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Deuteronomy 9:18

in Deuteronomy 9

Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD and provoking Him to anger.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And I fell down before Jehovah, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water; because of all your sin which ye sinned, in doing that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger.

KJV

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.

This verse in Deuteronomy 9

Commentary

4 notes on this verse
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.

This site's exposition

And I fell down before the Lord, as at the first

on Deuteronomy 9:18-19

The forty days are kept a second time, now face down and on the people's account rather than to receive anything. Moses says what moved him, that he was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, and the verse ends with the Lord hearkened unto me at that time also. Readers divide over whether verse 18 and verse 25 record two separate fasts or one told twice, and both readings are old: Barnes takes verse 18 for the second forty days of Exodus 34:28 and treats verse 25 as that same period in fuller detail, while Rashi, cited by Gill, holds the two to be the one fast repeated to suit the order of the prayer.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

And I fell down before the Lord,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

I fell down before the Lord--The sudden and painful reaction which this scene of pagan revelry produced on the mind of the pious and patriotic leader can be more easily imagined than described. Great and public sins call for seasons of extraordinary humiliation, and in his deep affliction for the awful apostasy, he seems to have held a miraculous fast as long as before.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

This is also meant to be part of the chastisements. He is saying: “your sin was greater than could be borne, 138 See Genesis:13. to the point that when I saw you being merry before the calf I could not restrain [my anger] and I broke the Tablets.
Ramban: Spain, 1194–1270 · Ramban on Deuteronomy 9:17:1, via Sefaria, Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

24 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וָֽאֶתְנַפַּל֩and I prostrated myself

    vaetnapalH5307435 times

  • לִפְנֵ֨י<to> before

    lifneiH64402123 times

  • יְהוָ֜הYahweh

    yahwehH30686520 times

  • כָּרִאשֹׁנָ֗הlike the former [time]

    karishonahH7223182 times

  • אַרְבָּעִ֥יםforty

    ʾarbaimH705136 times

  • יוֹם֙day[s]

    yomH31172304 times

  • וְאַרְבָּעִ֣יםand forty

    vearbaimH705136 times

  • לַ֔יְלָהnight[s]

    laylahH3915233 times

  • לֶ֚חֶםfood

    lechemH3899298 times

  • לֹ֣אnot

    lo'H38085168 times

  • אָכַ֔לְתִּיI ate

    ʾakhaltiH398810 times

  • וּמַ֖יִםand water

    umayimH4325581 times

  • לֹ֣אnot

    lo'H38085168 times

  • שָׁתִ֑יתִיI drank

    shatitiH8354217 times

  • עַ֤לon

    ʾalH59215755 times

  • כָּל־all

    kol-H36055413 times

  • חַטַּאתְכֶם֙sin your

    chatatkhemH2403295 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֣רwhich

    ʾasherH8345497 times

  • חֲטָאתֶ֔םyou had sinned

    chatatemH2398238 times

  • לַעֲשׂ֥וֹתby doing

    laasotH62132628 times

  • הָרַ֛עthe evil

    hara'H7451662 times

  • בְּעֵינֵ֥יin [the] eyes of

    beeineiH5869887 times

  • יְהוָ֖הYahweh

    yahwehH30686520 times

  • לְהַכְעִיסֽוֹ׃to provoke to anger him

    lehakhisoH370754 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Exodus 34:28

    So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 9:25

      So I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said He would destroy you.

      Reached by 3 separate paths from here.

    • Exodus 34:1

      Then the LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

    • Deuteronomy 4:13

      He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to follow—the Ten Commandments that He wrote on two tablets of stone.

    • Exodus 31:18

      When the LORD had finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 9:9

    When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.…

    it leads to

    • Exodus 34:28

      So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Exodus 24:18

      Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

  • Through

    Psalms 106:23

    So He said He would destroy them— had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach to divert His wrath from destroying them.

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 9:13–14

      The LORD also said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 10:10

    I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, like the first time, and that time the LORD again listened to me and agreed not to destroy you.

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 9:18–19

      Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you…

Where this verse is studied

On this page

About Deuteronomy

Moses Comes Down from Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Moses Comes Down from Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).