Deuteronomy 9:1-6
The land is not earned by Israel's righteousness; it is given by the Lord who judges wickedness, keeps His oath, and exposes His own people as stiff-necked recipients of mercy.
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.
The land is not earned by Israel's righteousness; it is given by the LORD who judges wickedness, keeps His oath, and exposes His own people as stiff-necked recipients of mercy.
Moses prepares Israel to cross the Jordan by insisting that the coming conquest must not be interpreted as proof of Israel's moral superiority, but as the LORD's own action in judgment against wicked nations and in faithfulness to the oath sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Moses addresses Israel on the plains of Moab shortly before the Jordan crossing and the beginning of conquest west of the Jordan. The second-generation covenant community, preparing to face nations greater and stronger than themselves and to receive the land promised to the fathers. The passage belongs to the exodus-Sinai stage at the edge of land-entry, where the LORD's covenant promise to the patriarchs moves toward possession through judgment on wicked nations and the formation of Israel as a humbled covenant people.
Not Your Righteousness: The Stiff-Necked People and the Interceding Mediator
Israel must not mistake the conquest for a certificate of their righteousness — the land is given because of the Canaanites' wickedness and the LORD's oath to the fathers, not because Israel deserved it; and the entire wilderness record confirms the opposite: Israel is a stiff-necked people whose continued existence depended entirely on Moses's intercessory mediation, not on their own covenant faithfulness.