Deuteronomy 9:17

17 I held the two stone slabs high and threw them down, smashing them to bits as you watched.

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 I turned around and started down the mountain - by now the mountain was blazing with fire - carrying the two tablets of the covenant in my two arms.

16 That's when I saw it: There you were, sinning against God, your God - you had made yourselves a cast god in the shape of a calf! So soon you had left the road that God had commanded you to walk on.

17 I held the two stone slabs high and threw them down, smashing them to bits as you watched.

18 Then I prostrated myself before God, just as I had at the beginning of the forty days and nights. I ate no food; I drank no water. I did this because of you, all your sins, sinning against God, doing what is evil in God's eyes and making him angry.

19 I was terrified of God's furious anger, his blazing anger. I was sure he would destroy you. But once again God listened to me.