Deuteronomy 9:8

8 At Horeb ^[a] you provoked the LORD, and He was angry enough 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 Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

7 Remember this, and never forget how you provoked the LORD your God in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place, you have been rebelling against the LORD.

8 At Horeb you provoked the LORD, and He was angry enough to destroy you.

9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.

10 Then the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, inscribed by the finger of God with the exact words that the LORD spoke to you out of the fire on the mountain on the day of the assembly.

Footnotes

• [a]. That is, Mount Sinai, or possibly a mountain in the range containing Mount Sinai