Worthy.Bible » STRONG » Deuteronomy » Chapter 9 » Verse 8-16

Deuteronomy 9:8-16 King James Version with Strong's Concordance (STRONG)

8 Also in Horeb H2722 ye provoked H7107 the LORD H3068 to wrath, H7107 so that the LORD H3068 was angry H599 with you to have destroyed H8045 you.

9 When I was gone up H5927 into the mount H2022 to receive H3947 the tables H3871 of stone, H68 even the tables H3871 of the covenant H1285 which the LORD H3068 made H3772 with you, then I abode H3427 in the mount H2022 forty H705 days H3117 and forty H705 nights, H3915 I neither did eat H398 bread H3899 nor drink H8354 water: H4325

10 And the LORD H3068 delivered H5414 unto me two H8147 tables H3871 of stone H68 written H3789 with the finger H676 of God; H430 and on them was written according to all the words, H1697 which the LORD H3068 spake H1696 with you in the mount H2022 out of the midst H8432 of the fire H784 in the day H3117 of the assembly. H6951

11 And it came to pass at the end H7093 of forty H705 days H3117 and forty H705 nights, H3915 that the LORD H3068 gave H5414 me the two H8147 tables H3871 of stone, H68 even the tables H3871 of the covenant. H1285

12 And the LORD H3068 said H559 unto me, Arise, H6965 get thee down H3381 quickly H4118 from hence; for thy people H5971 which thou hast brought forth H3318 out of Egypt H4714 have corrupted H7843 themselves; they are quickly H4118 turned aside H5493 out of the way H1870 which I commanded H6680 them; they have made H6213 them a molten image. H4541

13 Furthermore the LORD H3068 spake H559 unto me, saying, H559 I have seen H7200 this people, H5971 and, behold, it is a stiffnecked H6203 H7186 people: H5971

14 Let me alone, H7503 that I may destroy H8045 them, and blot out H4229 their name H8034 from under heaven: H8064 and I will make H6213 of H854 thee a nation H1471 mightier H6099 and greater H7227 than they.

15 So I turned H6437 and came down H3381 from the mount, H2022 and the mount H2022 burned H1197 with fire: H784 and the two H8147 tables H3871 of the covenant H1285 were in my two H8147 hands. H3027

16 And I looked, H7200 and, behold, ye had sinned H2398 against the LORD H3068 your God, H430 and had made H6213 you a molten H4541 calf: H5695 ye had turned aside H5493 quickly H4118 out of the way H1870 which the LORD H3068 had commanded H6680 you.

Commentary on Deuteronomy 9 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible


CHAPTER 9

De 9:1-25. Moses Dissuades Them from the Opinion of Their Own Righteousness.

1. this day—means this time. The Israelites had reached the confines of the promised land, but were obliged, to their great mortification, to return. But now they certainly were to enter it. No obstacle could prevent their possession; neither the fortified defenses of the towns, nor the resistance of the gigantic inhabitants of whom they had received from the spies so formidable a description.

cities great and fenced up to heaven—Oriental cities generally cover a much greater space than those in Europe; for the houses often stand apart with gardens and fields intervening. They are almost all surrounded with walls built of burnt or sun-dried bricks, about forty feet in height. All classes in the East, but especially the nomad tribes, in their ignorance of engineering and artillery, would have abandoned in despair the idea of an assault on a walled town, which to-day would be demolished in a few hours.

4-6. Speak not thou in thine heart, … saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land—Moses takes special care to guard his countrymen against the vanity of supposing that their own merits had procured them the distinguished privilege. The Canaanites were a hopelessly corrupt race, and deserved extermination; but history relates many remarkable instances in which God punished corrupt and guilty nations by the instrumentality of other people as bad as themselves. It was not for the sake of the Israelites, but for His own sake, for the promise made to their pious ancestors, and in furtherance of high and comprehensive purposes of good to the world, that God was about to give them a grant of Canaan.

7. Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the Lord—To dislodge from their minds any presumptuous idea of their own righteousness, Moses rehearses their acts of disobedience and rebellion committed so frequently, and in circumstances of the most awful and impressive solemnity, that they had forfeited all claims to the favor of God. The candor and boldness with which he gave, and the patient submission with which the people bore, his recital of charges so discreditable to their national character, has often been appealed to as among the many evidences of the truth of this history.

8. Also in Horeb—rather, "even in Horeb," where it might have been expected they would have acted otherwise.

12-29. Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people … have corrupted themselves—With a view to humble them effectually, Moses proceeds to particularize some of the most atrocious instances of their infidelity. He begins with the impiety of the golden calf—an impiety which, while their miraculous emancipation from Egypt, the most stupendous displays of the Divine Majesty that were exhibited on the adjoining mount, and the recent ratification of the covenant by which they engaged to act as the people of God, were fresh in memory, indicated a degree of inconstancy or debasement almost incredible.

17. I took the two tables, … and broke them before your eyes—not in the heat of intemperate passion, but in righteous indignation, from zeal to vindicate the unsullied honor of God, and by the suggestion of His Spirit to intimate that the covenant had been broken, and the people excluded from the divine favor.

18. I fell down before the Lord—The sudden and painful reaction which this scene of pagan revelry produced on the mind of the pious and patriotic leader can be more easily imagined than described. Great and public sins call for seasons of extraordinary humiliation, and in his deep affliction for the awful apostasy, he seems to have held a miraculous fast as long as before.

20. The Lord was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him—By allowing himself to be overborne by the tide of popular clamor, Aaron became a partaker in the guilt of idolatry and would have suffered the penalty of his sinful compliance, had not the earnest intercession of Moses on his behalf prevailed.

21. I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount—that is, "the smitten rock" (El Leja) which was probably contiguous to, or a part of, Sinai. It is too seldom borne in mind that though the Israelites were supplied with water from this rock when they were stationed at Rephidim (Wady Feiran), there is nothing in the Scripture narrative which should lead us to suppose that the rock was in the immediate neighborhood of that place (see on Ex 17:5). The water on this smitten rock was probably the brook that descended from the mount. The water may have flowed at the distance of many miles from the rock, as the winter torrents do now through the wadies of Arabia-Petræa (Ps 78:15, 16). And the rock may have been smitten at such a height, and at a spot bearing such a relation to the Sinaitic valleys, as to furnish in this way supplies of water to the Israelites during the journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir and Kadesh-barnea (De 1:1, 2). On this supposition new light is, perhaps, cast on the figurative language of the apostle, when he speaks of "the rock following" the Israelites (1Co 10:4) [Wilson, Land of the Bible].

25. Thus I fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first—After the enumeration of various acts of rebellion, he had mentioned the outbreak at Kadesh-barnea, which, on a superficial reading of this verse, would seem to have led Moses to a third and protracted season of humiliation. But on a comparison of this passage with Nu 14:5, the subject and language of this prayer show that only the second act of intercession (De 9:18) is now described in fuller detail.