Deuteronomy 9

HEar, O Israel, thou art to pass over Jordan this day (i. e.) Shortly, within a little time, the word day being oft put for time, as Iob. 8. 56. 1 Cor. 4. 5. Revd. 16. 14. within two moneths: for Moses spake this on the first day of the eleventh moneth, Deut. 1. 3. and they passed over Ierdan on the tenth day of the first moneth, Ios. 4. 19., to go in to possess nations (i. e.) The land of those nations; for that only they were to possess, but as for the Nations or people they were not to possess, but to destroy them. Thus they are said to Gad, Ier. 4.... 1. i. e. the Country and of Gad, as it is there explained. greater and mightier than thy self This he adds, partly that they might not be surprized when they find them to be such: partly that they... ght not trust to their own strength, but wholly rely upon Gods help for the destroying of them and, after the work was done, might ascribe the p... se and glory of it to God alone, and not to themselves., cities great and fenced up to heaven As the Spies reported, Deut. 1. 28. See on Gen. 11. 4..

A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say Either from the spies, or rather from common same, for this seems to be a proverb, used in those times., Who can stand before the children of Anak?

Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee as a consuming fire: he shall destroy them and he shall bring them down before thy face; so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly Without great difficulty or long wars. as the LORD has said unto thee.

Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God has cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD does drive them out from before thee.

Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart Neither for thy upright heart, nor holy life, which are the two things which God a... ove all regards, 1. 29, 17. Psal. 15. 1. 2. And consequently he all merit. And surely they who did not deserve this earthly could not merit the Kingdom of Glory., dost thou go to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God does drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob To show my faithfulness in accomplishing that promise which I graciously made and confirmed with my oath. By which words it is implyed, that this land was not given to them for the righteousness of their fathers though they were righteous and holy persons, and much less for their own righteousness, which they had not, as it follows..

Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness, for thou art a stiff-necked people Rebellious and perverse, and so destitute of all pretence of righteousness; such were the people, but there were divers particular persons amongst them truly righteous and holy, and yet even their righteousness is denyed to be the procuring cause of this land..

Remember, and forget not how thou provokedst 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.

Also in Horeb When your miraculous deliverance out of Egypt was fresh in memory; when God had but newly manifested himself to you in so stupendious and dreadful a manner, and had taken you into covenant with himself, when God was actually conferring further mercies upon you., ye provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you, to have destroyed you.

When I was gone up into the mount, to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights; I neither did eat bread, nor drink water (i. e.) I wholly abstained from all meat and drink. Compare 1 King. 13. 8, 9, 13. 2 King. 6. 22..

And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone, written with the singer of God Immediately and miraculously, which was done not only to procure the greater reverence to the law, but also to signifie, that it was the work of God alone to write this Law upon the Tables of mens hearts. See I.... 31. 33. 2 Cor. 3. 3. 7., and on them was written according to all the words which the LORD spake with you in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, in the day of the assembly (i. e.) When the people were gathered together by Gods command to the bottom of Mount Sinai, to hear and receive Gods ten Commandements from his own mouth..

And it came to pass at the end of fourty days, and fourty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.

And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.

Furthermore, the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.

Let me alone Stop not the course of my fury by thy intercession., that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they.

So 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.

And 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.

And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes Not by an unbridled passion, but in zeal for Gods honour, and by the direction of Gods spirit, to signifie to the people, that the covenant between God and them contained in those tables was broken and made void, and they were now quite cast out of Gods favour, and could expect nothing from him but fiery indignation and severe justice. See on Exod. 32. 19..

And I fell down In way of humiliation and supplication, on your behalf. 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.

(For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure wherewith the LORD was wroth against you, to destroy you) But the LORD hearkned unto me at that time also.

And the LORD was very angry with Aaron Though he was only accessary, as being persuaded, and in a manner compelled to comply with your desire., to have destroyed him: And I prayed for Aaron also the same time.

And I took your sin (i. e.) The object and matter of your sin, as sin is taken Isa. 31. 7., 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 there might be no monument or remembrance of it left. that descended out of the mount.

And at Taberah, and at Massa, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, ye provoked the LORD to wrath.

Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up, and possess the land which I have given you, then ye rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkned to his voice.

Ye have been rebellious against the LORD, from the day that I knew you.

Thus I fell down before the LORD forty days, and forty nights The same mentioned before v. 18. as appears, 1. By comparing this with Exodus, where this History is more fully related, and where this is said to be done twice only. 2. By the occasion and matter of Moses his prayer here following, which is the same with the former. 3. By the words here following, as I fell down at first, which show that this was the second time of his so doing., as I fell down at the first, because the LORD had said, he would destroy you.

I prayed therefore unto the LORD and said, O LORD God, destroy not thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness (i. e.) Through the greatness of thy power, which appeared most eminently in that work, as is noted v. 29., which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt, with a mighty hand.

Remember thy servants (i. e.) The promise made and sworn to thy servants, which was mentioned above v. 5., Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: look not unto the stubborness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin:

Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out, say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.

Yet they are thy people Whom thou hast chosen to thy self out of all mankind, and publickly owned them for thine, and hast purchased and redeemed them from the Egyptians., and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power, and by thy stretched-out arm.