Deuteronomy 9:7-24
Expanded Bible
Remember the Lord’s Anger
7 Remember this and do not forget it: You made the Lord your God angry in the ·desert [wilderness]. You ·would not obey [rebelled against] the Lord from the day you left Egypt until you arrived here. 8 At ·Mount Sinai [L Horeb; 1:6] you made the Lord angry—angry enough to destroy you [Ex. 32]. 9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets with the ·Agreement [Covenant; Treaty] the Lord had ·made [L cut] with you, I stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights; I did not eat bread or drink water. 10 The Lord gave me two stone tablets, which God had written on with his own finger [C the Ten Commandments; Ex. 20:2–17; 31:18]. On them were all the commands that the Lord gave to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day ·you were gathered there [of the assembly].
11 When the forty days and forty nights were over, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets with the ·Agreement [Covenant; Treaty] on them. 12 Then the Lord told me, “Get up and go down quickly from here, because the people you brought out from Egypt are ·ruining [corrupting] themselves. They have quickly turned away from ·what [L the way] I commanded and have made an idol for themselves [C a golden calf; Ex. 32:3–4].”
13 The Lord said to me, “I have watched these people, and they are very ·stubborn [L stiff-necked]! 14 Get away so that I may destroy them and ·make the whole world forget who they are [L blot off their name from under heaven]. Then I will make another nation from you that will be bigger and stronger than they are.”
15 So I turned and came down the mountain that was burning with fire, and the two stone tablets with the ·Agreement [Covenant; Treaty] were in my hands. 16 When I looked, I saw you had sinned against the Lord your God and had made an idol in the shape of a calf. You had quickly turned away from ·what [L the way] the Lord had ·told [commanded] you to do. 17 So I took the two stone tablets and threw them down, breaking them into pieces ·right in front of you [L before your eyes; Ex. 32:19].
18 Then I ·again [as before/formerly] bowed facedown on the ground before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I did not eat bread or drink water. You had sinned by doing what the Lord said was evil, and you made him angry. 19 I was afraid of the Lord’s anger and rage, because he was angry enough with you to destroy you, but the Lord listened to me ·again [L at that time]. 20 And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but then I prayed for Aaron, too. 21 I took that sinful calf idol you had made and burned it in the fire. I crushed it into a powder like dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain [Ex. 32:20].
22 You also made the Lord angry at Taberah [Num. 11:3], Massah [Ex. 17:7], and Kibroth Hattaavah [Num. 11:34].
23 Then the Lord sent you away from Kadesh Barnea and said, “Go up and ·take [possess] the land I have given you.” But you ·rejected [rebelled against] the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust him or ·obey him [L listen to his voice; Num. 13–14]. 24 You have ·refused to obey [rebelled against] the Lord as long as I have[a] known you.
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- Deuteronomy 9:24 I have Hebrew copies read “I have.” Greek copies and the Samaritan Pentateuch have “he has.”
Deuteronomy 9:7-24
Amplified Bible
7 Remember [with remorse] and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness; from the day you left the land of Egypt until you arrived in this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. 8 And at Horeb (Sinai) you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you. 9 When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I did not eat food or drink water. 10 The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God; and on them were written all the words which the Lord had spoken to you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. 11 It came about at the end of forty days and forty nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. 12 Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made (cast) a molten image for themselves.’ 13 Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, they are stiff-necked (stubborn, obstinate) people. 14 Let Me alone, so that I may destroy them and wipe out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’
15 “So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a molten [a]calf (idol). You had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you.(A) 17 So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my two hands and smashed them before your very eyes! 18 Then, as before, I fell down before the Lord for [another] forty days and forty nights; I did not eat food or drink water, because of all the sin you had committed by doing [b]what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of the anger and [c]absolute fury which the Lord held against you, [enough divine fury] to destroy you, but the Lord listened to me that time also. 20 The Lord was very angry with Aaron, angry [enough] to destroy him, so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. 21 I took your sinful thing, the calf which you had made, and burned it in the fire and thoroughly crushed it, grinding the metal thoroughly until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain.
22 “At Taberah also and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. 23 And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, and you did not believe and rely on Him, nor did you obey His voice. 24 You have been rebellious against the Lord from the [first] day that I knew you.
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- Deuteronomy 9:16 The selection of a calf-god was probably inspired by the Egyptian bull-god Apis (Hapis), believed to be a living manifestation of the Egyptian god, Ptah. In ancient Egypt, a bull-calf with specific markings was selected from the herd and designated and worshiped as Apis. The Apis was the most important of the sacred animals of Egypt. At the age of twenty-eight the Apis bull was sacrificed and buried in a highly structured ritual and a new bull-calf was selected to take his place. Numerous elaborate burial sites containing the Apis bulls have been discovered in Egypt. Both the Greeks and Romans adopted the cultic worship of Apis and it continued until about a.d. 400.
- Deuteronomy 9:18 Lit the evil, when the word “evil” (or other such word) is used with the definite article (“the evil”) without any contextual explanation, it refers to the evil of seeking salvation by some other way than that which is offered by God.
- Deuteronomy 9:19 Lit hot displeasure.
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