Deuteronomychapter 9
29 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
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 sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Deuteronomy Overview.
This chapter prepares a people for victory by reminding them of their failures. Moses expects that after the conquest Israel will be tempted to think it earned the land. He answers that thought before it arises. Then he tells the story of their rebellion at Horeb in full, including his own long prayer for them. Listen for the three times he denies that Israel's goodness won the land. Listen also for the grounds on which he pleads for the people. Read it as a lesson on grace before success.
Context
- Who
- A generation tempted to read the victories east of the Jordan as proof of their own goodness
- What
- Moses' warning that Israel will take the land for the nations' wickedness and God's promise, with an account of the golden calf and his intercession.
- Where
- The plains of Moab east of the Jordan, recalling Horeb and the places of rebellion in the wilderness.
- When
- The fortieth year after the exodus, about 1406 BC on the traditional dating, or late in the thirteenth century BC on the later dating, recalling the golden calf at Horeb in the first year after the exodus.
- Why
- To remove any thought that Israel earned the land, and to show that the nation lived only because God heard Moses' prayer.
Historical context
Moses is the speaker and he is the one who kept the two fasts and prayed the prayer this chapter records. He rehearses the calf as a witness against the people he is addressing, who were children or unborn when it happened.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The cities ahead are described as great and fortified to the heavens, which is how a Canaanite tell looked from below. A town was built on the mound of its own ruins with the wall following the crest, sometimes with a sloped stone rampart at the base that made the climb impossible under fire. Verses 1 and 2 give back the report of the spies at Numbers 13:28 and 13:33 in its own terms.
A first hearer knew what a young bull stood for. It was the standard image of strength and fertility across the region, and both Egypt and Canaan used bull imagery for their gods. Making one out of donated jewellery while Moses was still on the mountain broke the covenant within days of its making, and John Gill records that the mountain had been burning for six weeks by then.
The fast is reported twice, forty days and forty nights without bread or water, face down before the LORD. A fast of that length is at the outer edge of what a body survives, and the chapter states it twice to mark what the intercession cost.
The other rebellions are listed by place name, Taberah, Massah, Kibroth-hattaavah and Kadesh-barnea, the way a court record is read out. Albert Barnes records that the order is by weight rather than by date, and that Taberah lay in or near Kibroth-hattaavah and so is left out of the encampment list at Numbers 33:16.
One fact stands here and nowhere else in Scripture, that the LORD was angry with Aaron enough to destroy him and that Moses prayed for him. Exodus 32 records Aaron making the calf and says nothing of this sentence or of the prayer that turned it.
Significance
The temptation the chapter heads off is a specific one, to say after the victories that God gave the land because Israel deserved it. The answer is given three times in three verses, that it is for the wickedness of those nations and for the oath sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
For the first hearers that was humbling and steadying at once. A covenant that never rested on their record could not be cancelled by their record either, which is the ground Moses prays on at verses 26 to 29.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The tradition dates the Day of Atonement from the events this chapter recounts. Rashi on Deuteronomy 9:18:1 counts the days of Moses on the mountain. Moses went up on the eighteenth of Tammuz, and that second period of forty days ended on the twenty-ninth of Av, when God was reconciled with Israel and told him to hew two tablets. He stayed another forty days, which ended on the tenth of Tishri, the Day of Atonement. On that day God said he had forgiven according to Moses' word, and Rashi writes that the day "was appointed for pardon and forgiveness" on that account. He cites Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 31. A Christian reader meets here the tradition's own account of why the fast of the tenth of Tishri is the day it is.
How it is read
The commentary reads this chapter as the removal of any claim Israel might make. Rashi on Deuteronomy 9:4:1 and 9:5:1 hold that the word following the denial of Israel's righteousness means but, so that the reason given is the wickedness of the nations alone. Sforno on Deuteronomy 9:6:1 defines the stiff neck the chapter names. He describes it as following one's own heart and opinions in place of the yoke of the commandments, and as rejecting even what has been proved when it cuts against what one finds convenient. He reads the image as a person whose neck is too stiff to turn and face his teacher. Sforno on Deuteronomy 9:8:1 holds that the sentence at Horeb was passed on that character rather than on one horrific act. Ramban on Deuteronomy 9:17:1 reads the breaking of the tablets as part of the rebuke and as a favour to Israel at once. He holds that Moses risked his own life in breaking them. The commands against the nations of Canaan are argued in full on this site at /featured/the-canaanite-conquest, and this card states no verdict on them. The Rashi entries are from corpus entries marked kept, the Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition, public domain. Sforno is from Eliyahu Munk's HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY, and Ramban is from the Chavel translation published by Shilo, CC-BY. Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 9:3:1, 9:7:1, 9:11:1, 9:19:1, 9:22:1 and 9:23:1 and Malbim on Deuteronomy 9:2:1, 9:12:1, 9:16:1, 9:26:1 and 9:27:1 are linked entries, cited by ref alone.
