# Not because of your righteousness Deuteronomy · Draft · BSB Content revision: 3d605f2960822cfe · No editorial review date recorded [Citation / readable page](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/studies/deuteronomy/not-your-righteousness/) [Open interactive map](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/?study=deuteronomy§ion=not-your-righteousness) [Markdown](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/studies/deuteronomy/not-your-righteousness/index.md) [JSON](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/studies/deuteronomy/not-your-righteousness/index.json) Date: c. 1406 BC · Year 40, month 11 (Deuteronomy 1:3). Dated from 1 Kings 6:1 (the Exodus c. 1446 BC). Many scholars instead date the Exodus to about 1260 BC, placing these speeches about 1220 BC. Israel will dispossess nations greater than themselves, not because of their own righteousness but because of those nations’ wickedness and God’s promise, for Israel has been stubborn from Egypt on. Moses recounts the golden calf at Horeb; the provocations at Taberah, Massah, Kibroth-hattaavah and Kadesh; his forty days of intercession; the new tablets placed in the ark; and the death of Aaron. Deuteronomy records Moses’ last speeches to the new generation of Israel on the plains of Moab, in the fortieth year after the Exodus (1:3). It looks back over the journey from Egypt and Horeb and forward to life in the land, calling Israel to love the LORD and remember what he has done. Each section below lists what Moses recalls, with links to those events on the timeline, and where the rest of Scripture takes up the passage. The Ten Commandments, the great commandment, and the statutes for life in the land, ending with blessings and curses (4:44–28:68). ## Primary Scripture [Deuteronomy 9:1–10:11 (BSB)](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%209%3A1%E2%80%9310%3A11&version=BSB) 9:1 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. 9:2 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?” 9:3 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. 9:4 When the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land.” Rather, the LORD is driving out these nations before you because of their wickedness. 9:5 It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the LORD your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 9:6 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. 9:7 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. 9:8 At Horeb you provoked the LORD, and He was angry enough to destroy you. 9:9 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. 9:10 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. 9:11 And at the end of forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. 9:12 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.” 9:13 The LORD also said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. 9:14 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.” 9:15 So I went back down the mountain while it was blazing with fire, with the two tablets of the covenant in my hands. 9:16 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. 9:17 So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, shattering them before your eyes. 9:18 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. 9:19 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. 9:20 The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I also prayed for Aaron. 9:21 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. 9:22 You continued to provoke the LORD at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah. 9:23 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. 9:24 You have been rebelling against the LORD since the day I came to know you. 9:25 So I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said He would destroy you. 9:26 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. 9:27 Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people and the wickedness of their sin. 9:28 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.’ 9:29 But they are Your people, Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and outstretched arm.” 10:1 At that time the LORD said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood. 10:2 And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you are to place them in the ark.” 10:3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. 10:4 And the LORD wrote on the tablets what had been written previously, the Ten Commandments that He had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. The LORD gave them to me, 10:5 and I went back down the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD had commanded me; and there they have remained. 10:6 The Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest. 10:7 From there they traveled to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water. 10:8 At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to serve Him, and to pronounce blessings in His name, as they do to this day. 10:9 That is why Levi has no portion or inheritance among his brothers; the LORD is his inheritance, as the LORD your God promised him. 10:10 I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, like the first time, and that time the LORD again listened to me and agreed not to destroy you. 10:11 Then the LORD said to me, “Get up. Continue your journey ahead of the people, that they may enter and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.” ## Moses looks back [Deuteronomy 9:7–21](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%209%3A7%E2%80%9321&version=BSB) The calf at Horeb. [The golden calf](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/golden-calf/) [Deuteronomy 9:22](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%209%3A22&version=BSB) Taberah and Kibroth-hattaavah. [Complaints at Taberah and Kibroth-hattaavah](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/taberah-and-quail/) [Deuteronomy 9:22](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%209%3A22&version=BSB) Massah. [Water from the rock](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/rephidim/) [Deuteronomy 9:23](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%209%3A23&version=BSB) The refusal at Kadesh-barnea. [At the edge of the land](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/kadesh/) [Deuteronomy 9:25–10:5](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%209%3A25%E2%80%9310%3A5&version=BSB) Moses’ intercession and the new tablets. [The golden calf](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/golden-calf/) [Deuteronomy 10:6–7](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2010%3A6%E2%80%937&version=BSB) Aaron dies; Eleazar succeeds him. [Aaron dies on Mount Hor](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/events/aaron-dies/) ## Where Scripture takes it up [Titus 3:4–5](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Titus%203%3A4%E2%80%935&version=BSB) Paul: God saved us not because of righteous things we had done. ## Location evidence Plains of Moab: Approximate region. Coordinates \[longitude, latitude\]: \[35.64, 31.85\]. Classification source: editorial. Illustrative regional extent: \[\[35.56,31.77\],\[35.7,31.91\]\]; not a measured confidence interval. [Numbers 33:48–49 · extent of the camp](https://ebible.org/eng-web/NUM33.htm) ## For the class Why does Moses retell Israel’s failures just before they enter the land? ## Interpretation and reuse Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review. Record source: editorial Study guide: original editorial writing for Scripture Atlas. Place coordinates: OpenBible.info, CC BY 4.0. Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm [Use this atlas with AI / data documentation](https://wilderness-scripture-atlas.pages.dev/reference/ai/)