Deuteronomy 9:8

8 Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you.

Deuteronomy 9:8 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 9:8

Also in Horeb ye provoked the Lord to wrath
The word "also" shows that they had provoked him before, but this instance is given as a very notorious one; here they made the golden calf and worshipped it, while Moses was on the mount with God, receiving instructions from him for their good. Near to this place a rock had been smitten for them, from whence flowed water for the refreshment of them and their cattle; here the Lord appeared in the glory of his majesty to them, and from hence, for it is the same mount with Sinai, the law was given to them in such an awful and terrible manner; and yet none of these things were sufficient to restrain them from provoking the Lord to wrath by their sins:

so that the Lord was angry with you, to have destroyed you;
so very angry with them, and so justly, that he proposed to Moses to destroy them, and make of him a great nation in their stead, ( Exodus 32:10 ) .

Deuteronomy 9:8 In-Context

6 Know, then, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to occupy because of your righteousness; for you are a stubborn people.

7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness; you have been rebellious against the Lord from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place.

8 Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you.

9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water.

10 And the Lord gave me the two stone tablets written with the finger of God; on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken to you at the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly.