Deuteronomy 9:7-24

The Golden Calf

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. ¹

8 At Horeb ^[a] 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.

11 And at the end of forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.

12 And the LORD said to me, “Get up and go down from here at once, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten image.”

13 The LORD also said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.

14 Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they are.”

15 So I went back down the mountain while it was blazing with fire, with the two tablets of the covenant in my hands.

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

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

18 Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD and provoking Him to anger.

19 For I was afraid ^[b] of the anger and wrath that the LORD had directed against you, enough to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me this time as well.

20 The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I also prayed for Aaron.

21 And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain.

22 You continued to provoke the LORD at Taberah, ^[c] at Massah, ^[d] and at Kibroth-hattaavah. ^[e]

23 And when the LORD sent you out from Kadesh-barnea, He said, “Go up and possess the land that I have given you.” But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You neither believed Him nor obeyed Him.

24 You have been rebelling against the LORD since the day I came to know you.

Deuteronomy 9:7-24 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 32:1–35; Acts 7:39–43)

Footnotes

• [a] That is, Mount Sinai, or possibly a mountain in the range containing Mount Sinai
• [b] LXX And I am greatly terrified; cited in Hebrews 12:21
• [c] Taberah means burning; see Numbers 11:3.
• [d] Massah means testing; see Exodus 17:7.
• [e] Kibroth-hattaavah means graves of craving; see Numbers 11:34.