23 And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and take the land which I have given you; you went against the orders of the Lord your God, and had no faith in him, and would not give ear to his voice.
They were disgusted with the good land; they had no belief in his word; Talking against him secretly in their tents, they did not give ear to the voice of the Lord.
Because they had no faith in God, and no hope in his salvation.
And, truly, the good news came to us, even as it did to them; but the hearing of the word did them no good, because they were not united in faith with the true hearers.
But all the people said they were to be stoned. Then the glory of the Lord was seen in the Tent of meeting, before the eyes of all the children of Israel. And the Lord said to Moses, How long will this people have no respect for me? how long will they be without faith, in the face of all the signs I have done among them? I will send disease on them for their destruction, and take away their heritage, and I will make of you a nation greater and stronger than they. And Moses said to the Lord, Then it will come to the ears of the Egyptians; for by your power you took this people out from among them; And they will give the news to the people of this land: they have had word that you, Lord, are present with this people, letting yourself be seen face to face, and that your cloud is resting over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if you put to death all this people as one man, then the nations who have had word of your glory will say, Because the Lord was not able to take this people into the land which he made an oath to give them, he sent destruction on them in the waste land. So now, may my prayer come before you, and let the power of the Lord be great, as you said: The Lord is slow to wrath and great in mercy, overlooking wrongdoing and evil, and will not let wrongdoers go free; sending punishment on children for the sins of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation. May the sin of this people have forgiveness, in the measure of your great mercy, as you have had mercy on them from Egypt up till now. And the Lord said, I have had mercy, as you say: But truly, as I am living, and as all the earth will be full of the glory of the Lord; Because all these men, having seen my glory and the signs which I have done in Egypt and in the waste land, still have put me to the test ten times, and have not given ear to my voice; They will not see the land about which I made an oath to their fathers; not one of these by whom I have not been honoured will see it. But my servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit in him, and has been true to me with all his heart, him I will take into that land into which he went, and his seed will have it for their heritage. Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites are in the valley; tomorrow, turning round, go into the waste land by the way to the Red Sea. Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, How long am I to put up with this evil people and their outcries against me? The words which they say against me have come to my ears. Say to them, By my life, says the Lord, as certainly as your words have come to my ears, so certainly will I do this to you: Your dead bodies will be stretched out in this waste land; and of all your number, all those of twenty years old and over who have been crying out against me, Not one will come into the land which I gave my word you would have for your resting-place, but only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun. And your little ones, whom you said would come into strange hands, I will take in, and they will see the land which you would not have. But as for you, your dead bodies will be stretched in this waste land. And your children will be wanderers in the waste land for forty years, undergoing punishment for your false ways, till your bodies become dust in the waste land. And as you went through the land viewing it for forty days, so for forty years, a year for every day, you will undergo punishment for your wrongdoing, and you will see that I am against you. I the Lord have said it, and this I will certainly do to all this evil people who have come together against me: in this waste land destruction will come on them, and death will be their fate. And the men whom Moses sent to see the land, and who, by the bad account they gave of the land, were the cause of the outcry the people made against Moses, Those same men who said evil of the land, came to their death by disease before the Lord. But Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, of those who went to see the land, were not touched by disease. And when Moses put these words before the children of Israel, the people were full of grief. And early in the morning they got up and went to the top of the mountain, saying, We are here and we will go up to the place which the Lord said he would give us: for we have done wrong. And Moses said, Why are you now acting against the Lord's order, seeing that no good will come of it?
Then we went on from Horeb, through all that great and cruel waste which you saw, on our way to the hill-country of the Amorites, as the Lord gave us orders; and we came to Kadesh-barnea. And I said to you, You have come to the hill-country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. See now, the Lord your God has put the land into your hands: go up and take it, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has said to you; have no fear and do not be troubled. And you came near to me, every one of you, and said, Let us send men before us to go through the land with care and give us an account of the way we are to go and the towns to which we will come. And what you said seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from among you, one from every tribe; And they went up into the hill-country and came to the valley of Eshcol, and saw what was there. And taking in their hands some of the fruit of the land, they came down again to us, and gave us their account, saying, It is a good land which the Lord our God is giving us. But going against the order of the Lord your God, you would not go up: And you made an angry outcry in your tents, and said, In his hate for us the Lord has taken us out of the land of Egypt, to give us up into the hands of the Amorites for our destruction. Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts feeble with fear by saying, The people are greater and taller than we are, and the towns are great and walled up to heaven; and more than this, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there. Then I said to you, Have no fear of them. The Lord your God who goes before you will be fighting for you, and will do such wonders as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; And in the waste land, where you have seen how the Lord was supporting you, as a man does his son, in all your journeying till you came to this place. But for all this, you had no faith in the Lord your God, Who goes before you on your way, looking for a place where you may put up your tents, in fire by night, lighting up the way you are to go, and in a cloud by day.
