Deuteronomy 9:17

I took the two tables, . . . and broke them before your eyes--not in the heat of intemperate passion, but in righteous indignation, from zeal to vindicate the unsullied honor of God, and by the suggestion of His Spirit to intimate that the covenant had been broken, and the people excluded from the divine favor.

That they might have no pretence to think that God brought them to Canaan for their righteousness, Moses here shows them what a miracle of mercy it was that they had not long ere this been destroyed in the wilderness: "Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the Lord thy God (Deu 9:7); so far from purchasing his favour, thou hast many a time laid thyself open to his displeasure." Their fathers' provocations are here charged upon them; for, if God had dealt with their fathers according to their deserts, this generation would never have been, much less would they have entered Canaan. We are apt to forget our provocations, especially when the smart of the rod is over, and have need to be often put in mind of them, that we may never entertain any conceit of our own righteousness. Paul argues from the guilt which all mankind is under to prove that we cannot be justified before God by our own works, Rom 3:19, Rom 3:20. If our works condemn us, they will not justify us. Observe, 1. They had been a provoking people ever since they came out of Egypt, Deu 9:7. Forty years long, from first to last, were God and Moses grieved with them. It is a very sad character Moses now at parting leaves of them: You have been rebellious since the day I knew you, Deu 9:24. No sooner were they formed into a people than there was a faction formed among them, which upon all occasions made head against God and his government. Though the Mosaic history records little more than the occurrences of the first and last year of the forty, yet it seems by this general account that the rest of the years were not much better, but one continued provocation. 2. Even in Horeb they made a calf and worshipped it, Deu 9:8, etc. That was a sin so heinous, and by several aggravations made so exceedingly sinful, that they deserved upon all occasions to be upbraided with it. It was done in the very place where the law was given by which they were expressly forbidden to worship God by images, and while the mountain was yet burning before their eyes, and Moses had gone up to fetch them the law in writing. They turned aside quickly, Deu 9:16. 3. God was very angry with them for their sin. Let them not think that God overlooked what they did amiss, and gave them Canaan for what was good among them. No, God had determined to destroy them (Deu 9:8), could easily have done it, and would have been no loser by it; he even desired Moses to let him alone that he might do it, Deu 9:13, Deu 9:14. By this it appeared how heinous their sin was, for God is never angry with any above what there is cause for, as men often are. Moses himself, though a friend and favourite, trembled at the revelation of God's wrath from heaven against their ungodliness and unrighteousness (Deu 9:19): I was afraid of the anger of the Lord, afraid perhaps not for them only, but for himself, Psa 119:120. 4. They had by their sin broken covenant with God, and forfeited all the privileges of the covenant, which Moses signified to them by breaking the tables, Deu 9:17. A bill of divorce was given them, and thenceforward they might justly have been abandoned for ever, so that their mouth was certainly stopped from pleading any righteousness of their own. God had, in effect, disowned them, when he said to Moses (Deu 9:12), "They are thy people, they are none of mine, nor shall they be dealt with as mine." 5. Aaron himself fell under God's displeasure for it, though he was the saint of the Lord, and was only brought by surprise or terror to be confederate with them in the sin: The Lord was very angry with Aaron, Deu 9:20. No man's place or character can shelter him from the wrath of God if he have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Aaron, that should have made atonement for them if the iniquity could have been purged away by sacrifice and offering, did himself fall under the wrath of God: so little did they consider what they did when they drew him in. 6. It was with great difficulty and very long attendance that Moses himself prevailed to turn away the wrath of God, and prevent their utter ruin. He fasted and prayed full forty days and forty nights before he could obtain their pardon, Deu 9:18. And some think twice forty days (Deu 9:25), because it is said, as I fell down before, whereas his errand in the first forty was not of that nature. Others think it was but one forty, though twice mentioned (as also in Deu 10:10); but this was enough to make them sensible how great God's displeasure was against them, and what a narrow escape they had for their lives. And in this appears the greatness of God's anger against all mankind that no less a person than his Son, and no less a price than his own blood, would serve to turn it away. Moses here tells them the substance of his intercession for them. He was obliged to own their stubbornness, and their wickedness, and their sin, Deu 9:27. Their character was bad indeed when he that appeared an advocate for them could not give them a good word, and had nothing else to say in their behalf but that God had done great things for them, which really did but aggravate their crime (Deu 9:26), - that they were the posterity of good ancestors (Deu 9:27), which might also have been turned upon him, as making the matter worse and not better, - and that the Egyptians would reproach God, if he should destroy them, as unable to perfect what he had wrought for them (Deu 9:28), a plea which might easily enough have been answered: no matter what the Egyptians say, while the heavens declare God's righteousness; so that the saving of them from ruin at that time was owing purely to the mercy of God, and the importunity of Moses, and not to any merit of theirs, that could be offered so much as in mitigation of their offence. 7. To affect them the more with the destruction they were then at the brink of, he describes very particularly the destruction of the calf they had made, Deu 9:21. He calls it their sin: perhaps not only because it had been the matter of their sin, but because the destroying of it was intended for a testimony against their sin, and an indication to them what the sinners themselves did deserve. Those that made it were like unto it, and would have had no wrong done them if they had been thus stamped to dust, and consumed, and scattered, and no remains of them left. It was infinite mercy that accepted the destruction of the idol instead of the destruction of the idolaters. 8. Even after this fair escape that they had, in many other instances they provoked the Lord again and again. He needed only to name the places, for they carried the memorials either of the sin or of the punishment in their names (Deu 9:22): at Taberah, burning, where God set fire to them for their murmuring, - at Massah, the temptation, where they challenged almighty power to help them, - and at Kibroth-hattaavah, the graves of lusters, where the dainties they coveted were their poison; and, after these, their unbelief and distrust at Kadesh-barnea, of which he had already told them (ch. 1), and which he here mentions again (Deu 9:23), would certainly have completed their ruin if they had been dealt with according to their own merits.
Now let them lay all this together, and it will appear that whatever favour God should hereafter show them, in subduing their enemies and putting them in possession of the land of Canaan, it was not for their righteousness. It is good for us often to remember against ourselves, with sorrow and shame, our former sins, and to review the records conscience keeps of them, that we may see how much we are indebted to free grace, and may humbly own that we never merited at God's hand any thing but wrath and the curse.

