Deuteronomy 9:20

20 The LORD was so angry with Aaron that he wanted to destroy him, too. But I prayed for Aaron, and the LORD spared him.

Deuteronomy 9:20 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 9:20

And the Lord was very angry with Aaron, to have destroyed him,
&c.] For complying with the request of the people in making a calf for them, and for that miserable shift he made to excuse himself; which so provoked the Lord, that he threatened to destroy him, and he was in danger of being cut off, had it not been for the intercession of Moses:

and I prayed for Aaron also the same time:
who either was included in the general prayer for the people, ( Exodus 32:31 ) or a particular prayer was made for him, though not recorded, and which also succeeded.

Deuteronomy 9:20 In-Context

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.

20 The LORD was so angry with Aaron that he wanted to destroy him, too. But I prayed for Aaron, and the LORD spared him.

21 I took your sin—the calf you had made—and I melted it down in the fire and ground it into fine dust. Then I threw the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.

22 “You also made the LORD angry at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah.