Assurance of Victory

1Hear, O Israel! Today you are passing over the Jordan to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified to the heavens, 2a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and you have heard: “Who can stand before the faces of the sons of Anak?” 3And you shall know today that YHWH your God is He who is passing over before you as a consuming fire; He will destroy them, and He will bring them down before you. And you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as YHWH has spoken to you.

4Do not speak in your heart, after YHWH your God has cast them out before you, saying, “Because of my righteousness YHWH has brought me in to possess this land.” For the wickedness of these nations, YHWH is driving them out from before you.

5Not in your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but for the wickedness of these nations YHWH your God is driving them out from before you, so that He may fulfill the word that YHWH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 6And you shall know that not in your righteousness is YHWH your God giving you this good land to possess it; for you are a people stiff of neck.

The Golden Calf
(Exodus 32:1–35; Acts 7:39–43)

7Remember—do not forget—how you provoked YHWH your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you⁺ came to this place, you⁺ have been rebellious against YHWH.

8And in Horeb† you⁺ provoked YHWH to wrath, and YHWH was angry with you⁺ to destroy you⁺. 9In my going up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that YHWH made with you⁺, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. Bread I did not eat and water I did not drink.

10And YHWH delivered to me two tablets of stone, written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that YHWH had spoken to you⁺ on the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. 11And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights that YHWH gave to me two tablets of stone, tablets of the covenant. 12And YHWH said to me, “Arise, go down quickly from here; for your people have acted corruptly, whom you brought out of Egypt. They have turned aside quickly from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten image.”

13And YHWH spoke to me, saying, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a people stiff of neck. 14Desist from Me, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens. And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.”

15And I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain burned with the fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16And I looked, and behold, you⁺ had sinned against YHWH your⁺ God; you⁺ had made for yourselves a molten calf; you⁺ had turned aside quickly from the way that YHWH had commanded you⁺. 17And I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands, and I broke them before your⁺ eyes.

18And I fell down before the face of YHWH, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; bread I did not eat and water I did not drink, because of all your⁺ sin that you⁺ committed in doing the evil in the eyes of YHWH, to provoke Him to anger. 19For I was afraid† of the anger and the fury with which YHWH was angry with you⁺, to destroy you⁺. And YHWH listened to me also at that time.

20And against Aaron YHWH was very angry and would have destroyed him. And I prayed also for Aaron at that time. 21And your⁺ sin that you⁺ had made—the calf—I took and burned it with the fire, and crushed it and ground it well, until that it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain.

22And at Taberah† and Massah† and at Kibroth-hattaavah† you⁺ provoked YHWH to wrath. 23And likewise when YHWH sent you⁺ from Kadesh-barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land that I have given to you⁺,”

you⁺ rebelled against the commandment of YHWH your⁺ God, and you⁺ did not believe Him and you did not obey His voice. 24You⁺ have been Rebellious against YHWH from the day that I knew you⁺. 25And I prostrated myself before the face of YHWH forty days and forty nights, when I kept prostrating myself because YHWH had said He would destroy you⁺.

26And I prayed to YHWH and said, “O Lord YHWH, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27Be mindful of Your servants, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; turn not to the stubbornness of this people, and to their wickedness, and to their sin, 28lest the land from which You brought us should say, ‘Because YHWH was not able to bring them to the land that He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’ 29And they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.”