Deuteronomy 9:21

_AND I TOOK YOUR 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 DUST THEREOF INTO THE BROOK THAT DESCENDED OUT OF THE MOUNT._ I took your sin - i:e., the fruit of your sin. I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount. It is too seldom borne in mind that though the Israelites were supplied with water from this rock when they were stationed at Rephidim (Wady Feiran), there is nothing in the Scripture narrative which should lead us to suppose that the rock was in the immediate neighbourhood of that place (see the notes at Exodus 17:5). The water of this smitten rock was probably the brook that descended from the mount. The water may have flowed to the distance of many miles from the rock, as the winter torrents do now through the wadies of Arabia

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,...

Verse Deuteronomy 9:21. _I TOOK YOUR SIN, THE CALF WHICH YE HAD MADE_] _See this fully explained, Clarke "_Exodus 32:20_"_....

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 TOOK YOUR SIN, THE CALF WHICH YE HAD MADE,.... Which was the object of their sin, which lay in making and worshipping it; see Isaiah 31:7 AND BURNT IT WITH FIRE, AND STAMPED IT; with his feet after it was burnt, to bring it into small pieces: AND GROUND IT VERY SMALL; or, as the Targum of Jonathan, "ground it in a mortar well;'' the burnt and broken pieces: EVEN UNTIL IT WAS AS SMALL AS DUST; being ground to powder, as in Exodus 32:20 AND I CAST THE DUST THEREOF INTO THE BROOK THAT DESCENDED OUT OF THE MOUNT; and made the children of Israel to drink of it, as in the previously mentioned place; Exodus 32:2; a

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....

BURNT IT. burnt it up. Hebrew. _saraph._ App-43. DESCENDED. Compare Exodus 32:20, which is here explained....

Characteristically expanded, with variations, from Exodus 32:20: one item in the latter, _and made the children of Israel drink of it_, is omitted....

_VER._ 21. _AND I TOOK YOUR SIN_— That is to say, the occasion or matter of your sin, the idol which you had made: it is a metonymy frequently found in Scripture. See Isaiah 31:7....