| New Living Translation | NET Bible |
| 1“Listen, O Israel! Today you are about to cross the Jordan River to take over the land belonging to nations much greater and more powerful than you. They live in cities with walls that reach to the sky! | 1Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan so you can dispossess the nations there, people greater and stronger than you who live in large cities with extremely high fortifications. |
| 2The people are strong and tall—descendants of the famous Anakite giants. You’ve heard the saying, ‘Who can stand up to the Anakites?’ | 2They include the Anakites, a numerous and tall people whom you know about and of whom it is said, "Who is able to resist the Anakites?" |
| 3But recognize today that the LORD your God is the one who will cross over ahead of you like a devouring fire to destroy them. He will subdue them so that you will quickly conquer them and drive them out, just as the LORD has promised. | 3Understand today that the LORD your God who goes before you is a devouring fire; he will defeat and subdue them before you. You will dispossess and destroy them quickly just as he has told you. |
| 4“After the LORD your God has done this for you, don’t say in your hearts, ‘The LORD has given us this land because we are such good people!’ No, it is because of the wickedness of the other nations that he is pushing them out of your way. | 4Do not think to yourself after the LORD your God has driven them out before you, "Because of my own righteousness the LORD has brought me here to possess this land." It is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out ahead of you. |
| 5It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land. The LORD your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. | 5It is not because of your righteousness, or even your inner uprightness, that you have come here to possess their land. Instead, because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out ahead of you in order to confirm the promise he made on oath to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. |
| 6You must recognize that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not—you are a stubborn people. Remembering the Gold Calf | 6Understand, therefore, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is about to give you this good land as a possession, for you are a stubborn people! |
| 7“Remember and never forget how angry you made the LORD your God out in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until now, you have been constantly rebelling against him. | 7Remember--don't ever forget--how you provoked the LORD your God in the desert; from the time you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place you were constantly rebelling against him. |
| 8Even at Mount Sinai you made the LORD so angry he was ready to destroy you. | 8At Horeb you provoked him and he was angry enough with you to destroy you. |
| 9This happened when I was on the mountain receiving the tablets of stone inscribed with the words of the covenant that the LORD had made with you. I was there for forty days and forty nights, and all that time I ate no food and drank no water. | 9When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I remained there forty days and nights, eating and drinking nothing. |
| 10The LORD gave me the two tablets on which God had written with his own finger all the words he had spoken to you from the heart of the fire when you were assembled at the mountain. | 10The LORD gave me the two stone tablets, written by the very finger of God, and on them was everything he said to you at the mountain from the midst of the fire at the time of that assembly. |
| 11“At the end of the forty days and nights, the LORD handed me the two stone tablets inscribed with the words of the covenant. | 11Now at the end of the forty days and nights the LORD presented me with the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. |
| 12Then the LORD said to me, ‘Get up! Go down immediately, for the people you brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned away from the way I commanded them to live! They have melted gold and made an idol for themselves!’ | 12And he said to me, "Get up, go down at once from here because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have sinned! They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a cast metal image." |
| 13“The LORD also said to me, ‘I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. | 13Moreover, he said to me, "I have taken note of these people; they are a stubborn lot! |
| 14Leave me alone so I may destroy them and erase their name from under heaven. Then I will make a mighty nation of your descendants, a nation larger and more powerful than they are.’ | 14Stand aside and I will destroy them, obliterating their very name from memory, and I will make you into a stronger and more numerous nation than they are." |
| 15“So while the mountain was blazing with fire I turned and came down, holding in my hands the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant. | 15So I turned and went down the mountain while it was blazing with fire; the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. |
| 16There below me I could see that you had sinned against the LORD your God. You had melted gold and made a calf idol for yourselves. How quickly you had turned away from the path the LORD had commanded you to follow! | 16When I looked, you had indeed sinned against the LORD your God and had cast for yourselves a metal calf; you had quickly turned aside from the way he had commanded you! |
| 17So I took the stone tablets and threw them to the ground, smashing them before your eyes. | 17I grabbed the two tablets, threw them down, and shattered them before your very eyes. |
| 18“Then, as before, I threw myself down before the LORD for forty days and nights. I ate no bread and drank no water because of the great sin you had committed by doing what the LORD hated, provoking him to anger. | 18Then I again fell down before the LORD for forty days and nights; I ate and drank nothing because of all the sin you had committed, doing such evil before the LORD as to enrage him. |
| 19I feared that the furious anger of the LORD, which turned him against you, would drive him to destroy you. But again he listened to me. | 19For I was terrified at the LORD's intense anger that threatened to destroy you. But he listened to me this time as well. |
| 20The LORD was so angry with Aaron that he wanted to destroy him, too. But I prayed for Aaron, and the LORD spared him. | 20The LORD was also angry enough at Aaron to kill him, but at that time I prayed for him too. |
| 21I took your sin—the calf you had made—and I melted it down in the fire and ground it into fine dust. Then I threw the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain. | 21As for your sinful thing that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down, ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain. |
| 22“You also made the LORD angry at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah. | 22Moreover, you continued to provoke the LORD at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-Hattaavah. |
| 23And at Kadesh-barnea the LORD sent you out with this command: ‘Go up and take over the land I have given you.’ But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God and refused to put your trust in him or obey him. | 23And when he sent you from Kadesh-Barnea and told you, "Go up and possess the land I have given you," you rebelled against the LORD your God and would neither believe nor obey him. |
| 24Yes, you have been rebelling against the LORD as long as I have known you. | 24You have been rebelling against him from the very first day I knew you! |
| 25“That is why I threw myself down before the LORD for forty days and nights—for the LORD said he would destroy you. | 25I lay flat on the ground before the LORD for forty days and nights, for he had said he would destroy you. |
| 26I prayed to the LORD and said, ‘O Sovereign LORD, do not destroy them. They are your own people. They are your special possession, whom you redeemed from Egypt by your mighty power and your strong hand. | 26I prayed to him: O, Lord GOD, do not destroy your people, your valued property that you have powerfully redeemed, whom you brought out of Egypt by your strength. |
| 27Please overlook the stubbornness and the awful sin of these people, and remember instead your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. | 27Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; ignore the stubbornness, wickedness, and sin of these people. |
| 28If you destroy these people, the Egyptians will say, “The Israelites died because the LORD wasn’t able to bring them to the land he had promised to give them.” Or they might say, “He destroyed them because he hated them; he deliberately took them into the wilderness to slaughter them.” | 28Otherwise the people of the land from which you brought us will say, "The LORD was unable to bring them to the land he promised them, and because of his hatred for them he has brought them out to kill them in the desert." |
| 29But they are your people and your special possession, whom you brought out of Egypt by your great strength and powerful arm.’ | 29They are your people, your valued property, whom you brought out with great strength and power. |
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