The Wilderness Years

`And thou hast remembered Jehovah thy God, for He it is who is giving to thee power to make wealth, in order to establish His covenant which He hath sworn to thy fathers as at this day.

`And it hath been--if thou really forget Jehovah thy God, and hast gone after other gods, and served them, and bowed thyself to them, I have testified against you to-day that ye do utterly perish;

as the nations whom Jehovah is destroying from your presence, so ye perish; because ye hearken not to the voice of Jehovah your God.

`Hear, Israel, thou art passing over to-day the Jordan, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself; cities great and fenced in the heavens;

a people great and tall, sons of Anakim, whom thou--thou hast known, (and thou--thou hast heard: Who doth station himself before sons of Anak?)

and thou hast known to-day, that Jehovah thy God is He who is passing over before thee--a fire consuming; He doth destroy them, and He doth humble them before thee, and thou hast dispossessed them, and destroyed them hastily, as Jehovah hath spoken to thee.

`Thou dost not speak in thy heart (in Jehovah thy God's driving them away from before thee), saying, For my righteousness hath Jehovah brought me in to possess this land, seeing for the wickedness of these nations is Jehovah dispossessing them from thy presence;

not for thy righteousness, and for the uprightness of thy heart, art thou going in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations is Jehovah thy God dispossessing them from before thee; and in order to establish the word which Jehovah hath sworn to thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob;

and thou hast known, that not for thy righteousness is Jehovah thy God giving to thee this good land to possess it, for a people stiff of neck thou art .

`Remember--do not forget--that with which thou hast made Jehovah thy God wroth in the wilderness; even from the day that thou hast come out of the land of Egypt till your coming in unto this place rebels ye have been with Jehovah;

even in Horeb ye have made Jehovah wroth, and Jehovah sheweth Himself angry against you--to destroy you.

`In my going up into the mount to receive the tables of stone (tables of the covenant which Jehovah hath made with you), and I abide in the mount forty days and forty nights; bread I have not eaten, and water I have not drunk;

and Jehovah giveth unto me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God, and on them according to all the words which Jehovah hath spoken with you in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, in the day of the assembly.

`And it cometh to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights, Jehovah hath given unto me the two tables of stone--tables of the covenant,

and Jehovah saith unto me, Rise, go down, hasten from this, for thy people hath done corruptly, whom thou hast brought out of Egypt; they have turned aside hastily out of the way which I have commanded them--they have made to themselves a molten thing!

`And Jehovah speaketh unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and lo, a people stiff of neck it is ;

desist from Me, and I destroy them, and blot out their name from under the heavens, and I make thee become a nation more mighty and numerous than it.

`And I turn, and come down from the mount, and the mount is burning with fire, and the two tables of the covenant on my two hands,

and I see, and lo, ye have sinned against Jehovah your God; ye have made to yourselves a molten calf; ye have turned aside hastily out of the way which Jehovah hath commanded you.

`And I lay hold on the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and break them before your eyes,

and I throw myself before Jehovah, as at first, forty days and forty nights; bread I have not eaten, and water I have not drunk, because of all your sins which ye have sinned, by doing the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, to make Him angry.

`For I have been afraid because of the anger and the fury with which Jehovah hath been wroth against you, to destroy you; and Jehovah doth hearken unto me also at this time.

`And with Aaron hath Jehovah shewed himself very angry, to destroy him, and I pray also for Aaron at that time;

and your sin, which ye have made--the calf--I have taken, and I burn it with fire, and beat it, grinding well till that it is small as dust, and I cast its dust unto the brook which is going down out of the mount.

`And in Taberah, and in Massah, and in Kibroth-Hattaavah, ye have been making Jehovah wroth: