Deuteronomy 9

Deuteronomy 9 is part of the long address Moses delivered on the plains of Moab, east of the Jordan. Chapter 8 warned Israel not to forget God once they had entered the land and grown prosperous. Chapter 9 continues that warning, telling the people not to think that they will gain the land "for my righteousness," and it reviews their past rebellions. This retrospective extends into the opening verses of chapter 10.

Outline

• Verses 1–3 Israel is about to cross the Jordan and face cities great and fenced up to heaven, along with the children of the Anakim, a people great and tall. Yet the LORD will go before them as a consuming fire and destroy them.
• Verses 4–6 Israel receives the land not because of its own righteousness but because of the wickedness of the nations there and because of the oath the LORD swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Israel is "a stiffnecked people."
• Verses 7–11 From the day they left Egypt, the Israelites continually rebelled against the LORD. At Mount Horeb, Moses spent forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water and then received the two tablets of the covenant, written by God himself.
• Verses 12–17 The LORD told Moses that the people had made a molten calf and declared that he would destroy them. Moses came down from the mountain and broke the two tablets before the people's eyes.
• Verses 18–21 Moses again fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, and he prayed for Aaron as well. The calf was burned, ground to powder, and its dust cast into the brook.
• Verses 22–24 Israel also provoked the LORD to wrath at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah. At Kadesh-barnea they did not believe the command to go up and possess the land, and they rebelled.
• Verses 25–29 Moses pleads with the LORD to remember the patriarchs and not to regard the people's sin, lest the Egyptians mock God's power. He appeals to the fact that these people are God's own inheritance.

Key Verses

• Deuteronomy 9:6 "Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness" — This verse summarizes the chapter's theme: the land is a gift grounded in God's promise, not a reward for Israel's merit.
• Deuteronomy 9:26 "O Lord GOD, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance" — This verse is frequently cited as a portrait of Moses as intercessor.

People and Places

• Moses: The speaker of the chapter, who recounts his own experiences.
• Aaron: He incurred God's wrath in the golden calf incident, but Moses prayed for him.
• Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: Mentioned as the patriarchs who received the promise of the land.
• The Anakim: A people living in Canaan, known for their great stature.
• Jordan River: The river Israel must cross.
• Mount Horeb: Another name for Mount Sinai and the name Deuteronomy generally uses.
• Egypt: The land Israel left in the Exodus.
• Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah: Places in the wilderness where the people complained and rebelled (Exodus 17; Numbers 11).
• Kadesh-barnea: The place where the people refused to go up into the land after the report of the twelve spies.

Points for Reflection

• This chapter retells the golden calf incident of Exodus 32–34 from Moses' perspective. In Exodus, Moses first intercedes on the mountain and then comes down, whereas Deuteronomy differs in sequence and emphasis. Interpreters are also divided over whether the forty days and forty nights in verses 18 and 25 refer to the same period or to different ones.
• The chapter attributes the dispossession of the Canaanite nations to "the wickedness of these nations." Some interpreters read this alongside Genesis 15:16, "the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full."
• Because the gift of the land rests on the promise rather than on Israel's righteousness, many Protestant interpreters read this chapter as an example of election by grace. Paul is generally understood to have drawn on the expression "Speak not thou in thine heart" from Deuteronomy 9:4, together with language from chapter 30, in Romans 10:6.
• Moses' fast of forty days and forty nights is often read alongside Jesus' forty-day fast in the wilderness (the temptation in the wilderness).

In the Korean Church

In Korean churches, Moses' forty days and forty nights are frequently mentioned together with Jesus' forty-day fast in discussions of forty-day fasting prayer or forty-day prayer meetings. The phrase "stiffnecked people" is commonly used in sermons to describe stubbornness and disobedience.