1 ARST You people of Israel, listen to me! You will soon cross the Jordan River. In the land that you will enter, there are people groups that are more numerous and more powerful than you are. In that land, there are large cities that have very high walls{ around them}. The walls are so high that they{ seem to} extend up to the sky. BSB BSB: Hear, O Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities fortified to the heavens.
2 ARST The people in the land are strong and tall. Some of them are descendants of Anak. You know about them, and you have heard people say that no one can defeat the descendants of Anak. BSB BSB: The people are strong and tall, the descendants of the Anakim. You know about them, and you have heard it said, “Who can stand up to the sons of Anak?”
3 ARST I want you to know that Yahweh our God will go ahead of you. He will be like a raging fire. While you advance, he will defeat and destroy them. As a result, you will quickly be able to drive out some of them and kill the others. This is just as Yahweh promised that you would do. BSB BSB: But understand that today the LORD your God goes across ahead of you as a consuming fire; He will destroy them and subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them swiftly, as the LORD has promised you.
6 ARST I want you to know that it is not because you are righteous that Yahweh our God is giving you this good land. I say this because you are a very stubborn people. BSB BSB: Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.
7 ARST Never forget what your parents did in the desert that caused Yahweh our God to become angry. From the day that we left Egypt until the day that we arrived here, you have continually rebelled against him. BSB BSB: Remember this, and never forget how you provoked the LORD your God in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place, you have been rebelling against the LORD.
8 ARST Even at Mount Sinai your parents caused Yahweh to become angry. Because he was very angry, he was ready to get rid of{ all of} them. BSB BSB: At Horeb you provoked the LORD, and He was angry enough to destroy you.
9 ARST I climbed the mountain to receive from him the stone tablets on which he had written the Ten Commandments. I stayed there 40 days and nights. During that time I did not eat or drink anything. BSB BSB: When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.
10 ARST Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets on which he had written{ the commandments} with his own fingers. They were the words that he had spoken to your parents from the fire on that mountain. This was when they were gathered together{ at the bottom of the mountain}. BSB BSB: Then the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, inscribed by the finger of God with the exact words that the LORD spoke to you out of the fire on the mountain on the day of the assembly.
11 ARST At the end of those 40 days and nights, Yahweh gave me those two stone tablets on which he had written those commandments. BSB BSB: And at the end of forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.
12 ARST But then he said to me,‘Go down the mountain immediately! This is because{ the people whom you are leading}, the people whom you led out of Egypt, have committed a terrible sin! They have very quickly done what I commanded them not to do. They have made for themselves a metal figure{ of a calf to worship}.’ BSB BSB: And the LORD said to me, “Get up and go down from here at once, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten image.”
13 ARST Then Yahweh said to me,‘I have been watching these people. I see that they are very stubborn. BSB BSB: The LORD also said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.
14 ARST So do not try to stop me. I am going to destroy all of them, with the result that no one anywhere will remember their names. Then I will enable you to become{ the ancestor} of a nation that will be more powerful and numerous than them.’ BSB BSB: Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they are.”
15 ARST So I turned and went down the mountain. In my hands I carried the two stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were{ written}. Fire was burning all over the mountain. BSB BSB: So I went back down the mountain while it was blazing with fire, with the two tablets of the covenant in my hands.
16 ARST I looked, and I was shocked to see that your parents had committed a great sin against Yahweh. They very quickly had begun to do what Yahweh our God had commanded them not to do. They had{ requested Aaron} to make for them a metal figure of a calf{ to worship}. BSB BSB: And I saw how you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves a molten calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.
17 ARST I lifted up those two stone tablets and threw them{ on the ground}. They broke into pieces. I did this while they were watching. BSB BSB: So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, shattering them before your eyes.
18 ARST Then I prostrated myself on the ground in Yahweh’ s presence as I had done before. I did not eat or drink anything for 40 days and nights. I did that because your parents had sinned against Yahweh and caused him to become very angry. BSB BSB: Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD and provoking Him to anger.
19 ARST I was afraid that because Yahweh was very angry with them, he would get rid of all of them.{ But again I prayed that he would not do that}, and again he listened to me{ and answered my prayer}. BSB BSB: For I was afraid of the anger and wrath that the LORD had directed against you, enough to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me this time as well.
20 ARST Yahweh was also very angry with Aaron{ for making that golden calf}. Yahweh was ready to kill him. But at the same time I prayed for Aaron also,{ and Yahweh answered my prayer}. BSB BSB: The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I also prayed for Aaron.
21 ARST Your parents had sinned{ by requesting Aaron} to make{ a metal figure of} a calf. So I took that figure and I melted it in a fire. Then, I crushed it and ground it into very tiny pieces. Then I threw those tiny pieces into the stream that flowed down the mountain. BSB BSB: And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain.
22 ARST Your parents also caused Yahweh to become very angry{ by what they did at places that they named} Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth Hattaavah. BSB BSB: You continued to provoke the LORD at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah.
23 ARST And when we were at Kadesh Barnea, Yahweh said to your parents,‘Go and capture the land that I am about to give to you!’ But they rebelled against him. They did not trust him, and they did not obey what he told them to do. BSB BSB: And when the LORD sent you out from Kadesh-barnea, He said, “Go up and possess the land that I have given you.” But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You neither believed Him nor obeyed Him.
24 ARST Your parents rebelled against Yahweh from the first day that I knew them{ in Egypt}. BSB BSB: You have been rebelling against the LORD since the day I came to know you.
25 ARST So, as I said, I lay on the ground in Yahweh’ s presence for 40 days and nights because Yahweh had said that he would get rid of your ancestors. BSB BSB: So I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said He would destroy you.
26 ARST And I prayed to Yahweh, saying,‘Lord Yahweh, these people belong to you. Do not destroy them. They are people whom you rescued and brought out of Egypt by your very great power. BSB BSB: And I prayed to the LORD and said, “O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You redeemed through Your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
27 ARST Do not forget{ what you promised} to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Ignore how stubborn and wicked these people have been, and the sin that they have committed. BSB BSB: Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people and the wickedness of their sin.
28 ARST If you destroy them, the people of Egypt will{ hear about it}. They will say that you were not able to bring them into the land that you promised to give to them. They will say that you took them into the desert only to kill them there because you hated them. BSB BSB: Otherwise, those in the land from which You brought us out will say, ‘Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land He had promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’
29 ARST { Remember} that they are your people. You chose them to belong to you. You brought them out{ from Egypt} by your very great power.’ BSB BSB: But they are Your people, Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and outstretched arm.”
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.