Deuteronomy 9:7-21, 25-29

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.

7. Memento, ne obliviscaris quod ad iram provocasti Jehovam Deum tuum in deserto, a die qua egressus es e terra AEgypti, donec ingressi estis ad hunc locum, rebelles fuistis Jehovae.

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

8. Nam in Horeb provocastis Jehovam: et excanduit Jehova in vos ad perdendum vos.

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:

9. Quum ascendissem in montem ut acciperem tabulas lapideas, tabulas faederis quod pepigerat Jehova vobiscum, tunc mansi in monte quadraginta noctes, ubi panem non comedi, et aquam non bibi.

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.

10. Et dedit mihi Jehova duas tabulas lapideas scriptas digito Dei, et in ipsis erat juxta omnia verba qum loquutus fuerat Jehova in monte e medio ignis, in die conventus.

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.

11. Et factum est a fine quadraginta dierum et quadraginta noc tium, ut daret Jehova mihi duas tabulas lapideas, tabulas foederis.

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.

12. Dixit autem mihi Jehova, Surge, descende hinc celeriter: quia corrupit se populus tuus quem eduxisti ex AEgypto: recesserunt cito e via quam praeceperam illis: feterunt sibi conflatile.

13. Furthermore the Lord spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people.

13. Tunc dixit mihi Jehova, Vidi populum hunc, et ecce, populus est durae cervicis.

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.

14. Sine me ut perdam eos, deleamque nomen eorum sub coelo, et faciam to in gentem potentiorem, et majorem illa.

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.

15. Tunc verti me, et descendi e monte (mons autem ipse ardebat igni) et duae tabulae foederis in manibus meis erant.

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.

16. Et vidi, et ecce, peccaveratis in Jehovam Deum vestrum, foceratis vobis vitulum conflatilem, recesseratis cito de via quam paeceperat Jehova vobis.

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

17. Tunc apprehendi duas tabulas, et projeci eas e manibus meis, confregique in oculis vestris.

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.

18. Et procidi coram Jehova sicut prius, quadraginta dies et quadraginta noctes: panem non comedi, et aquam non bibi, propter omne peccatum vestrum quod peccaveratis, impie agendo in oculis Jehovae ad ipsum provocandum.

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.

19. Timui enim propter excandescentiam et tram qua excanduerat Jehova contra vos ad perdendum vos: et exaudivit me Jehova etiam hac vice.

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

20. Contra Aharon quoque excanduit Jehova vehementer ad perdendum eum, et oravi etiam pro Aharon tempore illo.

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.

