Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Moses recounts to the Hebrews their murmurings and sins, especially the worship of the golden calf, whose punishment -- namely the destruction of the nation -- he himself interceded against, and this to the end that they may humble themselves and henceforth guard against such things.
Vulgate Text: Deuteronomy 9:1-29
1. Hear, O Israel: You are crossing the Jordan today, to possess nations very great and stronger than you, immense cities fortified up to heaven, 2. a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you yourself have seen and heard, against whom no one can stand. 3. You shall know therefore today that the Lord your God Himself will cross over before you, a devouring and consuming fire, who will crush them and destroy and scatter them before your face swiftly, as He has spoken to you. 4. Do not say in your heart, when the Lord your God has destroyed them in your sight: "Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land," since it is on account of their impieties that these nations have been destroyed. 5. For it is not because of your righteousness and the uprightness of your heart that you are entering to possess their lands; but because they have acted wickedly, at your coming they have been destroyed, and so that the Lord might fulfill His word, which He promised under oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6. Know therefore that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this excellent land for a possession, since you are a stiff-necked people. 7. Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of Egypt to this place, you have always contended against the Lord. 8. For even at Horeb you provoked Him, and in His anger He would have destroyed you, 9. when I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you: and I remained on the mountain forty days and nights, eating no bread and drinking no water. 10. And the Lord gave me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, containing all the words which He spoke to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire, when the assembly of the people was gathered. 11. And when forty days and as many nights had passed, the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant, 12. and said to me: Arise and go down from here quickly; for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have quickly forsaken the way which you showed them and have made themselves a molten image. 13. And again the Lord said to me: I see that this people is stiff-necked; 14. let Me alone that I may crush them and blot out their name from under heaven, and set you over a nation greater and stronger than this one. 15. And when I came down from the burning mountain, holding the two tablets of the covenant in both hands, 16. and saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God and had made yourselves a molten calf, and had quickly forsaken His way which He had shown you: 17. I cast the tablets from my hands and broke them before your eyes. 18. And I fell down before the Lord as before, for forty days and nights, eating no bread and drinking no water, because of all your sins which you had committed against the Lord, and by which you had provoked Him to anger. 19. For I feared His indignation and wrath, stirred up against you, by which He willed to destroy you. And the Lord heard me this time also. 20. He was also exceedingly angry with Aaron and would have crushed him, and I likewise interceded for him. 21. And your sin which you had committed, that is, the calf, I seized and burned it with fire, and breaking it into pieces and reducing it utterly to dust, I cast it into the torrent that flowed down from the mountain. 22. At the Burning also, and at the Temptation, and at the Graves of Craving, you provoked the Lord; 23. and when He sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying: Go up and possess the land which I have given you, and you despised the command of the Lord your God, and you did not believe Him, nor would you hear His voice; 24. but you were always rebellious from the day I first knew you. 25. And I lay before the Lord forty days and nights, during which I humbly besought Him not to destroy you as He had threatened, 26. and praying I said: O Lord God, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed in Your greatness, whom You brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27. Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: do not look upon the stubbornness of this people, and their impiety and sin; 28. lest the inhabitants of the land from which You brought us out say: The Lord was not able to bring them into the land He promised them, and He hated them; therefore He brought them out to kill them in the wilderness, 29. for they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and Your outstretched arm.
Verse 1: You Are Crossing the Jordan Today
1. YOU ARE CROSSING THE JORDAN TODAY. -- "Today" means now, shortly, that is, within a few weeks; for the Hebrews did not cross the Jordan on that very day, but two months later; for Moses spoke these words on the first day of the eleventh month, as is clear from chapter 1, verse 3. But the Hebrews crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month of the following year, as is clear from Joshua 4:19.
FORTIFIED UP TO HEAVEN -- that is, fortified with the highest walls; it is a hyperbole, like that of the Poet: "A woman's golden cry grazes the stars." With a similar hyperbole Christ says that in the destruction of Jerusalem not a stone will remain upon a stone: for so we commonly speak when we wish to call to mind some terrible and complete destruction; and Sacred Scripture accommodates itself to common speech.
Verse 3: Your God Himself Will Cross Over before You
3. YOUR GOD HIMSELF WILL CROSS OVER BEFORE YOU -- namely devouring and destroying, as follows, your enemies, as effectively and swiftly as fire consumes wood or straw.
Verse 5: The Uprightness of Your Heart
5. THE UPRIGHTNESS (in Hebrew, "rectitude") OF YOUR HEART -- namely of your mind and will.
Verse 6: Since You Are a Stiff-Necked People
6. "Since you are a stiff-necked people" -- meaning: since you are most obstinate, rebellious, and disobedient.
Verse 10: Written with the Finger of God
10. "With the finger of God" -- with His finger. For the Hebrews often use the absolute pronoun in place of the reflexive.
"Assembly" -- the gathering of the people.
Verse 18: I Fell Down before the Lord
18. I FELL DOWN BEFORE THE LORD -- not immediately after breaking the tablets of the law; for first Moses slew 23 thousand of those who worshiped the calf, severely rebuked the people, ground the calf to pieces, etc.; these things are narrated later here, but were done earlier, namely before Moses ascended again to Sinai and fell down there before the Lord. For this happened after all the aforementioned events, namely on the following day, as is clear from Exodus 32 and following.
Some think that Moses fasted three periods of forty days, or three Lenten seasons, before the Lord on Sinai -- namely the first, before he received from God the first tablets of the law, Exodus 24:18; the second, before the second tablets, Exodus 34:28; and a third, intermediate between the two, during which he besought the Lord to spare the people who had worshiped the golden calf, as is said here, verse 25. So think the Hebrews, Hugo the Cardinal, and Cajetan on Exodus chapter 10, Genebrardus, Adrichomius, Marzilla on Deuteronomy chapter 10. Lyranus on Deuteronomy chapter 10, and Abulensis (though he himself embraces the contrary opinion) in his Questions on Exodus chapter 33, Question 3, Dionysius on Exodus chapter 34, and Salianus at the year of the world 2544 also consider it probable. They prove it because Moses in this chapter three times mentions forty days of his fasting, namely in verses 12, 18, and 25; but the forty days of verse 25 are the same as those of verse 18, as is clear to anyone who looks closely. Therefore the more common opinion of the Doctors is that Moses fasted only two periods of forty days, and that accordingly the third period just mentioned is the same as the second. For Moses, in praying for pardon for the people's worship of the calf, was at the same time preparing himself to receive the second tablets of the law, to be communicated to the same penitent people. The reason is that Moses in Exodus, where he narrates these events at length, mentions only two periods of forty days of fasting -- namely the first before the first tablets of the law, Exodus 24:15; and the second before the second tablets, Exodus 34:28. See Abulensis at the passage already cited.
Verse 22: At the Burning Also
22. AT THE BURNING ALSO. -- This place was called "the Burning," where the Hebrews murmured because of the labor of the journey, and so God sent fire upon them, as is told in Numbers 11:1.
AT THE TEMPTATION -- where the Hebrews tempted God by demanding water, at Rephidim, and so the place was called in Hebrew Massa, that is "Temptation," Exodus 17:7; just as the next place was called the Graves of Craving, Numbers 11:14.
Note: There is here a hysteron proteron, or inverted order; for Moses joins these temptations with the one at Horeb, so that by heaping together many of the Hebrews' temptations and murmurings, he may emphasize their stubbornness; and afterward, in verse 25, he returns to the second sojourn of forty days on Mount Horeb or Sinai, which occurred before the Burning, before the Graves of Craving, and before the scouts were sent out.