And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the LORD your God, and had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the LORD had commanded you.

DEUTERONOMY 9:16KJV
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Deuteronomy 9:16 (KJV)

What does Deuteronomy 9:16 mean?

Deuteronomy 9:16 shows Moses confronting Israel’s wrongdoing after he came down from the mountain. The people had made a calf from metal, breaking the LORD’s command. Moses stresses how quickly they abandoned the path God had given them.

Moses is speaking to the Israelites as he recalls what he saw. The phrase “turned aside” pictures a departure from a road: the people had moved away from the conduct God had commanded. After carrying the stone tablets down the mountain in verse 15, Moses saw the calf for himself.

The Hebrew behind Deuteronomy 9:16

  • “molten” — מַסֵּכָה (massekhah): This word refers to something cast from metal. It points to how the calf was made: metal was shaped into an image.
  • “quickly” — מַהֵר (maher): This word carries the sense of doing something soon or rapidly. It highlights the short time between God’s command and the people’s departure from it.
  • “way” — דֶּרֶךְ (derekh): This word can mean a road or path. Here it pictures the course of conduct God had commanded, rather than a physical route.

Why Deuteronomy 9:16 matters

  • Moses presents the calf as an act of disobedience against God, not merely as an object the people made. He says they had “sinned against the LORD your God” by making it.
  • The event had a direct connection to the commands on the tablets. In the next verse, Moses says he threw down and broke the tablets before the people’s eyes (Deuteronomy 9:17).

Where else these words appear

“quickly” Hebrew H4118 · used in 17 verses

  • Exodus 32:8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
  • Deuteronomy 9:12 And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.
  • Psalms 69:17 And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.

“molten” Hebrew H4541 · used in 28 verses

  • Exodus 32:4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
  • Judges 18:14 Then answered the five men that went to spy out the country of Laish, and said unto their brethren, Do ye know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, and a molten image? now therefore consider what ye have to do.
  • Psalms 106:19 They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image.

“calf” Hebrew H5695 · used in 35 verses

  • Exodus 32:4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
  • 1 Kings 12:28 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
  • Isaiah 27:10 Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.