Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.

DEUTERONOMY 9:14KJV
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Deuteronomy 9:14 (KJV)

What does Deuteronomy 9:14 mean?

Deuteronomy 9:14 describes God’s response to Israel’s rebellion at Mount Sinai. God tells Moses to stand aside while he destroys the people, and offers to make Moses the beginning of a nation even larger and stronger than Israel.

Moses is recounting what God said to him after the people made a metal image of a calf and worshipped it. The phrase “blot out their name from under heaven” pictures the removal of the people’s identity and memory from the earth.

The Hebrew behind Deuteronomy 9:14

  • “alone” — רָפָה (raphah): This word can carry the sense of letting go or leaving someone to act. Here, “Let me alone” addresses Moses as someone who might stand in the way of the announced destruction.
  • “blot out” — מָחָה (machah): This word can mean to wipe or erase. Joined with “name,” it gives the picture of a people’s identity being wiped away.

Why Deuteronomy 9:14 matters

  • The verse places Moses in a decisive position between God and the people. God addresses him directly, and Moses later describes how he pleaded for the people in verses 18–19.
  • The offer to make a nation from Moses makes the threat to Israel especially sharp. God speaks of a future people who would be “mightier and greater,” while saying that Israel’s name could be erased.
  • The surrounding passage connects Moses’ plea with God’s earlier promises. In verse 27, Moses asks God to remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as he pleads for the people.

Where else these words appear

“of” Hebrew H854 · used in 24 verses

  • Genesis 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
  • Genesis 19:13 For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it.
  • Exodus 39:3 And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work.

“mightier” Hebrew H6099 · used in 31 verses

  • Genesis 18:18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
  • Joshua 23:9 For the LORD hath driven out from before you great nations and strong: but as for you, no man hath been able to stand before you unto this day.
  • Daniel 8:24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.

“out” Hebrew H4229 · used in 32 verses

  • Genesis 6:7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
  • Deuteronomy 29:20 The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
  • Psalms 109:13 Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

“alone” Hebrew H7503 · used in 45 verses

  • Exodus 4:26 So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.
  • 2 Samuel 4:1 And when Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands were feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled.
  • Proverbs 4:13 Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.