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Commentary on Deuteronomy 9 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Warning Against Self-Righteousness, Founded upon the Recital of Their Previous Sins - Deuteronomy 9-10:11
Besides the more vulgar pride which entirely forgets God, and attributes success and prosperity to its own power and exertion, there is one of a more refined character, which very easily spreads-namely, pride which acknowledges the blessings of God; but instead of receiving them gratefully, as unmerited gifts of the grace of the Lord, sees in them nothing but proofs of its own righteousness and virtue. Moses therefore warned the Israelites more particularly of this dangerous enemy of the soul, by first of all declaring without reserve, that the Lord was not about to give them Canaan because of their own righteousness, but that He would exterminate the Canaanites for their own wickedness (Deuteronomy 9:1-6); and then showing them for their humiliation, by proofs drawn from the immediate past, how they had brought upon themselves the anger of the Lord, by their apostasy and rebellion against their God, directly after the conclusion of the covenant at Sinai; and that in such a way, that it was only by his earnest intercession that he had been able to prevent the destruction of the people (Deut 9:7-24), and to secure a further renewal of the pledges of the covenant (Deut 9:25-10:11).
Deuteronomy 9:1-3
Warning against a conceit of righteousness, with the occasion for the warning. As the Israelites were now about to cross over the Jordan (“this day,” to indicate that the time was close at hand), to take possession of nations that were superior to them in size and strength (the tribes of Canaan mentioned in Deuteronomy 7:1), and great fortified cities reaching to the heavens (cf. Deuteronomy 1:28), namely, the great and tall nation of the Enakites (Deuteronomy 1:28), before which, as was well known, no one could stand ( התיצּב , as in Deuteronomy 7:24); and as they also knew that Jehovah their God was going before them to destroy and humble these nations, they were not to say in their heart, when this was done, For my righteousness Jehovah hath brought me in to possess this land. In Deuteronomy 9:3, היּום וידעתּ is not to be taken in an imperative sense, but as expressive of the actual fact, and corresponding to Deuteronomy 9:1, “thou art to pass.” Israel now knew for certain - namely, by the fact, which spoke so powerfully, of its having been successful against foes which it could never have conquered by itself, especially against Sihon and Og - that the Lord was going before it, as the leader and captain of His people ( Schultz : see Deuteronomy 1:30). The threefold repetition of הוּא in Deuteronomy 9:3 is peculiarly emphatic. “ A consuming fire: ” as in Deuteronomy 4:24. ישׁמידם הוּא is more particularly defined by וגו יכניעם והוּא , which follows: not, however, as implying that השׁמיד does not signify complete destruction in this passage, but rather as explaining how the destruction would take place. Jehovah would destroy the Canaanites, by bring them down, humbling them before Israel, so that they would be able to drive them out and destroy them quickly “ מהר , quickly, is no more opposed to Deuteronomy 7:22, 'thou mayest not destroy them quickly,' than God's not delaying to requite (Deuteronomy 7:10) is opposed to His long-suffering” ( Schultz ). So far as the almighty assistance of God was concerned, the Israelites would quickly overthrow the Canaanites; but for the sake of the well-being of Israel, the destruction would only take place by degrees. “ As Jehovah hath said unto thee: ” viz., Exodus 23:23, Exodus 23:27., and at the beginning of the conflict, Deuteronomy 2:24.
Deuteronomy 9:4-6
When therefore Jehovah thrust out these nations before them ( הדף , as in Deuteronomy 6:19), the Israelites were not to say within themselves, “ By (for, on account of) my righteousness Jehovah hath brought me (led me hither) to possess this land .” The following word, וּברשׁעת , is adversative: “ but because of the wickedness of these nations ,” etc. - To impress this truth deeply upon the people, Moses repeats the thought once more in Deuteronomy 9:5. At the same time he mentions, in addition to righteousness, straightness or uprightness of heart, to indicate briefly that outward works do not constitute true righteousness, but that an upright state of heart is indispensable, and then enters more fully into the positive reasons. The wickedness of the Canaanites was no doubt a sufficient reason for destroying them , but not for giving their land to the people of Israel, since they could lay no claim to it on account of their own righteousness. The reason for giving Canaan to the Israelites was simply the promise of God, the word which the Lord had spoken to the patriarchs on oath (cf. Deuteronomy 7:8), and therefore nothing but the free grace of God, - not any merit on the part of the Israelites who were then living, for they were a people “of a hard neck,” i.e., a stubborn, untractable generation. With these words, which the Lord Himself had applied to Israel in Exodus 32:9; Exodus 33:3, Exodus 33:5, Moses prepares the way for passing to the reasons for his warning against self-righteous pride, namely, the grievous sins of the Israelites against the Lord.
