A reading from the book of Deuteronomy.

Here, O Israel, you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations

greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall,

the sons of the Anachim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, who can stand before

the sons of Aenac, know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire

is the Lord your God, he will destroy them and subdue them before you, so you shall drive them

out and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you. 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 because of the wickedness of these nations

that the Lord is driving them out before you. Not because of your righteousness, or the uprightness

of your heart are you going in to possess their land, 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 the word that the Lord swore to your fathers,

to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to

possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. Remember and do not forget

how you provoke the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of

Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. Even at Horib, you provoked the Lord to wrath,

and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. When 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 40 days and 40 nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. And the 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 on the day of the assembly. And at the end of 40 days

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