Chapter Nine

An instructive reminder to this stiff-necked people that if they are to inherit the land of promise, it will be not at all because of their own righteousness, but by the mercy of God.

Deuteronomy 9:2. a people great, numerous, and tall, sons of Anak, about whom you know and have heard: “Who can stand against the sons of Anak? See the note to the book Num 13:23.

Deuteronomy 9:3. Know therefore today that the Lord your God is the one who goes before you as a consuming fire; He will destroy them and subdue them before you, and you will drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has told you. “Quickly” in this case does not mean “immediately”; otherwise what is foreseen in the book Deut 7:22 could have happened to the land. “Quickly” here means: “without particular effort,” “without an unusual expenditure of time and strength.”

Deuteronomy 9:8. Also at Horeb you provoked the Lord to anger, and the Lord was so angry with you that He wanted to destroy you, Deuteronomy 9:9. when I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, and I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights, eating no bread and drinking no water, Deuteronomy 9:10. and the Lord gave me two stone tablets written with the finger of God; and on them were written all the words that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. Deuteronomy 9:11. And at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant, Deuteronomy 9:12. and the Lord said to me: Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have acted corruptly; they have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made for themselves a cast idol. Deuteronomy 9:13. And the Lord said to me: [I have said to you one time and another:] I see this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people; Deuteronomy 9:14. do not restrain Me, and I will destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make of you a nation that will be [greater,] mightier and more numerous than they. Deuteronomy 9:15. I turned and came down from the mountain, while the mountain was burning with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in both my hands; Deuteronomy 9:16. and I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made yourselves a cast calf, had quickly turned aside from the way that the Lord had commanded you; Deuteronomy 9:17. and I took the two tablets and threw them from both my hands and broke them before your eyes. Deuteronomy 9:18. And [again] falling prostrate before the Lord, I prayed as before for forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin you had committed by doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord [your God] and provoking Him; Deuteronomy 9:19. for I was afraid of the anger and wrath with which the Lord was angry with you and wanted to destroy you. And the Lord listened to me this time also. Deuteronomy 9:20. And the Lord was very angry with Aaron and wanted to destroy him; but I also prayed for Aaron at that time. Deuteronomy 9:21. Then the sin of yours, the calf that you had made — I took it and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it thoroughly until it was as fine as dust, and I threw the dust of it into the stream that flowed down from the mountain. Exod 32-34.

Deuteronomy 9:22. And at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord [your God] to anger. Exod 17:1-7; Num 11:3.

Deuteronomy 9:23. And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying: Go up and take possession of the land that I am giving you — you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God and did not believe Him and did not obey His voice. Num 13-14; Deut 1:19-46.

Deuteronomy 9:25. And I lay prostrate before the Lord for those forty days and forty nights, during which I lay prostrate, for the Lord had wanted to destroy you; Deuteronomy 9:26. and I prayed to the Lord and said: O Lord God, [King of gods,] do not destroy your people and your inheritance, whom you have redeemed through the greatness [of your power], whom you brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand [and with your outstretched arm]; Deuteronomy 9:27. remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, [to whom you swore by yourself]; do not look upon the stubbornness of this people or upon their wickedness or upon their sin, Deuteronomy 9:28. lest those [living] in the land from which you brought us say: “The Lord was not able to bring them into the land that He promised them, and because He hated them, He brought them out to kill them in the wilderness. Deuteronomy 9:29. Yet they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out [from the land of Egypt] with your great power and with your outstretched arm. Exod 32:9-14.