What the rabbis say
The rabbis teach that breaking the tablets lightened Israel's sentence. Ramban carries the saying on Deuteronomy 9:17:1 from Shemoth Rabbah 46:1, that it is "better that you [Israel] be judged like an [unchaste] unmarried woman and not like an [adulterous] wife". The tablets stood for the marriage, and the second tablets restored it. They teach that the defective spelling of the word for tablets shows that the two were alike, which Rashi gives on Deuteronomy 9:10:1 from Midrash Tanchuma, Eikev 10. They teach that the middle forty days on the mountain were passed in God's anger, which Rashi argues on Deuteronomy 9:18:1 from the wording about the last forty days. The corpus also holds the Midrash and the Talmud on this chapter as locators without their text. Among them are Chullin 90b:12 at verse 1, Bamidbar Rabbah 5:1 at verse 3 and Midrash Tehillim 107:1 at verse 4. Others are Jerusalem Talmud Yoma 1:1:7 across verses 7 to 29, Avot DeRabbi Natan 2:3 at verse 16, Devarim Rabbah 2:1 at verse 18 and Berakhot 32b:8 at verse 26.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Deuteronomy 9:1:1, 9:4:1, 9:5:1, 9:9:1, 9:10:1, 9:18:1, 9:20:1, 9:21:1 and 9:25:1, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, public domain, 1929 to 1934; Sforno, Sforno on Deuteronomy 9:6:1, 9:8:1 and 9:15:1, Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY; Ramban, Ramban on Deuteronomy 9:17:1, Commentary on the Torah translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, Shilo, CC-BY, 1971 to 1976; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 9:3:1, 9:7:1, 9:11:1, 9:19:1, 9:22:1 and 9:23:1, cited by ref alone, CC-BY-NC; Malbim, Malbim on Deuteronomy 9:2:1, 9:12:1, 9:16:1, 9:26:1 and 9:27:1, cited by ref alone, no English version; Midrash and Talmud, Chullin 90b:12, Bamidbar Rabbah 5:1, Midrash Tehillim 107:1, Jerusalem Talmud Yoma 1:1:7, Avot DeRabbi Natan 2:3, Devarim Rabbah 2:1 and Berakhot 32b:8, cited by ref alone; MannaFest, the Canaanite conquest, at /featured/the-canaanite-conquest, 2026; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/deuteronomy/9.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Not for your righteousness
Deuteronomy 9:1-3
"Hear, O Israel" opens passages at 5:1, 6:4, here and 20:3, each introducing something to be taken as settled. The "large cities fortified to the heavens" and the "descendants of the Anakim" give back the spies' report of Numbers 13:28 and 13:33, now with the opposite conclusion. Verse 3 draws it: the "consuming fire" of 4:24, a warning to Israel there, goes across the Jordan ahead of them.
Moses grants the enemy its full reputation and repeats the saying Israel had heard, Who can stand up to the sons of Anak? Chapter 2 had already measured other peoples against the Anakim, and Joshua 11:21 records Joshua removing them from the hill country. Matthew Henry notes that the spies used this same description to drive Israel from God, where Moses uses it to drive them to him.
Deuteronomy 9:2
“This representation is much the same with that which the evil spies had made ( Num. xiii. 28, 33 ), but made with a very different intention: that was designed to drive them from God and to discourage their hope in him; this to drive them to God and to engage their hope in him, since no power less than that which is almighty could secure and prosper them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The verse divides the work, He will destroy them and subdue them, and you will drive them out. Albert Barnes reconciles swiftly here with little by little at 7:22, reading this verse as a promise of no delay beyond what served Israel's own good. Matthew Henry draws the lesson that God's grace is given to those who set themselves in earnest to the work.
