Israel Provoked God

9 “Hear, Israel! You are crossing the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess ^(A)nations greater and mightier than you, cities that are great and ^(B)fortified to heaven, ² a people who are great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘^(C)Who can stand against the sons of Anak?’ ³ So be aware today that ^(D)it is the Lord your God who is crossing over ahead of you as ^(E)a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that ^(F)you may drive them out and eliminate them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you.

⁴ “^(G)Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them away from ^[a]you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to take possession of this land.’ Rather, it is ^(H)because of the ^[b]wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. ⁵ It is ^(I)not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to take possession of their land, ^[c]but it is because of the ^[d]wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and in order to confirm ^(J)the ^[e]oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁶ “Know, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are ^(K)a ^[f]stubborn people. ⁷ Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to anger in the wilderness; ^(L)from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ Even ^(M)at Horeb you provoked the Lord to anger, and the Lord was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you. ⁹ When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I remained on the mountain for forty days and nights; ^(N)I neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰ The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone ^(O)written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. ¹¹ It came about ^(P)at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. ^12 (Q)Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, because your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have behaved corruptly. They have ^(R)quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made a cast metal image for themselves.’ ¹³ The ^(S)Lord also said to ^[g]me, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a ^[h](T)stubborn people. ^14 (U)Leave Me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(V)wipe out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

¹⁵ “^(W)So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a cast metal image of a calf; you had quickly turned aside from the way that the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my two hands, and smashed them to pieces before your eyes! ^18 (X)Then I fell down before the Lord ^(Y)like the first time, for forty days and nights; ^(Z)I neither ate bread nor drank water, ^(AA)because of all your sin which you had committed by doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. ¹⁹ For ^(AB)I was afraid of the anger and the rage with which the Lord was angry with you so as to destroy you; ^(AC)but the Lord listened to me that time as well. ²⁰ The Lord was also angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. ^21 (AD)And I took your ^[i]sinful thing which you had made, the calf, and burned it in the fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.

²² “Then at ^(AE)Taberah, at ^(AF)Massah, and at ^(AG)Kibroth-hattaavah you kept provoking the Lord to anger. ²³ And when the Lord sent you from ^(AH)Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘^(AI)Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you,’ you rebelled against the ^[j]command of the Lord your God; ^(AJ)you neither trusted Him nor listened to His voice. ^24 (AK)You have been rebellious toward the Lord since the day I knew you.

²⁵ “^(AL)So I fell down before the Lord for the forty days and nights, which I ^[k]did because the Lord said He would destroy you. ^26 (AM)And I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Lord God, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand! ²⁷ Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not turn Your attention to the stubbornness of this people, or to their wickedness, or their sin. ²⁸ Otherwise, the people of the land from which You brought us will say, “^(AN)Since the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which He had ^[l]promised them, and since He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness!” ²⁹ Yet they are Your people, and ^(AO)Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your ^(AP)great power and Your outstretched arm.’