Deuteronomychapter 10
22 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Deuteronomy Overview.
This chapter completes the story of the broken tablets and turns it into a call to the heart. Moses speaks to a people who know that their parents broke the covenant almost as soon as they received it. He tells them how God renewed it. Then he asks the question the whole law exists to answer. Listen for what God asks of Israel and the reasons He gives. Listen also for how God's care for strangers shapes Israel's own duty. Read it as a summary of the law in a few sentences.
Context
- Who
- The generation born in the wilderness, whose parents had made the calf
- What
- The account of the second tablets and the setting apart of Levi, followed by Moses' summary of what the LORD requires of Israel.
- Where
- The plains of Moab east of the Jordan, recalling Horeb and the wilderness camps of Moserah and Jotbathah.
- When
- The fortieth year after the exodus, about 1406 BC on the traditional dating, or late in the thirteenth century BC on the later dating, recalling the renewal of the covenant at Horeb in the first year after the exodus.
- Why
- To show that God restored the covenant after the golden calf and to call Israel to fear, love and serve Him with the whole heart.
Historical context
The chapter is Moses speaking in the first person, and the events he reports are his own. He had broken the first pair of tablets, and he is the man who went back up the mountain and stayed forty days a second time.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
The speech falls in the fortieth year after the Exodus, at about 1406 BC on the frame this site keeps. The events reported in verses 1 to 11 happened about forty years before the speech.
The place of the speech is the plain east of the Jordan, opposite Jericho. The place of the events is the mountain called Horeb here and Sinai elsewhere, and the wilderness camps named at verses 6 and 7.
The occasion is the covenant put again to a generation that had not stood at the mountain as adults. Chapter 9 has just rehearsed the golden calf, and this chapter reports the mercy that followed it.
A first hearer knew what an ark was for. A chest that held the terms of an agreement stood at the centre of the arrangement, and the book itself orders the law laid beside the ark at 31:26. He also knew that a tribe without land had no living of its own, which is why verse 9 reads as provision rather than as loss.
He knew what circumcision marked, since it had been the sign of the people since Genesis 17. The demand at verse 16 for a circumcised heart landed on a rite he carried in his body.
He knew what a bribe did in a court. A gift to a judge was ordinary practice in the region, so the claim at verse 17 that God accepts none of it was a claim about a court unlike the ones he had seen.
Significance
The people listening were the children of the men who made the calf, and they were being told that the tablets were cut a second time and kept.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
The demand of verse 12 came to them as the whole law in five verbs, and verse 13 said the commandments were for their own good.
The census at verse 22 gave them the arithmetic of the promise. Seventy went down into Egypt, and the crowd standing on the plain was the answer to the oath sworn to Abraham.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The chapter sets a condition on swearing by the divine Name. Rashi on Deuteronomy 10:20:1 reads the sequence of the verse as an order. A person is to fear God, serve him and cleave to him, and only after those qualities are in place may he swear by the Name. Rashi gives the same reading at 6:13:1 in this book. The tradition's caution about oaths rests on that order.
How it is read
The commentary reads the middle of this chapter as an interruption placed on purpose. Rashi on Deuteronomy 10:6:1 asks what the note about the stations has to do with the tablets, and why the order of the stations here reverses the order at Numbers 33:31. He answers that this is reproof as well. When Aaron died and the clouds of glory departed, the people feared war with the king of Arad and turned back eight stages. Rashi on Deuteronomy 10:7:1 gives the reason for the placing. He holds that the death of the righteous is as grievous before God as the day the tablets were broken, citing Leviticus Rabbah 20:12. Rashi on Deuteronomy 10:9:1 explains the Levites' lack of a portion by their service at the altar, which left them no freedom to plough and sow. Rashi on Deuteronomy 10:12:1 reads the question about what God asks as a statement of mercy after the calf. Rashi on Deuteronomy 10:16:1 reads the circumcision of the heart as the removal of the closure and cover on it. Ramban on Deuteronomy 10:5:1 reads the ark of that verse as the one Moses made when he came down, and holds that the tablets stayed in it. The Rashi entries are from corpus entries marked kept, the Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition, public domain. Ramban is from the Chavel translation published by Shilo, CC-BY. Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 10:1:1, 10:3:1, 10:6:1, 10:21:1 and 10:22:1 and Malbim on Deuteronomy 10:2:1 and 10:3:1 are linked entries, cited by ref alone.
