And at the end of forty days and forty nights the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.
That they might have no pretence to think that God brought them to Canaan for their righteousness, Moses here shows them what a miracle of mercy it was that they had not long ere this been destroyed in the wilderness: "Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the Lord thy God (Deu 9:7); so far from purchasing his favour, thou hast many a time laid...
Commenting on Deuteronomy 9:7-29
And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights,.... The time of Moses's stay in the mount, when it was just up, and not before: that the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant, as in Deu 9:9. Aben Ezra observes, that this shows that the day the tables were given to Moses the calf was made.
Deu 9:7-24 He reminded the people how they had provoked the Lord in the desert, and had shown themselves rebellious against God, from the day of their departure from Egypt till their arrival in the steppes of Moab. את־אשׁר, for אשׁר, is the object to תּשׁכּח (Ewald, §333, a.): “how thou hast provoked.” המרה, generally with את־פּי (cf.
Commenting on Deuteronomy 9:7-24