Deuteronomy 9:3
“So shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly - This is not inconsistent with Deu 7:22, in which instant annihilation is not to be expected for the reasons assigned. Here Moses urges the people to trust in God’s covenanted aid; since He would then make no delay in so destroying the nations attacked by them as to put them into enjoyment of the promises, and in doing so as fast as was for the well-being of Israel itself.”
Deuteronomy 9:4-5
Twice in two verses the text forbids the thought that the land is wages, "do not say in your heart", and it forbids the thought before the boast. Two reasons replace it, the wickedness of these nations, which Genesis 15:16 said would take four generations to fill, and the oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The land changes hands as judgment and promise, and Israel's record supplies neither ground.
Deuteronomy 9:4
“I ask, what could be said more clearly against that pernicious opinion and presumption of ours, by which we want to attribute everything that we do to our free will and to our own effort? "Do not say in your heart, when the Lord your God has destroyed them in your sight: Because of my righteousness the Lord has led me in to possess this land." Did he not express himself clearly to those whose souls' eyes are open and whose ears hear?”
John Cassian · written before 435 · CONFERENCE 5.15.3-4patristic
The verse adds uprightness of heart to righteousness, so conduct and inward disposition are both ruled out as the ground, which is how Matthew Henry reads the pair at verse 4. Adam Clarke places the cause in the nations' own wickedness and in God's choice to begin his saving work among men. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown stress God's own sake and his promise to the patriarchs.
Deuteronomy 9:5
“For the wickedness of these nations - So then it was not by any sovereign act of God that these people were cast out, but for their wickedness; they had transgressed the law of their Creator; they had resisted his Spirit, and could no longer be tolerated. The Israelites were to possess their land, not because they deserved it, but first, because they were less wicked than the others; and secondly, because God thus chose to begin the great work of his salvation among men.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 9:6-7
The third denial adds its own ground, "for you are a stiff-necked people", God's word for them at Exodus 32:9. Verse 7 joins the book's two standing commands, "Remember this, and never forget", the only verse in Deuteronomy where they meet, and what is remembered is forty years of provocation. Barnes reads the chapter as the argument Paul makes at Ephesians 2:8-9.
Deuteronomy 9:6
“Understand therefore that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness,.... This is again repeated to impress it upon their minds, that it was not for any goodness of theirs, but as a gift of divine goodness to them, that they were put into the possession of the good land, which greatly exceeded any merits of theirs, and was entirely owing to the kindness of God to them, and not to any righteousness of theirs; and this he frequently inculcates, that they might have a thorough understanding of it.”
The calf, the broken tables, the ground powder
The verse sets the span of the charge from the day you left the land of Egypt to the plains where Moses speaks, and the rest of the chapter supplies the evidence from Horeb onward. Matthew Henry notes that people forget their provocations once the smart of the rod has passed. He joins the verse to Paul's argument in Romans 3 that works which condemn us can never justify us.
Deuteronomy 9:7
“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. iii. If our works condemn us, they will not justify us.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 9:8-10
Horeb heads the list because the calf was made at the mountain where the law against it was being given. The fast of verse 9 is the one at Exodus 24:18 and 34:28. Verse 10 repeats "the finger of God" from Exodus 31:18, and "the assembly" renders qahal, which the Greek translators gave as ekklesia, a point Cyril of Jerusalem made in his catechetical lectures.
Deuteronomy 9:8
“Also in Horeb - Rather, “even in Horeb.” The time and circumstances made the apostasy at Horeb particularly inexcusable.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 9:8
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Moses names the tablets by their purpose, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, a covenant the people had sworn to at Exodus 24:7. John Gill notes that the length of this stay gave the occasion for the calf, since the people did not know what had become of Moses. Origen of Alexandria took the bread Moses refused to cover every kind of food.
Deuteronomy 9:9
Every form of nourishment is called "bread" in the Scriptures. This is clear from what is written concerning Moses: for forty days he neither ate "bread" nor drank water. The word that nourishes is multidimensional and varied. Not everyone can receive the solid and strong nourishment of God's teachings. Therefore, wishing to give an athlete's nourishment suitable to the more perfect, [Christ] says, "The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · ON PRAYER 27.4patristic
The verse stresses that the writing matched the speech, so the tablets carried only what the people had already heard out of the fire. Deuteronomy 5:22 says the same of the Ten Commandments, that the LORD added nothing more and wrote them on two tablets of stone. Adam Clarke points readers to Exodus 31:18 and 32:15 and 16 for the tablets themselves.