What the rabbis say
The rabbis teach that God's power and God's lowliness stand side by side in this chapter. Rashi on Deuteronomy 10:18:1 sets the title of Lord of lords at verse 17 beside the judgment given to the fatherless and the widow at verse 18, citing Megillah 31a. They teach a rule of conduct out of the reason given for loving the stranger. Rashi on Deuteronomy 10:19:1 gives it as a charge against reproaching another for a fault that is also your own, citing Bava Metzia 59b. They teach that there were two arks, one made by Moses and one by Bezalel. Rashi on Deuteronomy 10:1:1 holds that the ark of this chapter went out with Israel to battle. The ark Bezalel made went out only once, in the days of Eli, when the Philistines captured it. He cites Midrash Tanchuma, Eikev 1, Berakhot 55a and Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 6:1. The corpus also holds the Midrash and the Talmud on this chapter as locators without their text. Among them are Bava Batra 14b:6 at verse 2, Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 1:10:4 at verse 6 and Arakhin 11a:10 at verse 8. Others are Berakhot 33b:23 at verse 12, Chagigah 12b:4 at verse 14 and Bamidbar Rabbah 8:2 at verse 18.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Deuteronomy 10:1:1, 10:6:1, 10:7:1, 10:9:1, 10:12:1, 10:16:1, 10:18:1, 10:19:1 and 10:20:1, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, public domain, 1929 to 1934; Ramban, Ramban on Deuteronomy 10:5:1, Commentary on the Torah translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, Shilo, CC-BY, 1971 to 1976; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 10:1:1, 10:3:1, 10:6:1, 10:21:1 and 10:22:1, cited by ref alone, CC-BY-NC; Malbim, Malbim on Deuteronomy 10:2:1 and 10:3:1, cited by ref alone, no English version; Midrash and Talmud, Bava Batra 14b:6, Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 1:10:4, Arakhin 11a:10, Berakhot 33b:23, Chagigah 12b:4 and Bamidbar Rabbah 8:2, cited by ref alone; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/deuteronomy/10.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Two new tables in a wooden ark
Deuteronomy 10:1-3
God writes and Moses quarries: the first tablets were the work and writing of God at Exodus 32:16, and now Moses supplies the stone while the writing stays God's. Moses also makes "an ark of acacia wood" before Bezalel builds the one at Exodus 37:1. Readers divide over whether it was a plain chest for the tablets or the same ark told out of order.
Deuteronomy 10:1
“At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first--It was when God had been pacified through the intercessions of Moses with the people who had so greatly offended Him by the worship of the golden calf.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Deuteronomy 10:1
“These verses are closely connected with the preceding chapter, and state very briefly the results of the intercession of Moses recorded in Deu 9:25-29. The people are reminded that all their blessings and privileges, forfeited by apostasy as soon as bestowed, were only now their own by a new and most unmerited act of grace on the part of God, won from Him by the self-sacrificing mediation of Moses himself Deu 10:10. Deu 10:1-5. The order for making the ark and tabernacle was evidently given before the apostasy of the people (Exo.”
God promises the same words, the words that were on the first tablets, and John Gill reads the exact repetition as showing that the law was God's and that the people's breach had changed nothing in it. John Wesley takes the renewed tablets as proof that God's wrath had turned away. The command to place them in the ark provides for their keeping this time.
Deuteronomy 10:2
And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest,.... (a) Though they were hewn by Moses, the writing on them was the Lord's; and the very same laws, in the same words, without any alteration or variation, were written by him on these as on the former; partly to show the authenticity of them, that they were of God and not Moses, of a divine original and not human; and partly to show the invariableness of them, that no change had been made in them, though they had been broken by…
Moses reports his obedience in the terms of the command, an ark of acacia wood and two tablets like the originals, carried up in his hands as the first pair had been carried down. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown record two views of how the words were divided between the tablets, Josephus giving five commandments to each and the common Jewish and Christian tradition four and six.
