Deuteronomy chapter .ix.
¶ Hear Israel, thou goest over Iordan this day, to go and conquer nations greater and mightier than thyself: and cities great and walled up to heaven,
and people great and tall, even the children of the Enakims, which thou knowest and of whom thou hast heard say who is able to stond before the children of Enack?
But understand this day that the LORD thy God which goeth over before thee a consuming fire, he shall destroy them and he shall subdue them before thee. And thou shalt cast them out, and bring them to nought quickly as the LORD hath said unto thee.
Speak not in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out before thee saying: for my righteousness the LORD hath brought me into possess this land. Nay, but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth cast them out before thee.
It is not for thy righteousness' sake and right heart that thou goest to possess their land: But partly for the wickedness of these nations, the LORD thy God doth cast them out before thee, and partly to perform that which the LORD thy God sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Iacob.
Understand therefore that it is not for thy righteousness' sake, that the LORD thy God doth give thee this good land to possess it, for thou art a stiffnecked people.
¶ Remember and forget not how thou provokedest the LORD thy God in the wilderness: for since the day that thou camest out of the land of Egypt until ye came unto this place, ye have rebelled against the LORD.
Also in Horeb ye angered the LORD so that the LORD was wroth with you, even to have destroyed you,
after that I was gone up into the mount, to fetch the tables of stone, the tables of appointment which the LORD made with you. And I abode in the hill forty days and forty nights and neither ate bread nor drank water.
And the LORD delivered me two tables of stone written with the finger of God, and in them was according to all the words which the LORD said unto you in the mount out of the fire in the day when the people were gathered together.
And when the forty days and forty nights were ended, the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, the tables of the testament,
and said unto me: Up, and get thee down quickly from hence, for thy people which thou hast brought out of Egypt, have marred them selves. They are turned at once out of the way, which I commanded them, and have made them a god of metal.
Furthermore the LORD spake unto me saying: I see this people how that it is a stiffnecked people,
let me alone that I may destroy them and put out the name of them from under heaven, and I will make of thee a nation both greater and more than they.
And I turned away and came down from the hill (and the hill burnt with fire) and had the two tables of the appointment in my hands.
And when I looked and saw that ye had sinned against the LORD your God and had made you a calf of metal and had turned at once out of the way which the LORD had commanded you.
Then I took the two tables and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes.
And I fell before the LORD: even as at the first time forty days and nights, and neither ate bread nor drank water, over all your sins which ye had sinned in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD and in provoking him.
For I was afraid of the wrath and fierceness wherewith the LORD was angry with you, even for to have destroyed you; But the LORD heard my petition at that time also.
The LORD was very angry with Aaron also, even for to have destroyed him: But I made intercession for Aaron also the same time.
And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made and burnt him with fire and stamped him and ground him a good, even unto small dust. And I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.
Also at Thabeera and at Masa and at the sepulchres of lust ye angered the LORD,
yea and when the LORD sent you from Cades Barnea saying: go up and conquer the land which I have given you, ye disobeyed the mouth of the LORD your God, and neither believed him nor hearkened unto his voice.
Thus ye have been disobedient unto the LORD, since the day that I knew you.
And I fell before the LORD forty days and forty nights which I lay there, for the LORD was minded to have destroyed you.
But I made intercession unto the LORD and said: O Lord Iehouah, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance which thou hast delivered thorow thy greatness and which thou hast brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
Remember thy servants Abraham, Isaac and Iacob and look not unto the stubbornness of this people nor unto their wickedness and sin:
lest the land whence thou broughtest them say: Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them and because he hated them, therefore he carried them out to destroy them in the wilderness.
Moreover they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out with thy mighty power and with thy stretched out arm.
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.