Deuteronómio 9:25 Comentario: Rashi, Chizkuni, Ramban & Rashbam

ואתנפל וגו׳ AND I FELL DOWN [BEFORE THE LORD … THE FORTY DAYS … WHICH I HAD FALLEN DOWN] — These are the very same forty days mentioned above (v. 18), and it mentions them a second time here, because there is written here (in the next verse) the wording of his prayer, as it is said, “O Lord God, destroy not thy people, etc.”.

ואתנפל לפני ה, “I threw myself down before the Lord;” according to Rashi, these are the same forty days of which Moses had spoken already in verse 18. His proof is that he himself wrote: “the forty days and nights,” i.e. the ones referred to already.

AND I FELL DOWN BEFORE THE ETERNAL. He is stating: “I had to cast myself down in prayer for you forty days and forty nights because of this great sin, for at first G-d said to destroy you, until I prayed to G-d and said ‘[O G-d Eternal], destroy not Thy people and Thine inheritance.’”¹⁵³Verse 26. This was his prayer before he came down from the mountain, and it was because of this prayer that he was answered with And the Eternal repented of the evil which He said He would do unto His people.¹³⁴Ibid., Verse 14. The word “repented” here is an anthropomorphism (Ibn Ezra). He did not mention the prayer of the forty days and forty nights, for the measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.¹⁵⁴Job 11:9. See also Vol. II, p. 561: “for who can write down the many supplications etc.” I have already explained¹⁵⁵Above, at the beginning of Seder Va’ethchanan. the reason why the Divine Names are written both with Aleph Daleth, and Yod Hei [in Verse 26: O G-d Eternal, destroy not Thy people etc.].