Not for Your Righteousness
1 Hear, Israel! You are to pass over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the sky, 2 a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say, “Who can stand before the sons of Anak?” 3 Know therefore today that Yahweh your God is he who goes over before you as a devouring fire. He will destroy them and he will bring them down before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as Yahweh has spoken to you. 4 Don’t say in your heart, after Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, “For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land;” because Yahweh drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations. 5 Not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 6 Know therefore that Yahweh your God doesn’t give you this good land to possess for your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. 7 Remember, and don’t forget, how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. 8 Also in Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was angry with you to destroy you. 9 When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10 Yahweh delivered to me the two stone tablets written with God’s finger. On them were all the words which Yahweh spoke with you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly. 11 It came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights that Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant. 12 Yahweh said to me, “Arise, get down quickly from here; for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned away from the way which I commanded them. They have made a molten image for themselves!” 13 Furthermore Yahweh spoke to me, saying, “I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people. 14 Leave me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under the sky; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.” 15 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. The two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 I looked, and behold, you had sinned against Yahweh your God. You had made yourselves a molded calf. You had quickly turned away from the way which Yahweh had commanded you. 17 I took hold of the two tablets, and threw them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes. 18 I fell down before Yahweh, as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which Yahweh was angry against you to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time also. 20 Yahweh was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21 I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire, and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. I threw its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain. 22 At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked Yahweh to wrath. 23 When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land which I have given you,” you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God, and you didn’t believe him or listen to his voice. 24 You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day that I knew you. 25 So I fell down before Yahweh the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because Yahweh had said he would destroy you. 26 I prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Lord Yahweh, don’t destroy your people and your inheritance that you have redeemed through your greatness, that you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don’t look at the stubbornness of this people, nor at their wickedness, nor at their sin, 28 lest the land you brought us out from say, ‘Because Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land which he promised to them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’ 29 Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.”
Israel is told three times that the land is not a reward for their goodness, and the proof offered is their own record.
The chapter exists to prevent one sentence. Don't say in your heart, after Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, 'For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land' Deuteronomy 9:4.
The denial is then repeated three times in three verses, which is the most emphatic thing in the book. Not for your righteousness. Not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart. Not for your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people Deuteronomy 9:4–6.
Two reasons are given instead, and neither is complimentary. The land is being taken for the wickedness of these nations, and to keep a promise sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Deuteronomy 9:5.
So the conquest is presented as a judgment on the occupants and a promise kept to the dead, and Israel is the instrument in both. Being used is not the same as being deserving, and the text will not let the two be confused. The same logic later removes Israel from the same land Deuteronomy 4:26, which is what makes it consistent rather than partisan.
What follows is the evidence, and Moses assembles it as a prosecutor would. Remember, and don't forget, how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness Deuteronomy 9:7.
The golden calf is retold at length — the forty days on the mountain, the tablets written with the finger of God, the discovery, the breaking of the stones in front of them, the burning and grinding of the calf and the scattering of its dust in the brook Deuteronomy 9:9–21. Then a list of other places: Taberah, Massah, Kibroth Hattaavah, and Kadesh Barnea Deuteronomy 9:22–23.
And the summary is total: you have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day that I knew you Deuteronomy 9:24.
The last section is the prayer he prayed while lying on the ground for forty days, and its argument is worth following because it contains no defense of Israel at all.
He appeals first to God's investment: your people and your inheritance that you have redeemed Deuteronomy 9:26. Then to the patriarchs, and then he asks God to look away from the facts — don't look at the stubbornness of this people, nor at their wickedness, nor at their sin Deuteronomy 9:27.
Then the argument that carries it, and it is about what the neighbors will conclude. Egypt will say God was not able to bring them in, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness Deuteronomy 9:28.
That is the same slander the people themselves had spoken at the border Deuteronomy 1:27. Moses takes the lie his people told about God and uses it as the reason God should spare them.
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