Deuteronomy 9:26

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, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(26) I prayed therefore . . . and said.—The words that follow are very similar to those which are recorded in Exodus 32:11-13. Moses appears to be alluding to his first intercession here, before he descended from Sinai for the first time.

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 9:26-29. Redeemed through thy greatness — The greatness of thy power and goodness, which appeared most eminently in that work. Remember thy servants Abraham, &c. — That is, thy promise made and sworn to them. They are thy people — Whom thou hast chosen to thyself out of all mankind.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:7-29 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, who not only fasted, but died upon the cross for our sins; through whom we may approach, though self-condemned sinners, and beseech for undeserved mercy and for eternal life, as the gift of God in Him. Let us refer all the victory, all the glory, and all the praise, to Him who alone bringeth salvation.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the marginal reference. Taberah was the name of a spot in or near the station of Kibroth-hattaavah, and accordingly is not named in the list of encampments given in Numbers 33:16. The separate mention of the two is, however, appropriate here, for each place and each name was a memorial of an act of rebellion. The instances in this and the next verse are not given in order of occurrence. The speaker for his own purposes advances from the slighter to the more heinous proofs of guilt.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. Thus I fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first—After the enumeration of various acts of rebellion, he had mentioned the outbreak at Kadesh-barnea, which, on a superficial reading of this verse, would seem to have led Moses to a third and protracted season of humiliation. But on a comparison of this passage with Nu 14:5, the subject and language of this prayer show that only the second act of intercession (De 9:18) is now described in fuller detail.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Through thy greatness, i.e. through the greatness of thy power, which appeared most eminently in that work, as is noted, Deu 9:29.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And I prayed therefore unto the Lord,.... What follows is a different prayer from that in Exodus 32:31 and agrees better with that in Deuteronomy 9:11, delivered before he came down from the mount, yet could not be the same, because delivered at another forty days and nights:

and said, O Lord God, destroy not thy people, and thine inheritance: because they were his inheritance, a people whom he had chosen for his peculiar treasure; this is the first argument used, another follows:

which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness; redeemed out of the house of bondage, the land of Egypt, by his great power, as next explained:

which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand: inflicting plagues on the Egyptians, particularly destroying their firstborn, which made them the Israelites urge to depart.

Geneva Study Bible

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, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

26–29. And I prayed, etc.] details his intercession. Cp. Exodus 32:11-13, JE, but probably editorial. Here the deuteronomic additions are which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness (greatness in Pl. passages Deuteronomy 5:24, here and Deuteronomy 11:2); look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness (the masc. noun, while the fem. is used in Deuteronomy 9:4-5), nor to their sin; great power and stretched out arm (see on Deuteronomy 4:34); and there are some variations.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 26-29. - In these verses the substance of Moses' intercession is given, and it is substantially in agreement with the account in Exodus. Moses pleaded with God not to destroy that people which was his own, which he had redeemed for himself and brought out of Egypt; besought him to remember their pious ancestors, and not to look on the stubbornness and sin of the people; and urged that the Divine honor was concerned in their being conducted to Canaan, and not let perish in the wilderness. Deuteronomy 9:26

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

After vindicating in this way the thought expressed in Deuteronomy 9:7, by enumerating the principal rebellions of the people against their God, Moses returns in Deuteronomy 9:25. to the apostasy at Sinai, for the purpose of showing still further how Israel had no righteousness or ground for boasting before God, and owed its preservation, with all the saving blessings of the covenant, solely to the mercy of God and His covenant faithfulness. To this end he repeats in Deuteronomy 9:26-29 the essential points in his intercession for the people after their sin at Sinai, and then proceeds to explain still further, in Deuteronomy 10:1-11, how the Lord had not only renewed the tables of the covenant in consequence of this intercession (Deuteronomy 10:1-5), but had also established the gracious institution of the priesthood for the time to come by appointing Eleazar in Aaron's stead as soon as his father died, and setting apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant and attend to the holy service, and had commanded them to continue their march to Canaan, and take possession of the land promised to the fathers (Deuteronomy 10:6-11). With the words "thus I fell down," in Deuteronomy 9:25, Moses returns to the intercession already briefly mentioned in Deuteronomy 9:18, and recalls to the recollection of the people the essential features of his plea at the time. For the words "the forty days and nights that I fell down," see at Deuteronomy 1:46. The substance of the intercession in Deuteronomy 9:26-29 is essentially the same as that in Exodus 32:11-13; but given with such freedom as any other than Moses would hardly have allowed himself (Schultz), and in such a manner as to bring it into the most obvious relation to the words of God in Deuteronomy 9:12, Deuteronomy 9:13. אל־תּשׁחת, "Destroy not Thy people and Thine inheritance," says Moses, with reference to the words of the Lord to him: "thy people have corrupted themselves" (Deuteronomy 9:12). Israel was not Moses' nation, but the nation and inheritance of Jehovah; it was not Moses, but Jehovah, who had brought it out of Egypt. True, the people were stiffnecked (cf. Deuteronomy 9:13); but let the Lord remember the fathers, the oath given to Abraham, which is expressly mentioned in Exodus 32:13 (see at Deuteronomy 7:8), and not turn to the stiffneckedness of the people (קשׁי equivalent to ערף קשׁה, Deuteronomy 9:13 and Deuteronomy 9:6), and to their wickedness and sin (i.e., not regard them and punish them). The honour of the Lord before the nations was concerned in this (Deuteronomy 9:28). The land whence Israel came out ("the land" equals the people of the land, as in Genesis 10:25, etc., viz., the Egyptians: the word is construed as a collective with a plural verb) must not have occasion to say, that Jehovah had not led His people into the promised land from incapacity or hatred. יכלת מבּלי recalls Numbers 14:16. Just as "inability" would be opposed to the nature of the absolute God, so "hatred" would be opposed to the choice of Israel as the inheritance of Jehovah, which He had brought out of Egypt by His divine and almighty power (cf. Exodus 6:6).