Devarim 9 דברים ט׳

Listen, Yisroel! You are today crossing the Yardein to come inherit nations greater and more powerful than you; cities great and fortified to the sky.

A great and powerful people, descendants of the Anokim, about whom you know and heard, ‘‘who can stand up to the descendants of Anok?’’

You know today that Adonoy, your God, is the One crossing before you, a consuming fire, He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you; you will expel them and destroy them quickly, as Adonoy promised for you.

Do not think, when Adonoy, your God, smashes them before you, saying: ‘‘Because of my righteousness has Adonoy brought me to inherit this land,’’ and because of the wickedness of these nations is Adonoy expelling them before you.

Not because of your righteousness and the uprightness of your heart are you coming to inherit their land. Rather, because of the wickedness of these nations is Adonoy, your God, expelling them before you, and in order to fulfill the matter that Adonoy swore to your forefathers—to Avrohom, to Yitzchok, and to Yaakov.

Know that not because of your righteousness is Adonoy, your God, giving you this good land to inherit, for you are a stubborn people.

Recall, do not forget, how you angered Adonoy, your God, in the wilderness; from the day you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place you have been defiers with Adonoy.

And in Choreiv you angered Adonoy, and Adonoy was infuriated with you to destroy you.

When I went up the mountain to take the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that Adonoy made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water.

Adonoy gave me the two stone tablets written with God’s finger and upon them all the statements that Adonoy addressed to you on the mountain from within the fire, on the day of assembly.

When, at the end of forty days and forty nights, Adonoy gave me the two stone tablets, the covenant tablets,

Adonoy said to me, ‘‘Get ready! Go down quickly from here, because your people has corrupted—whom you took out of Egypt; they have veered swiftly from the way that I commanded them; they made them a molten image.

Adonoy said to me, to say, ‘‘I have seen this people, and look, it is a stubborn people!

Leave Me alone and let Me destroy them and eliminate their name from beneath the sky, and let Me make you into a nation more powerful and numerous than they.’’

I turned and descended the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire; and the two covenant tablets were on my two hands.

I beheld that you had just sinned to Adonoy, your God, you had made yourselves a molten calf; you had veered swiftly from the way that Adonoy had commanded you.

I grasped the two tablets and threw them from (upon) my two hands, and smashed them before your eyes.

I prostrated myself before Adonoy as before, forty days and forty nights, bread I did not eat nor water did I drink; for all of your sin that you sinned by doing what is evil in Adonoy’s eyes to anger Him.

Because I was afraid of the anger and the fury that Adonoy raged at you to destroy you; and Adonoy accepted my prayer that time as well.

And at Aharon Adonoy grew very angry to destroy him; I prayed for Aharon, too, at that time.

And the sin[-object] that you made, the calf, I took and burned it in fire. I crushed it—thoroughly grinding it—until it was fine—to dust; and I threw its dust into the stream that was flowing down from the mountain.

And in Tav’eiroh and in Massoh and in Kivros Hata’voh you were angerers of Adonoy.

And when Adonoy sent you from Kodeish Barnei’a, saying, ‘‘Go up and inherit the land that I have given you.’’ But you defied Adonoy, your God, and did not trust Him, and did not heed Him.

Defiers have you been with Adonoy, from the day I know you.

I prostrated myself before Adonoy the forty days and the forty nights that I prostrated myself, because Adonoy intended to destroy you.

I prayed to Adonoy and said, ‘‘Adonoy, God, do not harm Your people and Your territory that You redeemed with Your power, whom You took out of Egypt with a powerful hand.

Recall Your servants—Avrohom, Yitzchok, and Yaakov; do not pay attention to the stubborness of this people, to its wickedness, and to its sin.

Lest [the inhabitants] say—[of] the land that you took us out of—‘Because of Adonony’s inability to bring them to the land that He promised for them, and because of His hatred of them, He took them out to kill them in the wilderness.’

But they are Your people, Your territory, whom You took out with Your great power and with Your extended arm.’’