9:1–6 The final hortatory section opens with the initial command of the Shema (Deut. 6:4–5; 9:1). This summons is found five times, all in Deuteronomy and first at 5:1, where it introduces the Decalogue. It will be repeated in the instructions for war when Israel enters the land (20:3) and in the ceremonies marking entrance into the land (27:9). The final warning of the prologue to the instruction of this law begins with an echo of the Shema. Israel must love God as the one who has created them to be his people and is giving them the land.

The God of Israel is “a consuming fire, a jealous God” (4:24). This must be interpreted as zeal through which God is impassioned to act on behalf of his people. The mighty inhabitants of Canaan, known as the “sons of the Anakim,” will not be able to stand before Israel (cf. 1:28). Victory over such forces must not lead to Israel’s thinking that she is more righteous than the wicked Canaanites now under judgment (v. 4). The danger is so eminent that the warning must be repeated: it is “not because of your righteousness” (v. 5). Moses also repeats the cause: “because of the wickedness of these nations.” In these references the conquest of Canaan is presented in judicial terms. The conquest of Canaan is not a question of who is right and who is wrong; the Canaanites are indeed guilty and are being punished accordingly (cf. Gen. 15:16), but this does not imply Israel is innocent. The second reference recalls fully the reason for the conquest. It is a fulfillment of the promise to Abraham: “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates” (Gen. 15:18). Entrance into the land is an execution of the oath God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All that can be said of Israel is that they are a stiff-necked people (Deut. 9:6). A zealous God acts on behalf of Israel, but he tolerates no rivals. He is also a consuming fire against Israel.

9:7–12 The need to fear the Lord begins with a double imperative: “Remember and do not forget.” The generation in Moab had not seen the mountain burning with fire, where Moses spent forty days in fasting while receiving the words of the covenant written on tablets of stone. There is no need to recall the details of the image plated with melted gold or the way it was worshiped. The very idea that a holy God could somehow be represented by a manufactured image is an outrage. Fire frequently represents the holiness of God, his absolute separation from the common. Such a God commands trust and fear, two aspects of the same dependence. Israel did not fear God, not even in the presence of the fire on the mountain.

9:13–15 Moses recalls the words of God while he was still on the mountain (v. 14; cf. Ex. 32:10). “Let me alone” anticipates the intervention of Moses, as is fitting for a prophet whose function is intercession for the weak. An opening is created by which appeal may be made to the mercy of God, providing an opportunity for repentance and mitigation of judgment against sin.

9:16–17 In a very deliberate and dramatic act, Moses “took hold of the two tablets and threw them . . . and broke them.” In recalling the incident, Moses stipulates clearly that the tablets of the covenant were shattered to show how the covenant was broken even as it was being revealed. Destruction of the covenant document immediately renders the covenant void.

9:18–21 This is the second of three references to forty days and nights during which Moses prayed for the people. Deuteronomy 9:25–29 reveals the content of his prayer, and 10:10–11 reports God’s favorable response to his prayers. This prayer is located between the shattering of the tablets and the destruction of the idol, but the reference to forty days is not meant to indicate that more than a month elapsed between these events. Exodus tells us of three occasions on which Moses prayed. The first was while he was on the mountain (Ex. 32:11–14), the second after the destruction of the calf and the execution of the guilty (Ex. 32:30–32), and the third when the tablets were written again (Ex. 34:9). The events described in Deuteronomy parallel those in Exodus, though Deuteronomy omits many details. Moses here prayed “as before” (Deut. 9:18), indicating that the forty days of fasting refer to the time he was on the mountain receiving the words of the covenant. The Lord heard Moses at “that time also” (v. 19), again indicating that this prayer is like that of the earlier prayer on the mountain.

The Exodus narrative suggests that Aaron was self-deceived in the making of a calf. Although a calf was used to represent both Egyptian and Canaanite gods, Aaron did not intend it for any of those gods, since he proclaimed a festival in honor of Yahweh (Ex. 32:5–6). It seems the people wanted some representation of Yahweh’s guidance since they did not know what had become of Moses (Ex. 32:1). Perhaps the calf was intended as the pedestal for the invisible presence of Yahweh, much as the cherubs, which were to be constructed for the Most Holy Place to represent a throne (Ex. 25:18–22). Since Moses had not yet descended from the mountain, it may be inferred that Aaron was not aware of these instructions for the representation of the invisible God in the darkness behind the veil. Nevertheless, Aaron was fully culpable for his actions but also received mercy through the intervening prayer of Moses.

The destruction of the idol through burning and grinding indicates that it was a wooden object supported and engraved with metal. The procedure for obliteration was well known in Canaanite culture. Ugaritic texts tell of the termination of a Canaanite god of death called Mot by his adversary Anat: “With a knife she split him, with a sieve she scattered him, with fire she burnt him . . . in the field she sowed him. The birds did eat his flesh, the fowl did consume his limbs.”34 In Exodus 32:20 the people are made to drink the water with the dust of the idol, which might be a trial by ordeal to determine the guilty, much like the trial of a suspected adulteress in Numbers 5:12–28. Deuteronomy makes no mention of such a test. The purpose of the whole procedure is to bring about complete demolition that leaves no trace.

9:22–24 The places of rebellion named in these verses are the first stops of the Israelites following their deliverance from Egypt. Massah was the last stop before arriving at Sinai and was where the people had no water (Ex. 17:1–7). The Taberah and Kibroth-hattaavah incidents took place immediately after leaving Mount Sinai, and they were where the people complained until fire broke out (Num. 11:1–3) and where they lusted for meat (Num. 11:4–15). No journey is indicated between these events; it may be that both happened at the same location. From Mount Sinai the people journeyed to Kadesh-barnea, where they refused to enter the Promised Land (Num. 13:32–14:4), and so that generation died in the wilderness. Rebellion for the Israelites was not incidental but characterized them on each step after they left Egypt.