Deuteronomy 9:1-10

1 "Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over the Jordan this day to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fortified up to heaven,

2 a people great and tall, the children of the Anakim, whom thou knowest and of whom thou hast heard say, `Who can stand before the children of Anak!'

3 Understand therefore this day that the LORD thy God is He who goeth over before thee as a consuming fire. He shall destroy them, and He shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee.

4 Speak not thou in thine heart, after the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, `For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land'; but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.

5 Not for thy righteousness or for the uprightness of thine heart dost thou go to possess their land, but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that He may perform the word which the LORD swore unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6 "Understand, therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness, for thou art a stiffnecked people.

7 Remember, and forget not, how thou provoked the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD.

8 Also in Horeb ye provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was so angry with you as to have destroyed you.

9 When I had gone up into the mount to receive the tablets of stone, even the tablets of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode on the mount forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water.

10 And the LORD delivered unto me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them was written according to all the words which the LORD spoke with you on the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

Deuteronomy 9:1-10 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.