Deuteronomy 9

Not Because of Righteousness

1 "Hear, O Israel: you are v to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations w greater and mightier than yourselves, cities great and fortified up to heaven, 2 a people great and tall, x the sons of the Anakim, y whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, 'Who can stand before the sons of Anak?' 3 Know therefore today that he who z goes over before you a as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. b So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you.

4 c "Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, 'It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,' whereas it is d because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. 5 e Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm f the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

6 "Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are g a stubborn people. 7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. h From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. 8 Even i at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. 9 j When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain k forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10 And l the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire m on the day of the assembly. 11 And at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. 12 Then the Lord said to me, n 'Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have o turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.'

The Golden Calf

13 p "Furthermore, the Lord said to me, 'I have seen this people, and behold, it is g a stubborn people. 14 q Let me alone, that I may destroy them and r blot out their name from under heaven. And s I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.' 15 t So I turned and came down from the mountain, and u the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 And v I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden 1 calf. w You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. 17 So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. 18 Then I x lay prostrate before the Lord y as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, z in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. a But the Lord listened to me that time also. 20 And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21 Then b I took the sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain.

22 "At c Taberah also, and at d Massah and at e Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. 23 And f when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, 'Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,' then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and g did not believe him or obey his voice. 24 h You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.

25 x "So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. 26 i And I prayed to the Lord, 'O Lord God, do not destroy your people and your heritage, 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 regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, 28 lest the land from which you brought us say, j "Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness." 29 k For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.'

  1. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 11:31
    For you are to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it.
    Deuteronomy 12:10
    But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety.
    Joshua 1:11
    "Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, 'Prepare your provisions, for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.'"
  2. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 4:38
    Driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.
  3. Cross References
    Numbers 13:22
    They went up into the Negeb and came to Hebron. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. ( Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
  4. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 1:28
    Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, "The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there."
  5. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 31:3
    The Lord your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them, and Joshua will go over at your head, as the Lord has spoken.
    Joshua 3:11
    Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan.
  6. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 4:24
    For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
  7. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 7:24
    And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.
    Exodus 23:29 - 31
    I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you.
  8. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 8:17
    Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.
  9. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 18:12
    For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.
    Leviticus 18:24 - 25
    Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean.
    Leviticus 20:23
    And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them.
    Deuteronomy 20:18
    That they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God.
  10. Cross References
    Titus 3:5
    He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
  11. Cross References
    Genesis 50:24
    And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
  12. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 10:16
    Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.
  13. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 9:24
    You have been rebellious against the Lord from ...
    Deuteronomy 31:27
    For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are....
    Exodus 14:11
    They said to Moses, "Is it because there are no...
    Exodus 15:24
    And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, ...
    Exodus 16:2
    And the whole congregation of the people of Isr...
    Exodus 17:2
    Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and s...
    Numbers 11:4
    Now the rabble that was among them had a strong...
    Numbers 14:2
    And all the people of Israel grumbled against M...
    Numbers 14:11
    And the Lord said to Moses, "How long will this...
    Numbers 14:41
    But Moses said, "Why now are you transgressing ...
    Numbers 20:2
    Now there was no water for the congregation. An...
    Numbers 21:5
    And the people spoke against God and against Mo...
    Numbers 25:2
    These invited the people to the sacrifices of t...
  14. Cross References
    Exodus 32:4
    And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!
    Psalms 106:19
    They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a metal image.
  15. Cross References
    Exodus 24:12
    The Lord said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.
    Exodus 24:15
    Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.
  16. Cross References
    Exodus 24:18
    Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
    Exodus 34:28
    So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
    1 Kings 19:8
    And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.
    Matthew 4:2
    And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
    Luke 4:1 - 2
    And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness
  17. Cross References
    Exodus 31:18
    And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
  18. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 4:10
    How on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, 'Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.
    Deuteronomy 10:4
    And he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me.
    Deuteronomy 18:16
    Just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.
    Exodus 19:17
    Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain.
  19. Cross References
    Exodus 32:7 - 8
    And the Lord said to Moses, "Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.
  20. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 31:29
    For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you. And in the days to come evil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands.
    Judges 2:17
    Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so.
  21. Cross References
    Exodus 32:9
    And the Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.
  22. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 9:6
    Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people.
  23. Cross References
    Exodus 32:10
    Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.
  24. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 7:24
    And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.
    Deuteronomy 25:19
    Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.
    Deuteronomy 29:20
    The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven.
    Exodus 17:14
    Then the Lord said to Moses, "Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.
  25. Cross References
    Numbers 14:12
    I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.
  26. Cross References
    Exodus 32:15
    Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written.
  27. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 4:11
    And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom.
    Deuteronomy 5:23
    And as soon as you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes, and your elders.
    Exodus 19:18
    Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.
  28. Cross References
    Exodus 32:19
    And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.
  29. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 31:29
    For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you. And in the days to come evil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands.
    Judges 2:17
    Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so.
  30. Cross References
    Exodus 34:28
    So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
    Psalms 106:23
    Therefore he said he would destroy them - had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them.
  31. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 9:9
    When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.
    Deuteronomy 10:10
    I myself stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights, and the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you.
  32. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 4:25
    When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger.
  33. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 10:10
    I myself stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights, and the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you.
    Exodus 32:14
    And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
    Exodus 33:17
    And the Lord said to Moses, "This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.
  34. Cross References
    Exodus 32:20
    He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.
  35. Cross References
    Numbers 11:1 - 3
    And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.
  36. Cross References
    Exodus 17:7
    And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?
  37. Cross References
    Numbers 11:34
    Therefore the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had the craving.
  38. Cross References
    Numbers 13:3
    So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel.
    Numbers 14:1 - 4
    Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night.
  39. Cross References
    Psalms 106:24 - 25
    Then they despised the pleasant land, having no faith in his promise.
  40. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 9:7
    Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord.
    Deuteronomy 31:27
    For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord. How much more after my death!
  41. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 9:18
    Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger.
  42. Cross References
    Exodus 32:11 - 13
    But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, "O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
  43. Cross References
    Numbers 14:16
    'It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.'
  44. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 4:20
    But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.
    1 Kings 8:51
    ( for they are your people, and your heritage, which you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace).
    Nehemiah 1:10
    They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.
    Psalms 95:7
    For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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