Assurance of Victory 1 UDB You people of Israel, listen to me! You will soon cross the Jordan River. In the land that you will enter, there are large cities that have very high walls around them that seem to extend up to the sky. There are peoples in that land that are more numerous and more powerful than you are. 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 UDB Those people are very tall and strong. Some of them are giants who 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 UDB 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, which is what 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 UDB 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 that because you are not righteous; 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.
The Golden Calf (Exodus 32:1–35; Acts 7:39–43)
7 UDB "Never forget what your ancestors 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 also 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 UDB Even at Mount Sinai your ancestors 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 UDB When I climbed the mountain to receive from him the stone tablets on which he had written the Ten Commandments, I stayed there forty days and nights, and 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 UDB 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 ancestors from the fire on that mountain, 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 UDB At the end of those forty 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 UDB But then he said to me, 'Go down the mountain immediately 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 cast 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 UDB Then Yahweh said to me, 'I have been watching these people, and 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 UDB 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 numerous and more powerful than they are.' 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 UDB So I turned and went down the mountain, carrying in my hands 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 UDB I looked, and I was shocked to see that your ancestors 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 image 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 UDB So while they were watching, I lifted up those two stone tablets and threw them on the ground, and they broke into pieces. BSB BSB: So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, shattering them before your eyes.
18 UDB Then I prostrated myself on the ground in Yahweh's presence as I had done before, and I did not eat or drink anything for forty days and nights. I did that because your ancestors 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 UDB 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 UDB Yahweh was also very angry with Aaron for making that golden calf and 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 UDB Your ancestors had sinned by requesting Aaron to make a metal statue of a calf. So I took that statue and I melted it in a fire and 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 UDB Your ancestors 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 UDB And when we were at Kadesh Barnea, Yahweh said to your ancestors, 'Go up 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 UDB Your ancestors rebelled against Yahweh from the first day that I knew them, in Egypt, and you have been exactly the same as your ancestors. BSB BSB: You have been rebelling against the LORD since the day I came to know you.
25 UDB So, as I said, I lay on the ground in Yahweh's presence for forty days and nights because Yahweh had said that he would destroy 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 UDB 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 UDB Do not forget what you promised to your servants 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 UDB If you do not do that, and if you destroy them, the people of Egypt will hear about it and 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 UDB Do not forget 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.