Deuteronomy 9:17

17 So I took the stone tablets and threw them to the ground, smashing 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 “So while the mountain was blazing with fire I turned and came down, holding in my hands the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant.

16 There below me I could see that you had sinned against the LORD your God. You had melted gold and made a calf idol for yourselves. How quickly you had turned away from the path the LORD had commanded you to follow!

17 So I took the stone tablets and threw them to the ground, smashing them before your eyes.

18 “Then, as before, I threw myself down before the LORD for forty days and nights. I ate no bread and drank no water because of the great sin you had committed by doing what the LORD hated, provoking him to anger.

19 I feared that the furious anger of the LORD, which turned him against you, would drive him to destroy you. But again he listened to me.