Deuteronomy 9:5
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It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the LORD your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
The design of Moses in this chapter is to convince the people of Israel of their utter unworthiness to receive from God those great favours that were now to be conferred upon them, writing this, as it were, in capital letters at the head of their charter, "Not for your sake, be it known unto you," Eze 36:32. I. He assures them of victory over their enemies (Deu 9:1-3). II. He cautions them not to attribute their successes to their own merit, but to God's justice, which was engaged against their enemies, and his faithfulness, which was engaged to their fathers (Deu 9:4-6). III. To make it evident that they had no reason to boast of their own righteousness, he mentions their faults, shows Israel their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins. In general, they had been all along a provoking people (v. 7-24). In particular, 1. In the matter of the golden calf, the story of which he largely relates (Deu 9:8-21). 2. He mentions some other instances of their rebellion (Deu 9:22, Deu 9:23). And, 3. Returns, at Deu 9:25, to speak of the intercession he had made for them at Horeb, to prevent their being ruined for the golden calf.
Open source ↗9:5 to fulfill the oath: In the covenant promises made to the patriarchs, God swore that their descendants would inherit the land of Canaan (Gen 13:14-17; 15:18-21; see Deut 1:8; 8:18).
Open source ↗Cross-references
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He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
And to you and your descendants I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession; and I will be their God.”
I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed,
Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
for all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever.
The LORD also told him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”
And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie.
But I acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.
And you are sons of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers when He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all the families of the earth will be blessed.’
You will show faithfulness to Jacob and loving devotion to Abraham, as You swore to our fathers from the days of old.