Deuteronomy 10:3
“JOSEPHUS says that each of the tables contained five precepts. But the tradition generally received, both among Jewish and Christian writers is, that one table contained four precepts, the other six.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 10:4-5
The Hebrew behind "the Ten Commandments" reads ten words, the phrase of Exodus 34:28 and Deuteronomy 4:13. Moses says "there they have remained", speaking in Moab forty years on. At 1 Kings 8:9 the ark in Solomon's temple holds only the two tablets, while Hebrews 9:4 names the manna and Aaron's rod beside them, and both stand with the difference left visible.
Deuteronomy 10:4
“Ten commandments - See the note on Exo 20:1, etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 10:4
“The written word is as truly the word of God as that which he spoke to his servants the prophets. What care was taken of it. These two tables, thus engraven, were faithfully laid up in the ark.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 10:4
“The orthodox Fathers aptly used this passage against the Arians; because, since Christ is everywhere called God, He is undoubtedly the same Jehovah who declares Himself to be the One God; and this is asserted with the same force respecting the Holy Spirit.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
The account of the tablets ends in obedience, as the LORD had commanded me, and the words once shattered at the foot of the mountain now rest in keeping. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the mention of their place, made in public at the time, as evidence of the historian's truthfulness. Matthew Henry reads the words as Moses handing the law on whole to the next generation.
Deuteronomy 10:5
“That good thing which was committed to him he transmitted to them, and left it pure and entire in their hands; now let them look to it at their peril. Thus we may say to the rising generation, "God has entrusted us with Bibles, sabbaths, sacraments, &c., as tokens of his presence and favour, and there they be; we lodge them with you," 2 Tim. i.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Levi set apart to bear and to bless
Deuteronomy 10:6-7
These verses break the speech with a stretch of wilderness record in the third person. Aaron dies at Moserah here, but on Mount Hor at Numbers 20:28 and 33:38, and Numbers 33:31-33 lists these camps in reverse order. Keil reads Moserah as the district at the foot of Hor, Benjamin Kennicott held the passage out of place, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown cannot account for it here.
Deuteronomy 10:6
“But it is found in the most ancient Hebrew manuscripts, and, believing that all contained in this book was given by inspiration and is entitled to profound respect, we must receive it as it stands, although acknowledging our inability to explain the insertion of these encampment details in this place.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The itinerary ends at Jotbathah, the one stage given a description, a land with streams of water. John Gill reports that Rashi and most others identify Gudgodah with Hor-haggidgad of Numbers 33:32, while Aben Ezra takes it as a general name covering Zalmonah, Punon and Oboth. Aben Ezra also takes Jotbathah for Beer, the well of Numbers 21:16.
Deuteronomy 10:7
“From thence they journeyed unto Gudgodah,.... Which Jarchi takes to be the same with Horhagidgad, and so do most; see Num 33:32, but Aben Ezra says it is not, but is a general name, including Zalmonah, Punon, and Oboth, places the Israelites came to after they removed from Mount Hor, where Aaron died; see Num 33:41. and from Gudgodah to Jotbath, a land of rivers of waters; which the above writer takes to be the same with Beer, the well, Num 21:16 and by this description of it, it was a place where there was much water.”
Deuteronomy 10:8-9
Levi receives three offices in one verse, to carry the ark, to serve before the LORD and to bless in His name, the blessing given them at Numbers 6:23-27. The tribe that drew the sword at Exodus 32:26-28 is handed the ark to carry. Verse 9 pays them by taking their land, since "the LORD is his inheritance", God's word to Aaron at Numbers 18:20.
Deuteronomy 10:8
“Hence the angels are said to stand, 2Chr xviii, 18 Luke i, 19. To bless - The people, by performance of those holy ministrations for the people, and giving those instructions to them, to which God's blessing was promised; and this they did in God's name, that is, by command, and commission from him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
John Wesley explains the LORD is his inheritance in practical terms: the tithes and offerings that belong to God were given to the Levites for their living. The phrase among his brothers keeps Levi one of the tribes while leaving it without a territory, and Joshua 13:14 repeats the arrangement when the land is divided. Matthew Henry counts a settled ministry a special token of God's favour.
