Deuteronomy

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,

1Listen, Israel. Today you will cross the Jordan River. You will go in and take the land from nations bigger and stronger than you. Their cities are huge, with walls so high they seem to touch the sky.

2A 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!

2Those people are strong and very tall. They come from the family of Anak. You know about them. You have heard people say, "Nobody can stand up to Anak's family."

3Understand 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.

3So understand this today. The LORD your God goes across ahead of you. He is like a fire that burns everything up. He will destroy them and bring them down in front of you. Then you will drive them out quickly, just as the LORD told you.

4Speak 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.

4The LORD your God will push those nations out ahead of you. When that happens, do not say inside yourself, "The LORD brought me here because I am so good." That is not the reason. The LORD is driving these nations out because they do wicked things.

5Not 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.

5You are not going in to take their land because you are good or honest inside. You are going in because these nations do wicked things. The LORD is also keeping the promise he made to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.

6So understand this. The LORD your God is not giving you this good land because you are good. You are a stubborn people.

Note"Stiffnecked" is a picture of an ox that will not turn its neck when it is guided. It means stubborn.

7Remember, 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.

7Remember this, and never forget it. You made the LORD your God angry out in the desert. From the day you left Egypt until you got here, you have fought against the LORD.

8Also in Horeb ye provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you to have destroyed you.

8At Horeb, the mountain, you made the LORD angry too. He was angry enough to destroy you.

9When 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:

9I went up the mountain to get the flat stone tablets. On them was the agreement the LORD made with you. I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.

NoteThe KJV says "tables of stone." In 1611 a "table" could mean a flat slab for writing on. These are stone tablets, not furniture.

10And 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.

10Then the LORD gave me the two stone tablets. God had written on them with his own finger. The words were the same words the LORD spoke to you at the mountain. He spoke from inside the fire on the day you all gathered there.

11And 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.

11At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets. They were the tablets of the agreement.

12And 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.

12The LORD said to me, "Get up. Go down from here right away. Your people, the ones you brought out of Egypt, have ruined themselves. They turned away fast from what I told them to do. They melted metal and made themselves a statue to worship."

13Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

13The LORD also said to me, "I have watched these people. Look, they are a stubborn people."

14Let 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.

14"Leave me alone, and I will destroy them. I will wipe their name off the earth. Then I will make you into a nation stronger and bigger than they are."

15So 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.

15So I turned and came down the mountain. The mountain was burning with fire. I carried the two tablets of the agreement in my two hands.

16And 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.

16I looked, and I saw what you had done. You had sinned against the LORD your God. You had melted metal and made yourselves a calf. You had turned away fast from what the LORD told you.

17And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes.

17So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands. They broke into pieces while you watched.

18And 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.

18Then I lay face down before the LORD, like I had done the first time. I stayed forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water. I did this because of all the sin you had done. You did evil things that made the LORD angry.

19For 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.

19The LORD was burning with anger at you, angry enough to destroy you. That anger scared me. But the LORD listened to me that time too.

20And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.

20The LORD was also angry with Aaron, my brother, angry enough to destroy him. So I prayed for Aaron at that same time.

21And 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.

21I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. I crushed it and ground it up until it was as fine as dust. Then I threw the dust into the stream that ran down the mountain.

22And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibrothhattaavah, ye provoked the LORD to wrath.

22You made the LORD angry at other places too. You did it at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah.

23Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadeshbarnea, 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.

23The LORD also sent you out from Kadesh-barnea. He said, "Go up and take the land I have given you." But you would not do what the LORD your God said. You did not believe him or listen to him.

24Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.

24You have been fighting against the LORD ever since the day I first knew you.

25Thus 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.

25So I lay face down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, like I had done before. I did this because the LORD had said he would destroy you.

26I 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.

26I prayed to the LORD and said, "Lord GOD, please do not destroy your people. They are your own people. You set them free with your great power. You brought them out of Egypt with your strong hand."

27Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin:

27"Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Please do not look at how stubborn these people are, or at the wrong things they have done."

28Lest 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.

28"If you destroy them, the people back in Egypt will talk. They will say, 'The LORD could not bring them into the land he promised. He hated them, so he took them out to kill them in the desert.'"

29Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm.

29"But they are your people. They belong to you. You brought them out with your great power and your strong arm."

Note"Stretched out arm" is a way of talking about God's power at work, not a body part.