Deuteronomy 9:8

8 For why also in Horeb, thou stirredest him (to wrath), and he was wroth, and would have done thee away, (Yea, also at Mount Sinai, thou stirredest him to anger, and he was so angry that he would have done thee away;)

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 Therefore know thou that not for thy rightwisenesses thy Lord God hath given to thee this best land into possession, since thou art a people of most hard noll. (And so know thou that the Lord thy God hath not given thee this best land for a possession because of thy own righteousness, since thou art a most stubborn, or a stiff-necked, people.)
7 Have thou (in) mind, and forget not (Remember, and do not forget), how in the wilderness thou stirredest thy Lord God to great wrath; (and) from that day in which thou wentest out of Egypt till to this place, thou hast striven ever[more] against the Lord.
8 For why also in Horeb, thou stirredest him (to wrath), and he was wroth, and would have done thee away, (Yea, also at Mount Sinai, thou stirredest him to anger, and he was so angry that he would have done thee away;)
9 and when I went up into the hill, that I should take (the) two tables of stone, the tables of (the) covenant which the Lord made with you, and I abode in the hill forty days and forty nights, and I ate not bread, and I drank not water. (and when I went up the mountain, so that I could receive the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, I stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights, and I ate no bread, and I drank no water.)
10 And the Lord gave to me two tables of stone, ever either written with God's finger, and containing all the words which he spake to you in the hill, from the midst of the fire, when the company of people was gathered together. (And the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, each written with the finger of God, and containing all the words which he spoke to you from the midst of the fire, when the congregation of the people was gathered together there at the mountain.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.