Deuteronomy 9:18

_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._ 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. These 40 days are not mentioned in the book of Exodus....

18._And I fell down before the Lord _The order of the narrative is confused; for this fact of which he speaks did not precede his second ascent into the mount, when he was commanded to prepare the second tables. If so, he would have fasted three times, which we gather from other passages not to have been the case; but we must not be surprised that the same thing should be often repeated, as we shall see at the beginning of chapter 10, as well as shortly afterwards. The mention of it here, however, is seasonable, because the Covenant was to be renewed, and therefore, as if nothing had been done, he again abstained from meat and drink for forty days. Yet we have elsewhere seen that there were other prayers which had intervened before He ascended the mount a second time; but He does not here distinctly record the details, nay, he mixes up the prayers, whereby he interceded with God, with th...

7-29 That the Israelites might have no pretence to think that God brought them to Canaan for their righteousness, Moses shows what a miracle of mercy it was, that they had not been destroyed in the wilderness. It is good for us often to remember against ourselves, with sorrow and shame, our former sins; that we may see how much we are indebted to free grace, and may humbly own that we never merited any thing but wrath and the curse at God's hand. For so strong is our propensity to pride, that it will creep in under one pretence or another. We are ready to fancy that our righteousness has got for us the special favour of the Lord, though in reality our wickedness is more plain than our weakness. But when the secret history of every man's life shall be brought forth at the day of judgment, all the world will be proved guilty before God. At present, One pleads for us before the mercy-seat,...

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 Exodus 32:11. 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 Exodus 34:28. It is this second forty days, and the intercession of Moses made therein (compare Exodus 34:9), that is more particularly brought forward here and in Deuteronomy 9:25....

EXPOSITION DISSUASIVES FROM SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS. DEUTERONOMY 9:1 Israel might acknowledge that it was of God's free gift that they possessed the land of Canaan, and yet might flatter themselves by thinking it was because of their righteousness and goodness that the gift was bestowed. To guard against this, _Moses _tells them that not because of their righteousness would God go before them and drive out the mighty peoples that then occupied the land, but because of the wickedness of these peoples themselves were they to be extirpated (Deuteronomy 9:1). He further reminds them of their transgressions in the past, and how they thereby came under the Divine displeasure, and were saved

AND I FELL DOWN BEFORE THE LORD,.... In prayer for Israel who had sinned; but this he did not immediately after he had broken the tables, but when he had first ground the calf to powder, strewed it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it; and when he had chided Aaron, and ordered the sons of Levi to slay every man his brother: AS AT THE FIRST FORTY DAYS AND FORTY MIGHTS; which is to be connected, I think, not with what goes before; for we read not that he fell down before the Lord, at the first time he was with him so long in the mount; but with what follows: "I did neither eat bread nor drink water"; as he neither ate nor drank the first forty days, so neither did he these second forty; see Deuteronomy 9:9 BECAUSE OF ALL YOUR SINS WHICH YE SINNED, IN DOING WICKEDLY IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD, TO PROVOKE HIM TO ANGER; for they were guil

5. WARNING AGAINST SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS AND THEIR PREVIOUS FAILURES Chapter S 9:1-10:11 _ 1. The warning (Deuteronomy 9:1)_ 2. The failures of the past (Deuteronomy 9:7) 3. The intercession of Moses (Deuteronomy 9:25) 4. The results of the intercession (Deuteronomy 10:1) This chapter and the first eleven verses of the tenth are aimed against the spirit of self righteousness. First there is the warning. This is followed by their shameful history of the past, which showed that a boast of being righteous, or having any righteousness had to be positively excluded in their

DEUTERONOMY 9:7_ b-_ DEUTERONOMY 10:11 (or DEUTERONOMY 10:9). Narrative of the legislation on Mount Horeb; for the purpose apparently of illustrating Deuteronomy 9:7_ a._ This historical survey suddenly thrust into a hortatory context closely resembles Deuteronomy 1-3, and is thought by Horst and Bertholet to be by the same author. They agree with Steuernagel (who, however, says its closest affinities are with Deuteronomy 5) in holding it to be an interpolation here. But surely the history in this section is didactic and therefore hortatory....

WICKEDLY. Hebrew. _ra'a_, the wicked thing: i.e. idolatry. See App-44....

_as at the first_ Refers to what follows it the length of time and the fasting not to what precedes the falling down before God. This intercession seems to be the same as that described in Deuteronomy 10:10 and -anticipated here on account of its importance in the argument" (Driver). Cp. Exodus 32:30 which says that _on the morrow_of his meeting with the people Moses returned to the Mount to intercede for them with God; and Exodus 34:9 which says that he again interceded in the second forty days which he spent on the Mount. Which of these is intended here? _all your sin_ Sam., LXX: _sins_. _in doing that which was evil_, etc.]...