Deuteronomy 9:10
Moses anticipates the name of the ecclesia once again when he says of the tablets: "And on them were inscribed all the words that the Lord spoke to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly." It is as if he might have said more plainly: "you were called and gathered together."
Cyril of Jerusalem · written before 386 · Catechetical Lecture 18.24patristic
Deuteronomy 9:11-12
at the end of forty days and forty nights: The tablets are handed over and the order to go down follows at once, so Aben Ezra, quoted by Gill, held that the calf was made the day the tablets were given. God puts the people into Moses' hands, "your people, whom you brought out of Egypt", as at Exodus 32:7. Moses hands them back at verse 26, "Your people", and the pronoun is the whole argument.
Deuteronomy 9:11
“And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights,.... The time of Moses's stay in the mount, when it was just up, and not before: that the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant, as in Deu 9:9. Aben Ezra observes, that this shows that the day the tables were given to Moses the calf was made.”
God's charge stresses speed, How quickly they have turned aside, since the calf was made while Moses was still on the mountain receiving the law. Adam Clarke reads corrupted themselves as debasing themselves by making and worshipping an Egyptian idol. The molten image named at the end of the verse is the kind of idol the second commandment at 5:8 had forbidden.
Deuteronomy 9:12
“Thy people - have corrupted themselves - Debased themselves by making and worshipping an Egyptian idol. See on Exodus 32 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 9:13-14
"Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them" names the one thing in the way, and older commentators read it as leaving Moses an opening. The offer that follows, "I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they are", is the promise of Genesis 12:2 held out to one man over the ruins of his people. Moses declines it here and again at Numbers 14:12.
Deuteronomy 9:13
“Furthermore the Lord spake unto me, saying,.... After he had given him the two tables, and before his departure from the mount: I have seen this people; took notice of them, their ways, and their works: and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people; unwilling to submit to, and bear the yoke of my commandments; see Exo 32:9.”
blot out their name from under heaven: The sentence threatened on Israel is the one pronounced on the Canaanite kings at 7:24, to wipe out their names from under heaven, so the people are put on the footing of the nations they were sent to displace. Matthew Henry reads the severity as the measure of the sin, since God is never angry above what there is cause for.
Deuteronomy 9:15-17
Moses comes down with the mountain blazing behind him and the covenant tablets in his hands. Exodus 32:19 mentions the dancing and his anger, and Deuteronomy leaves out both and says only that he shattered them "before your eyes". Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the breaking as a formal act declaring the covenant broken, and Henry calls it a bill of divorce served on the nation.
Deuteronomy 9:15
“So I turned and came down from the mount,.... As the Lord commanded: and the mount burned with fire; as it had for six weeks past, ever since the Lord's descent upon it; and so it continued, for the words may be rendered, "and the mount was burning" (b); and yet this did not deter the Israelites from idolatry: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands: one table in one hand, and the other in the other hand. (b) בער "de monte ardente", V. L. Heb. "burning", Ainsworth.”
What God had told Moses at verse 12, Moses now sees for himself, and he reports it in the same terms, turned aside quickly from the way. The verse names the sin twice, as sin against the LORD your God and as a molten calf. Matthew Henry draws the point that Israel was to know God had not overlooked this sin when he gave them Canaan.
Deuteronomy 9:16
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
John Gill reads the shattering as an emblem of the people's own breach of the law by transgressing it, and the verse insists it was done before your eyes. The loss is repaired at 10:1 and 2, where Moses cuts new tablets and God writes the same words again, so the covenant is renewed on fresh stone.
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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 9:18-19
The forty days are kept again, face down and for the people, and "the LORD listened to me this time as well". Readers divide over whether verses 18 and 25 record two fasts or one. Barnes takes verse 18 for the second forty days of Exodus 34:28, told more fully at verse 25, while Rashi, cited by Gill, holds them one fast repeated to suit the prayer.
Deuteronomy 9:18
“I fell down before the Lord, as at the first - Moses interceded for the people before he came down from the mountain the first time Exo 32:11-13. This intercession is only briefly alluded to in this verse. Afterward he spent another 40 days on the mountain in fasting and prayer to obtain a complete restitution of the covenant Exo 34:28. It is this second forty days, and the intercession of Moses made therein (compare Exo 34:9), that is more particularly brought forward here and in Deu 9:25-29.”
