So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes.
English Standard Version (ESV)
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Deuteronomy 9:17
What does Deuteronomy 9:17 mean?
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Deuteronomy 9:17
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Moses didn't just drop the tablets in anger; he deliberately shattered the physical representation of God's covenant to powerfully declare that Israel had already broken it through their idolatry. This act wasn't just a display of emotion but a symbolic, Spirit-directed pronouncement of the covenant's annulment and the people's lost favor.
So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes.
English Standard Version (ESV)
Fresh from receiving the Ten Commandments directly from God on Mount Sinai, Moses descends to find the Israelites worshipping a golden calf. In a moment of righteous fury, fueled by God's spirit, he deliberately shatters the stone tablets, symbolizing the people's immediate breach of the covenant they had just made. This dramatic act underscores that their idolatry had broken their relationship with God, demonstrating they deserved His judgment rather than His favor.
Moses' dramatic act of breaking the tablets could easily be seen as a simple outburst of rage. But was there more to it?
When Moses hurled the stone tablets to the ground, shattering them, it wasn't just a moment of uncontrolled anger. The commentaries highlight that this was an act of holy zeal, a deliberate demonstration signifying the gravity of Israel's sin.
A Symbol of a Broken Covenant
This wasn't a rash reaction, but a prophetic action guided by God's Spirit. Moses was visually proclaiming that the covenant relationship between God and Israel, so carefully inscribed on stone, had been irrevocably broken by the people's idolatry. It was a stark, public declaration: their sin had shattered their standing with God.
Those stone tablets held the very words of God's covenant. What did it mean to break them so dramatically?
The Ten Commandments weren't just rules; they were the foundation of the covenant agreement between God and Israel. When Moses broke the tablets, he was enacting a visible representation of the covenant being nullified.
Consequences of Disobedience
This act declared that the people, by worshipping the golden calf, had severed their relationship with God. They had moved from a place of divine favor to one where they could expect 'fiery indignation,' as the commentaries suggest. The broken tablets served as a physical reminder of their spiritual state: fractured and separated from God.
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Understand the original words
luach · Hebrew Noun
The physical tablets of stone upon which the Decalogue (Ten Commandments) was inscribed by the finger of God, representing the terms of the covenant.
This passage describes the same event from a slightly different perspective, highlighting Moses' anger and the immediate visual impact of the broken covenant before the people.
Jeremiah 3:8This verse echoes the theme of covenant unfaithfulness, comparing Israel's rebellion to a wife leaving her husband, much like the people's idolatry broke their covenant with God that Moses symbolically shattered.
Romans 7:4This New Testament passage uses the metaphor of death and marriage to explain how believers, once bound by the Law, are now freed through Christ, offering a theological perspective on the 'death' of the covenant represented by the broken tablets.
Galatians 3:10This verse emphasizes that anyone who relies on the works of the Law is under a curse, powerfully reflecting the consequence of breaking the Law that Moses dramatically illustrated by shattering the stone tablets.
gillDeuteronomy 9:17: "And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes."
And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands,.... In wrath and indignation at the sin they were guilty of: and brake them before your eyes; as an emblem of their breach of them by transgressing them.
ellicottDeuteronomy 9:17: "And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes."
(17) I . . . brake them before your eyes. —This shows that the act was deliberate on Moses’ part. He did not simply drop the tables in his passion before they reached the camp; he deliberately broke the material covenant in the face of the people, who had broken the covenant itself. When we remember the effect of hastily touching not the tables of the Law themselves, but the mere c…
Moses didn't just drop the tablets in anger; he deliberately shattered the physical representation of God's covenant to powerfully declare that Israel had already broken it through their idolatry. This act wasn't just a display of emotion but a symbolic, Spirit-directed pronouncement of the covenant's annulment and the people's lost favor.
Fresh from receiving the Ten Commandments directly from God on Mount Sinai, Moses descends to find the Israelites worshipping a golden calf. In a moment of righteous fury, fueled by God's spirit, he deliberately shatters the stone tablets, symbolizing the people's immediate breach of the covenant they had just made. This dramatic act underscores that their idolatry had broken their relationship with God, demonstrating they deserved His judgment rather than His favor.
Fresh from receiving the Ten Commandments directly from God on Mount Sinai, Moses descends to find the Israelites worshipping a golden calf. In a moment of righteous fury, fueled by God's spirit, he deliberately shatters the stone tablets, symbolizing the people's immediate breach of the covenant they had just made. This dramatic act underscores that their idolatry had broken their relationship with God, demonstrating they deserved His judgment rather than His favor.
"So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes." — Moses didn't just drop the tablets in anger; he deliberately shattered the physical representation of God's covenant to powerfully declare that Israel had already broken it through their idolatry. Th…
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Last reviewed October 2026