LORD {YHWH, Prayer Hearer} and said, “O Lord GOD, let not Your people {'am: Covenant Community} and Your inheritance be destroyed, for You redeemed them by Your greatness and brought them out of Egypt by a strong hand.”
27 O LORD {YHWH, Promise-Keeping Lord}, remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not take notice of the stubbornness {qeshi: hardness of heart} of these people, nor their wickedness or their sin.
28 Lest the land from which You brought us out say, “Because the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Defender} had no power to bring them into the land He had spoken of to them, and because of His hatred {sin’ah: utter aversion}, He brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.”
29 Nevertheless, they are Your {YHWH, Mighty Deliverer} people and Your inheritance {nachalah: treasured possession}, whom You brought out by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm.