Deuteronomy 9:17

17 And I took hold of the two tablets, and I threw them out {of} my two hands and smashed them before your eyes.

Deuteronomy 9:17 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 9:17

And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands,
&c.] In wrath and indignation at the sin they were guilty of:

and brake them before your eyes;
as an emblem of their breach of them by transgressing them.

Deuteronomy 9:17 In-Context

15 "And I turned, and I went down the mountain, as the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant [were] in my two hands.

16 And I looked, and indeed you had sinned against Yahweh your God; you [had] made for yourselves an image of a calf [of] cast metal; you [had] turned quickly from the way that Yahweh had commanded [for] you.

17 And I took hold of the two tablets, and I threw them out {of} my two hands and smashed them before your eyes.

18 And [then] I lay prostrate {before} Yahweh, as earlier, forty days and forty nights; I did not eat food and I did not drink water because of all your sins that you committed, by doing evil in the eyes of Yahweh [and so] provoking him.

19 For {I was in dread} from [being in] the presence of the anger and the wrath [with] which Yahweh was angry with you [so as] to destroy you, but Yahweh listened to me also {at that time}.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "from"