Not Because of Righteousness

9 “Hear, O Israel: you are vto cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations wgreater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, 2 a people great and tall, xthe sons of the Anakim, ywhom 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 zgoes over before you aas a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. bSo 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 dbecause of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. 5 eNot 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 fthe 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 ga stubborn people. 7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. hFrom 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 iat Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. 9 jWhen 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 kforty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10 And lthe 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 mon 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 oturned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’