Deuteronomy 9:9-18

9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water.

10 The LORD gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the LORD proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.

11 At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.

12 Then the LORD told me, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made an idol for themselves.”

13 And the LORD said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed!

14 Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.”

15 So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.

16 When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.

17 So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.

18 Then once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD’s sight and so arousing his anger.

Deuteronomy 9:9-18 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 9

In this chapter the Israelites are assured of the ejection of the Canaanites, though so great and mighty, to make room for them, De 9:1-3, and they are cautioned not to attribute this to their own righteousness, but to the wickedness of the nations which deserved to be so treated, and to the faithfulness of God in performing his promise made to their fathers, De 9:4-6, and that it might appear that it could not be owing to their righteousness, it is affirmed and proved that they had been a rebellious and provoking people from their coming out of Egypt to that time, as was evident from their idolatry at Horeb; a particular account of which is given, and of the displeasure of the Lord at it, De 9:7-21, and of their murmurings, with which they provoked the Lord at other places, De 9:22-24, and the chapter is closed with an account of the prayer of Moses for them at Horeb, to avert the wrath of God from them for their making and worshipping the golden calf, De 9:25-29.

Cross References

• 1. S Deuteronomy 4:13
• 2. S Genesis 7:4
• 3. S Exodus 24:12; Exodus 24:12,15,18; Exodus 34:28
• 4. S Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 4:13
• 5. Deuteronomy 10:4; Deuteronomy 18:16
• 6. S Genesis 7:4
• 7. S Exodus 24:12
• 8. S Deuteronomy 4:16; Exodus 32:7-8; Deuteronomy 31:29
• 9. Judges 2:17
• 10. ver 6; Exodus 32:9; Deuteronomy 10:16
• 11. Exodus 32:10
• 12. S Numbers 14:12; Deuteronomy 29:20
• 13. Jeremiah 7:16
• 14. S Exodus 19:18; Exodus 32:15
• 15. S Exodus 32:4; Exodus 32:19
• 16. S Exodus 34:28
• 17. ver 9
• 18. S Exodus 32:31