Moses gives his own fear as the motive of the fast, and Matthew Henry suggests he feared for himself as well as for the people, since God's anger was turned on the whole camp. The closing words, this time as well, count this answer among earlier ones, when Moses had prayed for the people and the LORD had heard him.
Deuteronomy 9:20-21
That the LORD "was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him" is told here and nowhere else in Scripture. Exodus 32 says nothing of this sentence or the prayer that turned it, so the man appointed to make atonement for Israel lives by another man's intercession. Exodus 32:20 adds to verse 21 that Moses made the Israelites drink the water, and both accounts stand as given.
Deuteronomy 9:20
“It was not the people alone that sinned but also Aaron, the high priest. For Moses says, "And the wrath of the Lord was upon Aaron"; "and I prayed for him," he says, "and God forgave him." Now Moses made supplication on behalf of the high priest who sinned and prevailed upon the Lord by his importunity. If so, will not Jesus, his only-begotten Son, imploring God in our behalf, more so prevail?”
Cyril of Jerusalem · written before 386 · Catechetical Lecture 2.10patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 9:20
“Israel could not even boast that its heads and representatives continued, faithful. Aaron had been already designated for the high priestly functions; but he fell away with the rest of the people. It was due therefore solely to the grace of God and the intercession of Moses that Aaron himself and his promised priesthood with him were not cut off; just as at a later time, when Aaron had actually to die for a new sin Israel owed it still to the same causes that Eleazar was substituted and the High Priesthood perpetuated (compare Deu 10:6; Num 20:24-26).”
Burning, crushing and grinding leave nothing that could be set up again. Moses calls the calf that sinful thing, and Matthew Henry reads the name as making its destruction a testimony against the sin and a sign of what the sinners deserved. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown identify the stream from the mountain with the water of the smitten rock, which they place close to Sinai.
Deuteronomy 9:21
“I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount--that is, "the smitten rock" (El Leja) which was probably contiguous to, or a part of, Sinai.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Rebellious from the day he knew you
Deuteronomy 9:22-24
Four places are named out of the order they happened: Taberah at Numbers 11:3, Massah at Exodus 17:7, Kibroth-hattaavah at Numbers 11:34 and Kadesh-barnea at Numbers 13 and 14. Barnes reads the order as rising from lighter proofs of guilt to heavier, ending on "you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God". Verse 24 closes with a span, "since the day I came to know you".
Deuteronomy 9:22
“See the marginal reference. Taberah was the name of a spot in or near the station of Kibroth-hattaavah, and accordingly is not named in the list of encampments given in Num 33:16. The separate mention of the two is, however, appropriate here, for each place and each name was a memorial of an act of rebellion. The instances in this and the next verse are not given in order of occurrence. The speaker for his own purposes advances from the slighter to the more heinous proofs of guilt.”
God's command at Kadesh-barnea spoke of the land as already given, and the verse names two failures in answer, with unbelief placed before disobedience. Hebrews 3:18 and 19 read the same event and trace the failure to enter to that unbelief. Matthew Henry counts the recalling of such sins as the way a people learn how much they owe to free grace.
Deuteronomy 9:23
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
John Gill offers three starting points for the day I came to know you: Moses' first visit to his people at Exodus 2:11, his return to deliver them, which Gill marks at Exodus 5:20, or the entry into the wilderness. Matthew Henry notes that the history records little beyond the first and last of the forty years, and reads this verse as saying the years between were little better.
Deuteronomy 9:24
“You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you. Either from the time he first had and took knowledge of them and visited them, before his departure from Egypt to the land of Midian; (see Exo 2:11 compared with Act 7:25); or from the time that he was sent to them to deliver them out of Egypt; see Exo 5:20 and especially from the time he brought them into the wilderness.”
Forty days and forty nights on his face
Deuteronomy 9:25-27
The prayer is in Moses' own words and asks nothing on Israel's account. He pleads what God has already spent, "Your people, Your inheritance, whom You redeemed through Your greatness", and the three names of the oath. "Overlook the stubbornness of this people" turns the denial of verses 4 to 6 into a request, and Numbers 14:13-19 prays on the same grounds, God's name and God's promise.
Deuteronomy 9:25
“Thus I fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first,.... Which Jarchi says are the selfsame said above, Deu 9:18, but doubled or repeated, because of the order of his prayer.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 9:25
“But on a comparison of this passage with Nu 14:5, the subject and language of this prayer show that only the second act of intercession (De 9:18) is now described in fuller detail.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Moses opens the prayer with O Lord GOD, the address he used at 3:24, and grounds his one request in what God had already done. Each clause names God's own act: the people, the inheritance, the redemption and the mighty hand are all His. Matthew Henry, on verse 27, observes that Moses had nothing to plead for the people except the great things God had done for them.
