Deuteronomy 9:10

And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) Two tables of stone.—Of these tables it is said in Exodus 32:16, “the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.”

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 9:10. With the finger of God — Immediately and miraculously, which was done not only to procure the greater reverence to the law, but also to signify that it is the work of God alone to write this law upon the table of men’s hearts. In the day of the assembly — That is, when the people were gathered by God’s command to the bottom of mount Sinai, to hear and receive God’s ten commandments from his own mouth.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:7-29 That the Israelites might have no pretence to think that God brought them to Canaan for their righteousness, Moses shows what a miracle of mercy it was, that they had not been destroyed in the wilderness. It is good for us often to remember against ourselves, with sorrow and shame, our former sins; that we may see how much we are indebted to free grace, and may humbly own that we never merited any thing but wrath and the curse at God's hand. For so strong is our propensity to pride, that it will creep in under one pretence or another. We are ready to fancy that our righteousness has got for us the special favour of the Lord, though in reality our wickedness is more plain than our weakness. But when the secret history of every man's life shall be brought forth at the day of judgment, all the world will be proved guilty before God. At present, One pleads for us before the mercy-seat, who not only fasted, but died upon the cross for our sins; through whom we may approach, though self-condemned sinners, and beseech for undeserved mercy and for eternal life, as the gift of God in Him. Let us refer all the victory, all the glory, and all the praise, to Him who alone bringeth salvation.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

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

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Immediately and miraculously, which was done not only to procure the greater reverence to the law, but also to signify that it was the work of God alone to write this law upon the tables of men’s hearts. See Jeremiah 31:33 2 Corinthians 3:3,7.

In the day of the assembly, i.e. when the people were gathered by God’s command to the bottom of Mount Sinai, to hear and receive God’s ten commandments from his own mouth.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone, written with the finger of God,.... The letters were of his devising and forming, the writing was his, the engraving them on the stones was his own doing; and which was done to show its original, to stamp a divine authority on it, and to denote its duration; see Exodus 31:18.

and on them was written according to all the words which the Lord spake with you in the mount; the ten commands, exactly in the same order, and in the same words, without any variation, as they were delivered to them with an articulate voice in their hearing; but now were written in this manner, that they might be read by them, and remain with them, see Exodus 34:28.

out the midst of the fire; in which the Lord was, and whence he spake:

in the day of the assembly; when all the people of Israel were gathered together at the foot of the mount; see Exodus 19:17.

Geneva Study Bible

And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the {g} finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

(g) That is, miraculously, and not by the hand of men.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. tables of stone written with the finger of God] Taken exactly from. Exodus 31:18 b, E: the divine name is not changed to the usual the Lord thy God. With His own voice, face to face, God spake the words of the covenant (Deuteronomy 4:12 f., Deuteronomy 5:4) and now with His own finger wrote them. Thus by a double metaphor is the directly divine origin and supreme sanctity of the Ten Words emphasised.

all the words, which the Lord had spoken] Exodus 24:3. E.

out of the midst of the fire] Deuteronomy 4:12, Deuteronomy 5:4; Deuteronomy 5:22.

day of the assembly] Deuteronomy 10:4, Deuteronomy 18:16. See note on Deuteronomy 5:22.

The verse seems superfluous after 9 and before 11, and is regarded as a later intrusion (Steuern., Berth.). Note that—

11 follows naturally on Deuteronomy 9:9.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - The day of the assembly; the day when the people, called out by Moses, were gathered together in the plain at the foot of Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:17). Deuteronomy 9:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

When Moses went up the mountain, and stayed there forty days, entirely occupied with the holiest things, so that he neither ate nor drank, having gone up to receive the tables of the law, upon which the words were written with the finger of God, just as the Lord had spoken them directly to the people out of the midst of the fire, - at a time, therefore, when the Israelites should also have been meditating deeply upon the words of the Lord which they had but just heard, - they acted so corruptly, as to depart at once from the way that had been pointed out, and make themselves a molten image (comp. Exodus 31:18-32:6, with chs. Deuteronomy 24:12-31:17). "The day of the assembly," i.e., the day on which Moses gathered the people together before God (Deuteronomy 4:10), calling them out of the camp, and bringing them to the Lord to the foot of Sinai (Exodus 19:17). The construction of the sentence is this: the apodosis to "when I was gone up" commences with "the Lord delivered unto me," in Deuteronomy 9:10; and the clause, "then I abode," etc., in Deuteronomy 9:9, is a parenthesis. - The words of God in Deuteronomy 9:12-14 are taken almost word for word from Exodus 32:7-10. הרף (Deuteronomy 9:14), the imperative Hiphil of רפה, desist from me, that I may destroy them, for לּי הנּיחה, in Exodus 32:10. But notwithstanding the apostasy of the people, the Lord gave Moses the tables of the covenant, not only that they might be a testimony of His holiness before the faithless nation, but still more as a testimony that, in spite of His resolution to destroy the rebellious nation, without leaving a trace behind, He would still uphold His covenant, and make of Moses a greater people. There is nothing at all to favour the opinion, that handing over the tables (Deuteronomy 9:11) was the first beginning of the manifestations of divine wrath (Schultz); and this is also at variance with the preterite, נתן, in Deuteronomy 9:11, from which it is very evident that the Lord had already given the tables to Moses, when He commanded him to go down quickly, not only to declare to the people the holiness of God, but to stop the apostasy, and by his mediatorial intervention to avert from the people the execution of the divine purpose. It is true, that when Moses came down and saw the idolatrous conduct of the people, he threw the two tables from his hands, and broke them in pieces before the eyes of the people (Deuteronomy 9:15-17; comp. with Exodus 32:15-19), as a practical declaration that the covenant of the Lord was broken by their apostasy. But this act of Moses furnishes no proof that the Lord had given him the tables to declare His holy wrath in the sight of the people. And even if the tables of the covenant were "in a certain sense the indictments in Moses' hands, accusing them of a capital crime" (Schultz), this was not the purpose for which God had given them to him. For if it had been, Moses would not have broken them in pieces, destroying, as it were, the indictments themselves, before the people had been tried. Moses passed over the fact, that even before coming down from the mountain he endeavoured to mitigate the wrath of the Lord by his intercession (Exodus 32:11-14), and simply mentioned (in Deuteronomy 9:15-17) how, as soon as he came down, he charged the people with their great sin; and then, in Deuteronomy 9:18, Deuteronomy 9:19, how he spent another forty days upon the mountain fasting before God, on account of this sin, until he had averted the destructive wrath of the Lord from Israel, through his earnest intercession. The forty days that Moses spent upon the mountain, "as at the first," in prayer before the Lord, are the days mentioned in Exodus 34:28 as having been passed upon Sinai for the perfect restoration of the covenant, and for the purpose of procuring the second tables (cf. Deuteronomy 10:1.).