Deuteronomy 9:12-22

12 "¹Then the LORD said to me, 'Arise, go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have ²quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves.'

13 "The ³LORD spoke further to me, saying, 'I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a ⁴stubborn * people.

14 '⁵Let Me alone *, that I may destroy them and ⁶blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.'

15 "⁷So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.

16 "And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the LORD your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which the LORD had commanded you.

17 "I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and smashed them before your eyes.

18 "⁸I fell down before the LORD, ⁹as at the first, forty days and nights; ¹⁰I neither ate bread nor drank water, ¹¹because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger.

19 "For ¹²I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was wrathful against you in order to destroy you, ¹³but the LORD listened to me that time also.

20 "The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time.

21 "¹⁴I took your 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 its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain.

22 "Again at ¹⁵Taberah and at ¹⁶Massah and at ¹⁷Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the LORD to wrath.

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Deuteronomy 9:12-22 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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 17

1. Exodus 32:7, 8
2. Judges 2:17
3. Exodus 32:9
4. Deuteronomy 10:16; Deuteronomy 31:27; 2 Kings 17:14
5. Exodus 32:10
6. Psalms 9:5; Psalms 109:13
7. Exodus 32:15-19
8. Exodus 34:28
9. Deuteronomy 10:10
10. Deuteronomy 9:9
11. Exodus 34:9
12. Exodus 32:10; Hebrews 12:21
13. Exodus 34:10; Deuteronomy 10:10
14. Exodus 32:20
15. Numbers 11:3
16. Exodus 17:7
17. Numbers 11:34

Footnotes 2

[a]. Or "stiff-necked"
[b]. Lit "sin"