Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 9:17
And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes.
17. Vivid variation and expansion of Exo 32:19 b: and Moses’ anger waxed hot and he cast the tables out of his hands and brake them beneath the mount.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Not by an unbridled passion, but in zeal for Gods honour, and by the direction of Gods Spirit, to signify to the people, that the covenant between God and them contained in those tables was broken and made void, and they were now quite cast out of Gods favour, and could expect nothing from him but fiery indignation and severe justice. See Poole “Exo 32:19“.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17. I took the two tables, . . . andbroke them before your eyesnot in the heat of intemperatepassion, but in righteous indignation, from zeal to vindicate theunsullied honor of God, and by the suggestion of His Spirit tointimate that the covenant had been broken, and the people excludedfrom the divine favor.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands,…. In wrath and indignation at the sin they were guilty of:
and brake them before your eyes; as an emblem of their breach of them by transgressing them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
17. And I took the two tables, and cast them out Moses here accuses himself of no transgression; he does not, therefore, give us to understand that he was urged to break the tables by the impetuosity of excessive anger; but rather he again repeats what they had deserved, and consequently that he discharged the office of a herald, (391) so as to denounce, not by word of mouth only, but by a solemn rite also, that God’s Covenant was broken and made void by their perfidiousness. For which reason also he cast down and broke the tables before their eyes, in order that being alarmed by so awful a punishment, they might more earnestly betake themselves to the expiation of their sins.
(391) Lat. “Fecialis munere;” alluding doubtless to the custom of the Roman Feciales, in throwing a bloody spear into the territories of others as a declaration of war. See Liv. 1:32.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(17) I . . . brake them before your eyes.This shows that the act was deliberate on Moses part. He did not simply drop the tables in his passion before they reached the camp; he deliberately broke the material covenant in the face of the people, who had broken the covenant itself. When we remember the effect of hastily touching not the tables of the Law themselves, but the mere chest that contained them, in after-times, we may well believe that the breaking of these two tables was an act necessary for the safety of Israel. In Exo. 33:7, we read that Moses placed the temporary tabernacle outside the camp at the same time. The two actions seem to have had the same significance, and to have been done for the same reason.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
17. I took the two tables, and brake them before your eyes This was equivalent to declaring that the covenant which Jehovah had made with them was now broken by their apostasy. Comp. Exo 32:1-17.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Deu 9:17 And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes.
Ver. 17. And cast them. ] See Trapp on “ Exo 32:19 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I took. Compare “Exo 32:19.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
cast them: Moses might have done this through distress and anguish of spirit, on beholding their abominable idolatry and dissolute conduct; or probably he did it emblematically, and perhaps by the direction of God; intimating thereby, that as by this act of his the tables were broken in pieces, on which the Law of God was written, so they, by their present conduct, had made a breach in the covenant, and broken the laws of their Maker and Sovereign. Deu 9:17
Reciprocal: Exo 32:19 – he saw
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 9:17. I brake them before your eyes Not by an unbridled passion, but it zeal for Gods honour, and by the direction of Gods Spirit; to signify to the people that the covenant between God and them, contained in those tables, was broken, and that they were now cast out of Gods favour, and could expect nothing from him but fiery indignation.