Deuteronomy 9:21-29

21 I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust: and I cast the dust of it into the brook that descended out of the mountain.

22 At Tav`erah, and at Massah, and at Kivrot-Hatta'avah, you provoked the LORD to wrath.

23 When the LORD sent you from Kadesh-Barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then you rebelled against the mitzvah of the LORD your God, and you didn't believe him, nor listen to his voice.

24 You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.

25 So I fell down before the LORD the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because the LORD had said he would destroy you.

26 I prayed to the LORD, and said, Lord GOD, don't destroy your people and your inheritance, that you have redeemed through your greatness, that you have brought forth out of Mitzrayim with a mighty hand.

27 Remember your servants, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya`akov; don't look to the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin,

28 lest the land whence you brought us out say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised to them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.

29 Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.

Deuteronomy 9:21-29 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.