Moses calls the patriarchs Your servants, a plea he had made at Exodus 32:13, and asks God to look to them in place of their descendants. Adam Clarke explains that the covenant was made with those fathers on behalf of these children, and that God blesses unworthy people for the sake of godly ancestors. Matthew Henry notes that the advocate could find no good word for his clients.
Deuteronomy 9:27
“Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - As if he had said: “These are their descendants, and the covenant was made with those patriarchs in behalf of these.” God bestows many blessings on comparatively worthless persons, either for the sake of their pious ancestors, or on account of the religious people with whom they are connected; therefore union with the Church of God is a blessing of no common magnitude. The reader will find the grand subject of this chapter explained at large in the notes on Exodus 31 and 32, to which he is particularly desired to refer.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 9:28-29
Moses ends on what Egypt would say, that the LORD "was not able to bring them into the land" and "hated them". He asks God to weigh His own name among the nations that watched the exodus, the plea of Numbers 14:15-16 and the reason Ezekiel 36:22 gives for God's own acting. The chapter's last words answer God's sentence at verse 12, "they are Your people, Your inheritance".
Deuteronomy 9:28
“Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say,.... The land of Egypt, the inhabitants of it: because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them; the land of Canaan, the inhabitants of it being so mighty, and their cities so strongly fortified.”
The prayer ends where it began at verse 26, and a chapter of rebellion closes with Israel described by what God owns. The next chapter turns the term around, when the LORD is named the inheritance of Levi at 10:9. Matthew Henry, on verse 28, credits the sparing of the people to the mercy of God and the importunity of Moses, with no merit of theirs to offer.
How this psalm is built
The form: Exhortation inside the second address, a denial stated three times and then documented, as Deuteronomy classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Not for your righteousness | The denial stands at verse 4, at verse 5 and at verse 6, and each time a different thing is put in its place. Verse 4 gives the wickedness of the nations, verse 5 adds the oath sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and verse 6 adds a ground of its own, that Israel is a stiff-necked people. The site's published exposition records that verse 4 forbids the thought before it forbids the boast, since it is spoken in the heart.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 9:4 to 5 and 9:6 to 7, The exposition_notes rows on Deuteronomy 9:4 to 5 and 9:6 to 7, citing Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763. | Deuteronomy 9:4, Deuteronomy 9:5, Deuteronomy 9:6 |
| The places of provocation, named in order of weight | Verses 22 and 23 name Taberah, Massah, Kibroth-hattaavah and Kadesh-barnea. Albert Barnes reads the arrangement as moving from the lighter proofs of guilt to the heavier rather than following the order of events, and records that Taberah lay in or near the station of Kibroth-hattaavah and so is left out of the encampment list at Numbers 33:16.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Deuteronomy 9:22. | Deuteronomy 9:22, Deuteronomy 9:23 |
| Your people, and then Your people | At verse 12 God puts the nation into Moses' hands, calling them the people Moses brought out of Egypt, which is the wording of Exodus 32:7. At verses 26 and 29 Moses hands them back, calling them God's people and God's inheritance, whom God redeemed and brought out. The site's published exposition records that the pronoun is the whole argument between them.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 9:11 to 12 and 9:28 to 29, The exposition_notes rows on Deuteronomy 9:11 to 12 and 9:28 to 29, citing John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1866. | Deuteronomy 9:12, Deuteronomy 9:26, Deuteronomy 9:29 |
| The day of the assembly | The Hebrew at verse 10 is qahal, which the Greek translators gave as ekklesia. Cyril of Jerusalem makes the point in his catechetical lectures, that Moses anticipates the name of the church here, as though he had said plainly that they were called and gathered together.Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 18.24, 386. | Deuteronomy 9:10 |
| God's order and Moses' prayer, quoted whole | Verses 12 to 14 give the words spoken on the mountain, including the offer to make Moses into a greater nation, and verses 26 to 29 give the prayer in the words it was prayed in. The site's published exposition records that Moses declines the offer here and declines it again at Numbers 14:12 when it is made a second time after Kadesh.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 9:13 to 14 and 9:25 to 27, The exposition_notes rows on Deuteronomy 9:13 to 14 and 9:25 to 27, citing Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony, 1563, Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1866. | Deuteronomy 9:12, Deuteronomy 9:14, Deuteronomy 9:26, Deuteronomy 9:28 |
The calf, rehearsed as evidence
18 more paragraphs on the patterns
Horeb is named first among the provocations, and Matthew Henry gives the reason. The calf was made in the very place where the law forbidding images was given, while the mountain still burned before their eyes and Moses had gone up to fetch the law in writing. Albert Barnes renders verse 8 as even in Horeb, and holds that the time and the circumstances made the apostasy there inexcusable.