21. Porro peccatum vestrum quod feceratis, nempe vitulum, accepi, et combussi ilium igni, et contrivi bene molendo, donec comminutus esset in pulverem: ae projeci pulverem ejus in torrentem qui descendebat e monte illo.

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.

25. Et procidi coram Jehova quadraginta diebus et quadraginta noctibus, quibus procidi: quia dixerat Jehova se perditurum vos.

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.

26. Oravi igitur Jehovam, et dixi, Dominator Jehova, ne perdas populum tuum, et haereditatem tuam quam redemisti magnitudine tua, quem eduxisti ex AEgypto manu valida.

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

27. Memento servorum tuorum, Abrahae, Isaac et Jacob, ne respicias ad duritiem populi hujus, et ad impietatem ejus et peccatum.

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.

28. Ne forte dicant in terra, unde eduxisti nos, Propterea quod non potuit Jehova introducere eos in terram quam dixerat illis, vel quia oderat filius, eduxit eos ut interficeret in deserto.

29. Yet they are thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power, and by thy stretched-out arm.

29. Ipsi autem sunt populus tuus, et haereditas tua, quam eduxisti fortitudine tua magna, et brachio tuo extento.

7. Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst In order to reprove the ingratitude of the people, Moses here briefly refers to some of their offenses; but he principally insists on the history of their revolt, in which their extreme and most detestable impiety betrayed itself. He therefore narrates this crime in almost the identical words which he had previously used in Exodus. He begins by urging them often to reflect upon their sins, lest they should ever be forgotten; and this constant recollection of them not only tended to humiliate them, but also to teach them at length to lay aside their depraved nature, and to accustom themselves to become obedient to God. Afterwards he proceeds to the history itself, shewing that God had been provoked by their idolatry to destroy them. If a question be here put, how it was that God was prevailed upon by Moses to change His intention, our curiosity must be repressed, lest we should dispute more deeply than is fitting respecting the secret and incomprehensible decree of God. Sure it is that God did not act otherwise than He had determined; but Moses goes no deeper than the sentence that was revealed to him; just as we must assuredly conclude that destruction is prepared for us when we transgress; and that God's anger is appeased when we fly to His mercy in true faith, and with sincere affections. The rest has been already expounded.

17. And I took the two tables, and cast them out Moses here accuses himself of no transgression; he does not, therefore, give us to understand that he was urged to break the tables by the impetuosity of excessive anger; but rather he again repeats what they had deserved, and consequently that he discharged the office of a herald, [391] so as to denounce, not by word of mouth only, but by a solemn rite also, that God's Covenant was broken and made void by their perfidiousness. For which reason also he cast down and broke the tables before their eyes, in order that being alarmed by so awful a punishment, they might more earnestly betake themselves to the expiation of their sins.

18. And I fell down before the Lord The order of the narrative is confused; for this fact of which he speaks did not precede his second ascent into the mount, when he was commanded to prepare the second tables. If so, he would have fasted three times, which we gather from other passages not to have been the case; but we must not be surprised that the same thing should be often repeated, as we shall see at the beginning of chapter 10, as well as shortly afterwards. The mention of it here, however, is seasonable, because the Covenant was to be renewed, and therefore, as if nothing had been done, he again abstained from meat and drink for forty days. Yet we have elsewhere seen that there were other prayers which had intervened before He ascended the mount a second time; but He does not here distinctly record the details, nay, he mixes up the prayers, whereby he interceded with God, with the second fast, because this was the point most worthy of observation, that the first promulgation of the Law had failed of its effect, and the Covenant which they had violated was to be repeated, as it were, from its very commencement.

Although he says that "because of their sins" he had not eaten bread nor drunk water, he does not signify that this fast was a sign of grief and mourning, like as Joel invites the people to sackcloth and ashes, and urges them to weeping and fasting for the purpose of testifying their repentance. (Joel 2:12.) For abstinence, as I have already shewn, was no more difficult or grievous to Moses than to the angels. But he simply reminds them that so great a sin could not be expiated, unless he had again renounced the life of men and had been taken up to God. Meanwhile, it must be borne in mind that previously to this, he had already made entreaty for the people, and had also been accepted; inasmuch as it was a token that God was reconciled and appeased, when He called up Moses to receive the Law, and to bring it down to them a second time. To this refers what he adds in the next verse, "For I was afraid of the anger," etc., for he was still in anxiety as to the welfare of the people, since God did not cease to menace them. We see, therefore, that this fear and anxious earnestness in prayer are separated from the fast, as different things; and assuredly he had already propitiated God, when, by His command he hewed out the new tables whereon the Covenant was to be renewed. Still, I do not deny that he labored also in the mount in the cause of obtaining pardon, just as believers, by continuing the requests which have already been granted, confirm their faith more and more. I only warn my readers to observe the distinction of time which I have noticed.

20. And the Lord was very angry with Aaron It hence appears how vain are the pretexts whereby men endeavor to conceal their faults, until they are subdued by genuine fear of God to acknowledge their guilt. Although Aaron did not boast that he was altogether innocent, still he endeavored to blot out, or at any rate to extenuate the enormity of his crime by alleging that he was under compulsion. But Moses declares that God was very angry with him. Whence it follows that he was guilty of a very gross sin, which is also more certainly declared by the greatness of its punishment; for God would never have been thus moved even to destroy him, unless because he was worthy of this condemnation.

In the next verse, the word sin is not applied to the act; itself, [392] but is transferred by metonymy to the calf, as its apposition shews. Again, by saying that he had thoroughly broken the calf to pieces by grinding it till it was reduced to powder, he signifies once more how abominable this idol was, especially when he adds, that the powder was cast into the stream, lest any memorial of it should continue in existence.

25. Thus I fell down before the Lord forty days Again the narrative is blended together; for it is certain that this prayer was offered before he remained fasting in the mount during the second forty days. But inasmuch as then also, being still in anxiety, he continued the same prayers, it is not to be wondered at that he should include in the forty days' fast whatever had been done before. For there is no absurdity in supposing that after having obtained the safety of the people, for which he had petitioned, he should still be in trepidation. Moreover, that this fast was posterior to the prayer which he mentions at the same time, may be inferred from the beginning of the next chapter, where he records that the second tables were given to him, but says not a word of the fast. I have stated why he so often repeats his allusion to the forty days, viz., because it would not have been sufficient merely to intercede, unless this reconciliation had followed, which he obtained when he received the new covenant. The rest I have already expounded.

Footnotes:

[391] Lat. "Fecialis munere;" alluding doubtless to the custom of the Roman Feciales, in throwing a bloody spear into the territories of others as a declaration of war. See Liv. 1:32.

[392] "Il appelle le veau Peche du peuple, pource qu'il avoit este la matiere et object de leur idolatrie;" he calls the calf the Sin of the people, because it had been the matter and object of their idolatry. -- Fr.

And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands,.... In wrath and indignation at the sin they were guilty of:

and brake them before your eyes; as an emblem of their breach of them by transgressing them.

Not by an unbridled passion, but in zeal for God’ s honour, and by the direction of God’ s Spirit, to signify to the people, that the covenant between God and them contained in those tables was broken and made void, and they were now quite cast out of God’ s favour, and could expect nothing from him but fiery indignation and severe justice. See Poole "".

He reminded the people how they had provoked the Lord in the desert, and had shown themselves rebellious against God, from the day of their departure from Egypt till their arrival in the steppes of Moab. את־אשׁר, for אשׁר, is the object to תּשׁכּח (Ewald, 333, a.): "how thou hast provoked." המרה, generally with את־פּי (cf. Deu 1:26), to be rebellious against the commandment of the Lord: here with עם, construed with a person, to deal rebelliously with God, to act rebelliously in relation to Him (cf. Deu 31:27). The words "from the day that thou camest out," etc., are not to be pressed. It is to be observed, however, that the rebellion against the guidance of God commenced before they passed through the Red Sea (Exo 14:11). This general statement Moses then followed up with facts, first of all describing the worship of the calf at Horeb, according to its leading features (Deu 9:8-21), and then briefly pointing to the other rebellions of the people in the desert (Deu 9:22, Deu 9:23).
Deu 9:8
"And indeed even in Horeb ye provoked Jehovah to wrath." By the vav explic. this sin is brought into prominence, as having been a specially grievous one. It was so because of the circumstances under which it was committed.
Deu 9:9-19
When Moses went up the mountain, and stayed there forty days, entirely occupied with the holiest things, so that he neither ate nor drank, having gone up to receive the tables of the law, upon which the words were written with the finger of God, just as the Lord had spoken them directly to the people out of the midst of the fire, - at a time, therefore, when the Israelites should also have been meditating deeply upon the words of the Lord which they had but just heard, - they acted so corruptly, as to depart at once from the way that had been pointed out, and make themselves a molten image (comp. Ex 31:18-32:6, with chs. Deut 24:12-31:17). "The day of the assembly," i.e., the day on which Moses gathered the people together before God (Deu 4:10), calling them out of the camp, and bringing them to the Lord to the foot of Sinai (Exo 19:17). The construction of the sentence is this: the apodosis to "when I was gone up" commences with "the Lord delivered unto me," in Deu 9:10; and the clause, "then I abode," etc., in Deu 9:9, is a parenthesis. - The words of God in Deu 9:12-14 are taken almost word for word from Exo 32:7-10. הרף (Deu 9:14), the imperative Hiphil of רפה, desist from me, that I may destroy them, for לּי הנּיחה, in Exo 32:10. But notwithstanding the apostasy of the people, the Lord gave Moses the tables of the covenant, not only that they might be a testimony of His holiness before the faithless nation, but still more as a testimony that, in spite of His resolution to destroy the rebellious nation, without leaving a trace behind, He would still uphold His covenant, and make of Moses a greater people. There is nothing at all to favour the opinion, that handing over the tables (Deu 9:11) was the first beginning of the manifestations of divine wrath (Schultz); and this is also at variance with the preterite, נתן, in Deu 9:11, from which it is very evident that the Lord had already given the tables to Moses, when He commanded him to go down quickly, not only to declare to the people the holiness of God, but to stop the apostasy, and by his mediatorial intervention to avert from the people the execution of the divine purpose. It is true, that when Moses came down and saw the idolatrous conduct of the people, he threw the two tables from his hands, and broke them in pieces before the eyes of the people (Deu 9:15-17; comp. with Exo 32:15-19), as a practical declaration that the covenant of the Lord was broken by their apostasy. But this act of Moses furnishes no proof that the Lord had given him the tables to declare His holy wrath in the sight of the people. And even if the tables of the covenant were "in a certain sense the indictments in Moses' hands, accusing them of a capital crime" (Schultz), this was not the purpose for which God had given them to him. For if it had been, Moses would not have broken them in pieces, destroying, as it were, the indictments themselves, before the people had been tried. Moses passed over the fact, that even before coming down from the mountain he endeavoured to mitigate the wrath of the Lord by his intercession (Exo 32:11-14), and simply mentioned (in Deu 9:15-17) how, as soon as he came down, he charged the people with their great sin; and then, in Deu 9:18, Deu 9:19, how he spent another forty days upon the mountain fasting before God, on account of this sin, until he had averted the destructive wrath of the Lord from Israel, through his earnest intercession. The forty days that Moses spent upon the mountain, "as at the first," in prayer before the Lord, are the days mentioned in Exo 34:28 as having been passed upon Sinai for the perfect restoration of the covenant, and for the purpose of procuring the second tables (cf. Deu 10:1.).
Deu 9:20-21
It was not from the people only, but from Aaron also, that Moses averted the wrath of God through his intercession, when it was about to destroy him. In the historical account in Ex 32, there is no special reference to this intercession, as it is included in the intercession for the whole nation. On the present occasion, however, Moses gave especial prominence to this particular feature, not only that he might make the people thoroughly aware that at that time Israel could not even boast of the righteousness of its eminent men (cf. Isa 43:27), but also to bring out the fact, which is described still more fully in Deu 10:6., that Aaron's investiture with the priesthood, and the maintenance of this institution, was purely a work of divine grace. It is true that at that time Aaron was not yet high priest; but he had been placed at the head of the nation in connection with Hur, as the representative of Moses (Exo 24:14), and was already designated by God for the high-priesthood (Exo 28:1). The fact, however, that Aaron had drawn upon himself the wrath of God in a very high degree, was intimated plainly enough in what Moses told him in Exo 32:21. - In Deu 9:21, Moses mentions again how he destroyed that manifested sin of the nation, namely, the molten calf (see at Exo 32:20).
Deu 9:22-24
And it was not on this occasion only, viz., at Horeb, that Israel aroused the anger of the Lord its God by its sin, but it did so again and again at other places: at Tabeerah, by discontent at the guidance of God (Num 11:1-3); at Massah, by murmuring on account of the want of water (Exo 17:1.); at the graves of lust, by longing for flesh (Num 11:4.); and at Kadesh-barnea by unbelief, of which they had already been reminded at Deu 1:26. The list is not arranged chronologically, but advances gradually from the smaller to the more serious forms of guilt. For Moses was seeking to sharpen the consciences of the people, and to impress upon them the fact that they had been rebellious against the Lord (see at Deu 9:7) from the very beginning, "from the day that I knew you."