1Moses dissuadeth them from the opinion of their own righteousness, 7by rehearsing their several rebellions.
1HEAR, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan 1this day, to go in to possess 2nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up 3to heaven,
1 That is, soon, shortly, within a short while.
2 That is, the lands of nations, that are, etc. For, those nations were to be destroyed according to God’s command.
3 See Deut. 1 on verse 28.
2A people great and tall, the children of the 4Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heardasay, 5Who can stand before the children of Anak!
4 As Deut. 1:28; 2:10, 11.
a Num. 13:32, 33.
5 A common proverb at that time when those giants flourished.
3Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a 6consumingb fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee.
6 See Deut. 4 on verse 24.
b Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29.
47Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.
7 See Deut. 7 on verse 17.
5Not for 8thy 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 swarec unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
8 For, as if the Lord would say, thou hast no righteousness of thine own, but rather the contrary. See verses 6, 7, etc. A similar phrase the apostle uses in Titus 3:5 and elsewhere often in relating the causes of man’s salvation, that is, of our deliverance and possession of the heavenly Canaan, when he says: Not by works of righteousness which we have done, etc.
c Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 15:7; 17:8; 26:4; 28:13.
6Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a 9stiffnecked people.
9 See Exod. 32:9.
7¶Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedstd the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD.
d Exod. 14:11; 16:2; 17:2; Num. 11:4.
810Alsoe in Horeb ye provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you to have destroyed you.
10 This following account serves for proof of the 5th and the 6th verse, where Moses said that God would not bring them into the land of Canaan for their own righteousness.
e Exod. 32:4; Psalm 106:19.
9When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the 11covenant which the LORD 12made with you, then I abodef in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither 13did eat bread nor drink water:
11 That is, upon which the Ten Commandments were written, which contained the covenant of God’s law; also verse 10, etc.
12 See Gen. 15 on verse 18.
f Exod. 24:18; 34:28.
13 That is, I took no sustenance, neither meat, nor drink. Also verse 18; 1 Kings 13:8, 9, 16; 2 Kings 6:22.
10And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written withg the 14finger of God; and on them 15was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire 16in the day of the assembly.
g Exod. 31:18.
14 That is, with His finger. See the spiritual meaning of it, 2 Cor. 3:3, 7, and compare with Jer. 31:33.
15 This has been inserted from the word written in the first part of the sentence.
16 When Israel stood at the foot of the mount to hear the LORD’S commandments.
11And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.
12And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have 17corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the 18way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.
17 Or, have corrupted it. See Exod. 32:7.
18 See Gen. 18 on verse 19.
13Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffneckedh people:
h Exod. 32:9; 33:3; 34:9; Deut. 10:16; 31:27; 2 Kings 17:14.
1419Leti me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.
19 As if the LORD would have said: Trouble Me no more with thy interceding for this stiff-necked people. See Moses’ intercession, Exod. 32:11, 12, etc.; 34:9, and below verse 26, etc.
i Exod. 32:10; Psalm 106:23.
15So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.
16And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the LORD your God, and had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the LORD had commanded you.
17And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes.
18And I fell down before the LORD, 20as 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 21wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
20 I did again as I had done before.
21 That is, what displeases Him.
19For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also.
20And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.
21And I tookj22your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the 23dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.
j Exod. 32:20.
22 That is, as the following words show, the molten calf, wherewith you had committed the abominable sin of idolatry. Compare Isa. 27:9; Hosea 10:8; Amos 8:14.
23 To loath and detest this abomination in the highest measure and to drown all remembrance thereof in the deep. See hereof further Exod. 32 on verse 20 and compare 2 Kings 23 on verse 12.
22And at 24Taberah,k and at 25Massah,l and at 26Kibroth-hattaavah,m ye provoked the LORD to wrath.
24 That is, burning. This is why this place is so called, see Num. 11:2, 3.
k Num. 11:1.
25 That is, temptation. See Exod. 17:7.
l Exod. 17:7.
26 That is, graves of lusts. See Num. 11:34.
m Num. 11:4, 34.
23Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Gon up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the 27commandment of the LORD your God, and ye 28believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.
n Num. 13:3; 14:1.
27 Or, mouth.
28 See Deut. 1 on verse 32.
24Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I 29knew you.
29 That is, associated with you, and had dealings with you according to my calling.
25Thus I fell down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first; because the LORD had said he would destroy you.
26I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O Lordo GOD, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy 30greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
o Exod. 32:11; Num. 14:13.
30 That is, majesty or great power. See Deut. 11:2.
27Remember 31thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin:
31 That is, remember the covenant which Thou hast made with them.
2832Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say,p Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and 33because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.
32 Hebr. Lest, they say, the land whence, etc., that is, lest the inhabitants whence, etc., say, namely, the Egyptians; as Exod. 32:12.
p Exod. 32:12; Num. 14:16.
33 Compare Deut. 1:27.
29Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm.