Deuteronomy 9:8

Deu 9:8 Also in Horeb ye provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you to have destroyed you.

Ver. 8. The Lord was angry.] God is said to be angry when he doeth as an angry man useth to do: viz., (1.) Chide; (2.) Smite: revenge being the next effect of anger.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu 9:8. Also in Horeb ye provoked the Lord — Rather, even in Horeb; for there is an emphasis in this. Even when your miraculous deliverance out of Egypt was fresh in your memories; when God had but newly manifested himself to you, and delivered you the law in so stupendous and awful a manner, and with such visible displays of his divine majesty; when he had just taken you into covenant with himself, and was actually conferring still further mercies upon you.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Also in Horeb--rather, "even in Horeb," where it might have been expected they would have acted otherwise.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(8) Also.—Even in Horeb. In the very sight of the mountain of the Law, the Law was flagrantly violated.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. Even (or particularly) in Horeb] The most notorious rebellion of all. Here begins the recital of the sin of the golden calf as in Exodus 32-34, JE.

provoked, etc.] Deu_9:7.

was angry] See on Deu_1:37.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Also in Horeb ye provoked the Lord to wrath,.... The word "also" shows that they had provoked him before, but this instance is given as a very notorious one; here they made the golden calf and worshipped it, while Moses was on the mount with God, receiving instructions from him for their good. Near to this place a rock had been smitten for them, from whence flowed water for the refreshment of them and their cattle; here the Lord appeared in the glory of his majesty to them, and from hence, for it is the same mount with Sinai, the law was given to them in such an awful and terrible manner; and yet none of these things were sufficient to restrain them from provoking the Lord to wrath by their sins:

so that the Lord was angry with you, to have destroyed you; so very angry with them, and so justly, that he proposed to Moses to destroy them, and make of him a great nation in their stead, Exo 32:10.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Also in Horeb - Rather, “even in Horeb.” The time and circumstances made the apostasy at Horeb particularly inexcusable.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Would, if He had not been appeased by earnest supplication, as [in] ver. 20.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

When your miraculous deliverance out of Egypt was fresh in memory; when God had but newly manifested himself to you in so stupendous and dreadful a manner, and had taken you into covenant with himself; when God was actually conferring further mercies upon you.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. Also in Horeb ye provoked the Lord — How startling the indictment against them! How emphatic the condemnation! Their sins are brought out in bold relief, with the background of Horeb, the mountain of God, to deepen the effect. The mountain was radiant with the august splendour of the divine presence, the words of the law were echoing from the craggy granite peaks; the people are turning back in their hearts to the land of their taskmasters. At the very time Moses is in communion with Jehovah, while for forty days and forty nights he neither eats bread nor drinks water, the people, instead of fasting and praying and worshipping, turn to idolatrous rites.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 8-22. The sin at Horeb.

Moses dwells on this sin, alike as memorable in itself, and as illustrating the proposition that the people had again and again forfeited their covenant standing by their acts of disobedience.

I THE ENORMITY OF THIS SIN.

1. It was a sin committed immediately after solemn covenant with God (ver. 9). The transactions recorded in Exo_24:3-9 were not yet forty days old. The people had literally heard God speaking to them. They had acknowledged the solemnity of the situation by entreating Moses to act as mediator. They had formally, and under awful impressions of God"s majesty, pledged themselves to life-long obedience. Yet within that brief space of time they broke through all restraints, and violated the main stipulation of their agreement, by setting up and worshipping the golden calf. A transgression showing greater levity, temerity, deadness to spiritual feeling, and perversity of disposition, it would be difficult to conceive. Perhaps the case is not a solitary one. Can none remember instances of solemn vows, of sacred engagements, of deep impressions, almost as soon forgotten, almost as recklessly followed up by acts of flagrant transgression?

2. It was a sin committed while Moses was in the mount, transacting for them (vers. 9-12). Moses, for an obvious reason, rehearses the circumstances of his stay in the mount, and of his interview with God. He had gone to receive the tables of the Law. He recalls, as in striking contrast with the levity of the multitudes below, his rapt communion of forty days and nights. Sin needs a background to bring it out in its full enormity. That background is furnished in these details. The people are pointed to the tables as the rule of the obedience they had pledged themselves to render. They are reminded that their sin was perpetrated at a time when God was yet transacting with them, and when their minds ought to have been filled with very different thoughts. Do we reflect on the aggravation given to our own sins by the presence of our Mediator in the heavenly mount, and by the ceaseless and holy work he is there conducting on our behalf?

3. It was a sin of daring enormity in itself. The making of the golden calf, after what had happened, can only be characterized as an act of shocking impiety. The worship was doubtless accompanied by profane and lewd revelings. This under the eye of their God and King.

II THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE SIN.

1. It involved the forfeiture of covenant privilege, signified by the breaking of the tables of the Law (ver. 17). This was the first light in which the Israelites had to view it. It refuted their idea that they got the land in virtue of their righteousness. True, the sin had been committed by the preceding generation, but the covenant being national, and laying obligations on all, involved them as well as their parents in the consequences of disobedience.

If they stood still in covenant relation, it was of God"s mercy which had restored them. For a time that covenant was actually broken. Nor, if that argument was necessary, had they failed in their own persons to renew the deed of apostasy (ver. 22). Every believer feels that his standing before God is likewise of pure grace. Were sins imputed to him to his condemnation, he could not stand a single hour.

2. It provoked God to hot displeasure (vers. 19, 20). As all daring and presumptuous sin does.

3. But for Mosesintercession, it would have involved them in destruction (vers. 14, 19, 20). This was no mere drama acted between God and Moses, but a most real wrath, averted by the real and earnest intercession of a godly man. Had Moses not interceded, the people would have been destroyed. Not that we are to conceive God as swayed by human passions, or as requiring to be soothed down by human entreaty. But sin does awaken his displeasure. There burns in his nature a holy wrath against it, which, when he decrees to consume his adversaries, is not to be laid aside save on such ground as we have here. It is the existence of wrath in God which gives reality to propitiation and meaning to his mercy. Learn:

1. How evil sin is in the sight of God.

2. How fearful in its results to the transgressor.

3. How mighty intercession is in procuring pardon. J.O.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In Horeb - When your miraculous deliverance out of Egypt was fresh in memory; when God had but newly manifested himself to you in so stupendous and dreadful a manner, and had taken you into covenant with himself, when God was actually conferring farther mercies upon you.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

ALSO IN HOREB YE MADE THE ETERNAL ANGRY. Before even beginning to explain to them the Torah, he [Moses] reproved them for the sins which caused them evil and which were not forgiven: he mentioned the affairs of the spies, and the waters of Meribah. Afterwards he explained the Ten Commandments and the section of the Unity of G-d [Sh’ma], and he admonished them with many exhortations against idolatry; he cautioned them concerning the commandments in general, and he said that they [the commandments] are all good and, in consequence of [observing them] all the good will come to them, and then he commences to explain the individual commandments. But before he mentioned any of the commandments specifically he returned to reprove them and to visit upon them all their iniquities which they had committed from the time they received the Torah and henceforth. But the complaints they made before the Giving of the Torah — when they were rebellious at the sea, even at the Red Sea, and the people murmured at Marah, and in Alush — he did not mention to them, because, from the time that they received the Torah, they were more obligated to hearken to the voice of G-d Who made a covenant with them. Therefore, he began here, Also in Horeb ye made the Eternal angry, and he mentioned to them the affair of the [golden] calf, which I have already explained.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.