Deuteronomy 9

{9:1} Hear, O Israel: Thou [art] to pass over Jordan this
day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than
thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven, {9:2} A people
great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou
knowest, and [of whom] thou hast heard [say,] Who can
stand before the children of Anak! {9:3} Understand
therefore this day, that the LORD thy God [is] he which
goeth over before thee; [as] a consuming fire he shall
destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face:
so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as
the LORD hath said unto thee. {9:4} Speak not thou in
thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out
from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD
hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the
wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out
from before thee. {9:5} Not for thy righteousness, or for the
uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their
land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy
God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may
perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. {9:6} Understand therefore, that
the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess
it for thy righteousness; for thou [art] a stiffnecked people.
{9:7} Remember, [and] forget not, how thou provokedst
the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day
that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came
unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD.
{9:8} Also in Horeb ye provoked the LORD to wrath, so
that the LORD was angry with you to have destroyed you.
{9:9} When I was gone up into the mount to receive the
tables of stone, [even] the tables of the covenant which the
LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days
and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:
{9:10} And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of
stone written with the finger of God; and on them [was
written] according to all the words, which the LORD spake
with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day
of the assembly. {9:11} And it came to pass at the end of
forty days and forty nights, [that] the LORD gave me the
two tables of stone, [even] the tables of the covenant.
{9:12} And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down
quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought
forth out of Egypt have corrupted [themselves;] they are
quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded
them; they have made them a molten image. {9:13}
Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen
this people, and, behold, it [is] a stiffnecked people: {9:14}
Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their
name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation
mightier and greater than they. {9:15} So I turned and came
down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and
the two tables of the covenant [were] in my two hands.
{9:16} And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the
LORD your God, [and] had made you a molten calf: ye had
turned aside quickly out of the way which the LORD had
commanded you. {9:17} And I took the two tables, and cast
them out of my two hands, and brake them before your
eyes. {9:18} And I fell down before the LORD, as at the
first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor
drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in
doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to
anger. {9:19} For I was afraid of the anger and hot
displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to
destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time
also. {9:20} And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to
have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same
time. {9:21} And I took your sin, the calf which ye had
made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, [and] ground
[it] very small, [even] until it was as small as dust: and I
cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the
mount. {9:22} And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at
Kibroth-hattaavah, ye provoked the LORD to wrath. {9:23}
Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea,
saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you;
then ye rebelled against the commandment of the LORD
your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his
voice. {9:24} Ye have been rebellious against the LORD
from the day that I knew you. {9:25} Thus I fell down
before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down
[at the first;] because the LORD had said he would destroy
you. {9:26} I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O
Lord GOD, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance,
which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which
thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
{9:27} Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;
look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their
wickedness, nor to their sin: {9:28} Lest the land whence
thou broughtest us out say, Because the LORD was not able
to bring them into the land which he promised them, and
because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay
them in the wilderness. {9:29} Yet they [are] thy people and
thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty
power and by thy stretched out arm.