Deuteronomy 9:7-28 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Deuteronomy 9:7 b- Deuteronomy 10:11 (or Deuteronomy 10:9). Narrative of the legislation on Mount Horeb; for the purpose apparently of illustrating Deuteronomy 9:7 a. This historical survey suddenly thrust into a hortatory context closely resembles Deuteronomy 1-3, and is thought by Horst and Bertholet to be by the same author. They agree with Steuernagel (who, however, says its closest affinities are with Deuteronomy 5) in holding it to be an interpolation here. But surely the history in this section is didactic and therefore hortatory. Deuteronomy 10:6 f. is, however, evidently an editorial addition. The narrative in Deuteronomy 9:7 b, ff. follows JE (Exodus 24:12 f; Exodus 32:10; Exodus 32:15; Exodus 32:19; Exodus 34:1).

Deuteronomy 9:9. tables of stone: Exodus 24:12 *. covenant: Deuteronomy 4:13 *.

Deuteronomy 9:9-11. forty days: Exodus 24:18 * (E). I did. water: so Exodus 34:28, but the latter refers to Moses-' third ascent of the mountain, not the first.

Deuteronomy 9:10 is perhaps a marginal gloss. Deuteronomy 9:10 a essentially = Deuteronomy 9:11 b. finger of God: not of Yahweh; so the Divine finger (Exodus 31:18 *).

Deuteronomy 9:12. molten image: Exodus 32:4 (cf. graven image, Deuteronomy 4:16, etc.).

Deuteronomy 9:13 repeats substance of Deuteronomy 9:12; Bertholet, therefore, rejects it.

Deuteronomy 9:14 f. See Exodus 32:10; Exodus 32:15; Exodus 32:19.

Deuteronomy 9:18. I fell down: better, I lay me down. as at the first: as regards time (forty days) and accompanying action (fasting, Deuteronomy 9:9). Moses spent forty days on the mountain waiting to receive the tables (J) and another forty days making intercession.

Deuteronomy 9:19. that time also: when besides did Yahweh listen to Moses-' intercession? All the incidents of Moses-' life are not recorded.

Deuteronomy 9:20. Not mentioned in Ex.

Deuteronomy 9:21. sin: that by which they sinned (see Amos 8:14; Micah 1:5). Exodus 32:20 adds that Moses made the people drink the water of the wady.

Deuteronomy 9:25. A continuation and in part a repetition of Deuteronomy 9:18. Though in vocabulary and matter Deuteronomy 9:26-29 resembles Exodus 32:11-13 (the first intercession) the occasion is different, the latter belonging to the time before the first descent (Deuteronomy 9:15 = Exodus 32:15).

Deuteronomy 9:28. Cf. Exodus 32:12; Numbers 14:16.

Related Commentaries of Deuteronomy 9:7

Deuteronomy 9:7-28

7 Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst 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 angry with you to have destroyed you.

9 When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:

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

11 And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.

12 And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.

13 Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.

15 So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.

16 And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the LORD your God, and had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the LORD had commanded you.

17 And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes.

18 And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also.

20 And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.

21 And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.

22 And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibrothhattaavah, ye provoked the LORD to wrath.

23 Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadeshbarnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.

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

25 Thus I fell down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first; because the LORD had said he would destroy you.

26 I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

27 Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin:

28 Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.