Not by Your Righteousness

Deuteronomy 9:1–6 is the movement “Not by Your Righteousness.” Read it inside Moses’ final covenant instruction to Israel on the eastern side of the Jordan as the people prepare for life in the land. The section opens with: “Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven,” It closes with: “Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.”

Scripture also places this passage inside a wider canonical network. Paul begins his Deuteronomy 30 exposition with the Deuteronomic warning, ‘Say not in thine heart,’ creating a composite Torah reuse in his argument about righteousness by faith.