21 Then I took the sinful thing, 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; and I threw the dust of it into the brook that descended out of the mountain.

 

22 "At Tab'erah also, and at Massah, and at Kib'roth-hatta'avah, you provoked YHVH to wrath.

 

23 And when YHVH sent you from Ka'desh-bar'nea, saying, 'Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you,' then you rebelled against the commandment of YHVH, your god, and did not believe him or obey his voice.

 

24 You have been rebellious against YHVH from the day that I knew you.

 

25 "So I lay prostrate before YHVH for these forty days and forty nights, because YHVH had said he would destroy you.

 

26 And I prayed to YHVH, 'O Lord YHVH, destroy not thy people and thy heritage, whom thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, whom thou hast brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

 

27 Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness, or their sin,

 

28 lest the land from which thou didst bring us say, "Because YHVH was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness."

 

29 For they are thy people and thy heritage, whom thou didst bring out by thy great power and by thy outstretched arm.'

The Anakim were one of the ancient peoples which they overcame. They represent our animal tendencies: lust, avarice and greed. And yet, we wrestled with these temptations of the material. It is only because of our higher levels of consciousness that we are able to overcome them.