John Gill records that the mountain had been burning for six weeks by then, since the LORD descended on it, and that this did not deter the people. He also reports Aben Ezra's observation at verse 11, that the calf was made on the very day the tablets were given.
The breaking of the tablets is read as a formal act. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold that Moses broke them in righteous indignation rather than in temper, to mark that the covenant had been broken and the people shut out of favour. Matthew Henry calls it a bill of divorce served on the nation. Exodus 32:19 adds the dancing and the anger that this account leaves out.
What this chapter carries and Exodus does not
That the LORD was angry with Aaron enough to destroy him stands at verse 20 and nowhere else in Scripture. Exodus 32 records Aaron making the calf and answering for it and says nothing of this sentence or of the prayer that turned it, so the man appointed to make atonement for Israel is kept alive by another man's intercession.
Albert Barnes reads the fact as part of the chapter's argument. Israel could not claim that its heads and representatives stood firm, since Aaron had already been designated for the high priestly office and fell away with the rest, and the office was preserved by grace and by the prayer of Moses.
Verse 21 burns the calf, grinds it to dust and casts it into the stream, where Exodus 32:20 adds that Moses made Israel drink the water. Both accounts stand as they are given. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown identify the stream as coming from the smitten rock that was probably part of Sinai or next to it.
The debated readings in this chapter
One fast or two. Albert Barnes takes verse 18 for the second forty days of Exodus 34:28 and treats verses 25 to 29 as that same period given in fuller detail, and he notes that the first intercession was made on the mountain at Exodus 32:11 to 13. Rashi, cited by John Gill at verse 25, holds the two passages to be one fast told twice, repeated to suit the order of the prayer. Both readings are old and the site's published exposition carries them side by side.
What Let Me alone means at verse 14. The older commentators read the words as leaving Moses his opening rather than closing it, since the one thing named as standing in the way is Moses himself. The offer that follows, to make him a nation mightier and greater, is the promise made to Abraham at Genesis 12:2 held out to one man over the ruins of his people.
How far verse 3 reaches. Albert Barnes reads the promise to destroy them quickly against 7:22, where the driving out is little by little, and holds that the two stand together, since God would make no delay in destroying the nations as fast as was good for Israel itself.
The New Testament's use
Albert Barnes reads the whole chapter as the lesson of Ephesians 2:8 and 9, that salvation is by grace through faith, the gift of God, and no ground of boasting. Matthew Henry reads it beside Romans 3, and states the argument in one line, that works which condemn a man will not justify him.
The forty days without bread or water at verse 9 is the fast of Exodus 24:18 and 34:28. Elijah keeps it at the same mountain at 1 Kings 19:8, and Matthew 4:2 records Christ fasting forty days and forty nights in the wilderness before answering the tempter out of this book.
Massah at verse 22 is the failure Christ answers with at Matthew 4:7, quoting 6:16. Origen reads the fast of verse 9 with John 6:51, holding that every form of nourishment is called bread in Scripture and that Christ gives the stronger food to those who can take it.
The prayer and its grounds
The prayer at verses 26 to 29 asks nothing on Israel's account. Moses pleads what God has already spent, His people and His inheritance whom He redeemed, and then the three names of the oath. The denial of verses 4 to 6 is turned into a request at verse 27, to overlook the stubbornness and the sin.
The last argument is what Egypt would say, that the LORD was unable to bring them in and hated them. Moses asks God to weigh His own name among the nations that watched the exodus, which is the plea he makes again at Numbers 14:15 and 16, and which Ezekiel 36:22 states as God's own reason for acting.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes and This site's published guide to Deuteronomy, src/components/book/guides/deuteronomy/DeuteronomyGuide.tsx, the section The Second Address: the Law Restated at 4:44 to 26:19, which reads chapters 6 to 11 as the twin commands to love and remember.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, On Prayer.