Deuteronomy 9:5-15

5 [It is] not because of your righteousness and because of the uprightness of your heart [that] you [are] coming to take possession of their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God [is] driving them {before you}, and in order to confirm the {promise} that Yahweh swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

6 "So you should understand that [it is] not because of your righteousness [that] Yahweh your God [is] giving you this good land to take possession of it, because {you are a stubborn people}.

7 Remember, {do not forget}, that you provoked Yahweh your God in the desert, [and] from the day that you went out from the land of Egypt until {you came to this place} you were rebelling against Yahweh.

8 "And [remember] at Horeb you provoked Yahweh, and Yahweh became angry [enough] to destroy you.

9 {When I went up the mountain} to receive {the stone tablets}, the tablets of the covenant that Yahweh {made} with you, and remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights, I did not eat food and I did not drink water.

10 And Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them [was writing] according to all the words that Yahweh spoke with you at the mountain, from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.

11 {And then} at the end of forty days and forty nights, Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

12 And Yahweh said to me, 'Come [now], go down quickly from this mountain because your people behave corruptly whom you brought out from Egypt, [for] they turned quickly from the way that I commanded them [to follow]; they have made for themselves a cast image.'

13 And Yahweh spoke to me, {saying}, 'I have seen this people, and look! {They are a stubborn people}.

14 Leave me alone, and let me destroy them, and let me blot out their name from under heaven, and let me make you into a nation mightier and more numerous than they!'

15 "And I turned, and I went down the mountain, as the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant [were] in my two hands.

Deuteronomy 9:5-15 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "from your faces"
• [b]. Literally "word"
• [c]. Or "fathers"
• [d]. Literally "a people stiff of neck you"
• [e]. Literally "not you shall forget"
• [f]. Literally "your coming up to this place the this" = until arrived at this location
• [g]. Literally "In/At my going up the mountain"
• [h]. Literally "the tablets of stones"
• [i]. Literally "cut"
• [j]. Hebrew "day"
• [k]. Hebrew "night"
• [l]. Literally "And it happened"
• [m]. Hebrew "day"
• [n]. Hebrew "night"
• [o]. Literally "to say"
• [p]. Literally "It is a people stiff of neck"