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. Deuteronomy 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. Deuteronomy 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 (Exodus 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 (Deuteronomy 9:8-21), and then briefly pointing to the other rebellions of the people in the desert (Deuteronomy 9:22, Deuteronomy 9:23).
Deuteronomy 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.
Deuteronomy 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 (Deuteronomy 4:10), calling them out of the camp, and bringing them to the Lord to the foot of Sinai (Exodus 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 Deuteronomy 9:10; and the clause, “ then I abode ,” etc., in Deuteronomy 9:9, is a parenthesis. - The words of God in Deuteronomy 9:12-14 are taken almost word for word from Exodus 32:7-10. הרף (Deuteronomy 9:14), the imperative Hiphil of רפה , desist from me, that I may destroy them, for לּי הנּיחה , in Exodus 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 (Deuteronomy 9:11) was the first beginning of the manifestations of divine wrath ( Schultz ); and this is also at variance with the preterite, נתן , in Deuteronomy 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 (Deuteronomy 9:15-17; comp. with Exodus 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 ( Exodus 32:11-14), and simply mentioned (in Deuteronomy 9:15-17) how, as soon as he came down, he charged the people with their great sin; and then, in Deuteronomy 9:18, Deuteronomy 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 Exodus 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. Deuteronomy 10:1.).
Deuteronomy 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. Isaiah 43:27), but also to bring out the fact, which is described still more fully in Deuteronomy 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 (Exodus 24:14), and was already designated by God for the high-priesthood (Exodus 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 Exodus 32:21. - In Deuteronomy 9:21, Moses mentions again how he destroyed that manifested sin of the nation, namely, the molten calf (see at Exodus 32:20).
Deuteronomy 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 (Numbers 11:1-3); at Massah, by murmuring on account of the want of water (Exodus 17:1.); at the graves of lust, by longing for flesh (Numbers 11:4.); and at Kadesh-barnea by unbelief, of which they had already been reminded at Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 9:7) from the very beginning, “from the day that I knew you.”
After vindicating in this way the thought expressed in Deuteronomy 9:7, by enumerating the principal rebellions of the people against their God, Moses returns in Deuteronomy 9:25. to the apostasy at Sinai, for the purpose of showing still further how Israel had no righteousness or ground for boasting before God, and owed its preservation, with all the saving blessings of the covenant, solely to the mercy of God and His covenant faithfulness. To this end he repeats in Deuteronomy 9:26-29 the essential points in his intercession for the people after their sin at Sinai, and then proceeds to explain still further, in Deuteronomy 10:1-11, how the Lord had not only renewed the tables of the covenant in consequence of this intercession (Deuteronomy 10:1-5), but had also established the gracious institution of the priesthood for the time to come by appointing Eleazar in Aaron's stead as soon as his father died, and setting apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant and attend to the holy service, and had commanded them to continue their march to Canaan, and take possession of the land promised to the fathers (Deuteronomy 10:6-11). With the words “thus I fell down,” in Deuteronomy 9:25, Moses returns to the intercession already briefly mentioned in Deuteronomy 9:18, and recalls to the recollection of the people the essential features of his plea at the time. For the words “ the forty days and nights that I fell down ,” see at Deuteronomy 1:46. The substance of the intercession in Deuteronomy 9:26-29 is essentially the same as that in Exodus 32:11-13; but given with such freedom as any other than Moses would hardly have allowed himself ( Schultz ), and in such a manner as to bring it into the most obvious relation to the words of God in Deuteronomy 9:12, Deuteronomy 9:13. אל־תּשׁחת , “ Destroy not Thy people and Thine inheritance ,” says Moses, with reference to the words of the Lord to him: “ thy people have corrupted themselves ” (Deuteronomy 9:12). Israel was not Moses' nation, but the nation and inheritance of Jehovah; it was not Moses, but Jehovah, who had brought it out of Egypt. True, the people were stiffnecked (cf. Deuteronomy 9:13); but let the Lord remember the fathers, the oath given to Abraham, which is expressly mentioned in Exodus 32:13 (see at Deuteronomy 7:8), and not turn to the stiffneckedness of the people ( קשׁי equivalent to ערף קשׁה , Deuteronomy 9:13 and Deuteronomy 9:6), and to their wickedness and sin (i.e., not regard them and punish them). The honour of the Lord before the nations was concerned in this (Deuteronomy 9:28). The land whence Israel came out (“the land” = the people of the land, as in Genesis 10:25, etc., viz., the Egyptians: the word is construed as a collective with a plural verb) must not have occasion to say, that Jehovah had not led His people into the promised land from incapacity or hatred. יכלת מבּלי recalls Numbers 14:16. Just as “inability” would be opposed to the nature of the absolute God, so “hatred” would be opposed to the choice of Israel as the inheritance of Jehovah, which He had brought out of Egypt by His divine and almighty power (cf. Exodus 6:6).