Deuteronomy 9:13-29

The Golden Calf

13 ¹"Furthermore, the LORD said to me, 'I have seen this people, and behold, it is ²a stubborn people.

14 ³Let me alone, that I may destroy them and ⁴blot out their name from under heaven. And ⁵I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.'

15 ⁶So I turned and came down from the mountain, and ⁷the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.

16 And ⁸I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the LORD your God. You had made yourselves a golden^[a] calf. ⁹You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.

17 So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes.

18 Then I ¹⁰lay prostrate before the LORD ¹¹as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, ¹²in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke him to anger.

19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the LORD bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. ¹³But the LORD listened to me that time also.

20 And the LORD was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.

21 Then ¹⁴I took the sinful thing, the calf that 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 ran down from the mountain.

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

23 And ¹⁸when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, 'Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,' then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God and ¹⁹did not believe him or obey his voice.

24 ²⁰You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.

25 ²¹"So I lay prostrate before the LORD for these forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said he would destroy you.

26 ²²And I prayed to the LORD, 'O Lord GOD, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

27 Remember your 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 you brought us say, ²³"Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness."

29 ²⁴For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.'

Deuteronomy 9:13-29 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. Exodus 32:9
• 2. [See ver. 6 above]
• 3. Exodus 32:10
• 4. Deuteronomy 7:24; Deuteronomy 25:19; Deuteronomy 29:20; Exodus 17:14
• 5. Numbers 14:12
• 6. Exodus 32:15
• 7. Deuteronomy 4:11; Deuteronomy 5:23; Exodus 19:18
• 8. Exodus 32:19
• 9. [Deuteronomy 31:29; Judges 2:17]
• 10. Exodus 34:28; [Psalms 106:23]
• 11. ver. 9; Deuteronomy 10:10
• 12. Deuteronomy 4:25
• 13. Deuteronomy 10:10; Exodus 32:14; Exodus 33:17
• 14. Exodus 32:20
• 15. Numbers 11:1-3
• 16. Exodus 17:7
• 17. Numbers 11:34
• 18. Numbers 13:3; Numbers 14:1-4
• 19. Psalms 106:24, 25
• 20. ver. 7; Deuteronomy 31:27
• 21. [See ver. 18 above]
• 22. See Exodus 32:11-13
• 23. Numbers 14:16
• 24. Deuteronomy 4:20; 1 Kings 8:51; Nehemiah 1:10; [Psalms 95:7]

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew cast-metal