Deuteronomy 10:9
“The Lord is his inheritance - That is, the Lord's portion, namely, tithes and offerings, which belong to God, are given by him to the Levites for their subsistence, from generation to generation.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 10:10-11
This picks up the second forty days of 9:18 and answers the prayer of 9:25-29. Moses asked that God would not destroy the people, and the reply comes back in the same terms, the LORD "agreed not to destroy you". The march resumes on a command, and the land is given on the oath to the fathers, with nothing credited to the generation at Sinai.
Deuteronomy 10:10
“Moses here resumes his address, and having made a passing allusion to the principal events in their history, concludes by exhorting them to fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The command Get up repeats God's words at 9:12, where they sent Moses down to a people who had corrupted themselves, and here they send him on ahead of a people spared. John Wesley and Matthew Henry both judge it fit that the one who saved the people by intercession should lead them, and both read Moses here as a type of Christ, who intercedes and holds all power.
Deuteronomy 10:11
“Take thy journey before the people - 'Twas fit that he who had saved them from ruin by his intercession, should have the conduct and command of them. And herein he was a type of Christ, who, as he ever lives to make intercession for us, so has all power in heaven and in earth.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Circumcise your heart; love the stranger
Deuteronomy 10:12-13
"And now" turns the chapter from what God has done to what Israel owes, and the answer is one sentence with five verbs: fear, walk, love, serve and keep. Micah 6:8 asks nearly the same question and answers with three things, justice, mercy and a humble walk. Love stands in the middle as a thing commanded, as at 6:5, and the commandments are "for your own good".
Deuteronomy 10:12
“God seeks from us and entreats us, not because he needs something that we have to give him but, after we have given it to him, he will account that very thing to us for our salvation.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 39.6patristic
The question begun in verse 12 closes here, and its last words give the purpose of the law, for your own good. John Gill reads that good as the promises attached to obedience, entry into Canaan, possession of it and continuance in it. Matthew Henry adds that obedience carries its own honour and pleasure besides its reward.
Deuteronomy 10:13
“To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes,.... Both the ten commands and all others: which I command thee this day for thy good; promises of temporal good things, introduction into the land of Canaan, possession of it, and continuance in it, being made to obedience to them.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 10:13
“Hence it is more evident why He has just declared that there is One God, viz., that He alone may be undividedly worshipped; for unless our minds are fixed on Him alone, religion is torn, as it were, into divers parts, and this is soon followed by a labyrinth of errors. But, first, he calls for reverence, and then for the worship which may testify and demonstrate it.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Deuteronomy 10:13
“Having given up ourselves to his service, we must make his revealed will our rule in every thing, perform all he prescribes, forbear all the forbids, firmly believing that all the statutes he commands us are for our good. Besides the reward of obedience, which will be our unspeakable gain, there are true honour and pleasure in obedience.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 10:14-15
Verse 14 hands God everything, "the heavens, even the highest heavens, and the earth", and Solomon uses the same phrase at 1 Kings 8:27 to say heaven cannot contain Him. Verse 15 narrows that to one family for one reason, that the LORD "set His affection on your fathers and loved them". Deuteronomy 7:7 adds that they were the smallest of peoples, so merit is kept out twice.
Deuteronomy 10:14
“Behold, the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, are the Lord's thy God,.... Made and possessed by him; the airy and starry heaven, the third heaven, which is the heaven of heavens, the seat of the divine Majesty, the habitation of angels and glorified saints: the earth also, with all that therein is; that is his property, and at his disposal, being made by him, and all that is upon it, or contained in it, even whatsoever is on or in the whole terraqueous globe; see Psa 115:15.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 10:14
“Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens - All these words in the original are in the plural number: הן השמים ושמי השמים hen hashshamayim, ushemey hashshamayim; behold the heavens and the heavens of heavens. But what do they mean? To say that the first means the atmosphere, the second the planetary system, and the third the region of the blessed, is saying but very little in the way of explanation.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The verse carries the love given to the fathers down to their descendants after them, even to this day, so the choice made in Abraham still stands over the generation in Moab. Matthew Henry sets verses 14 and 15 side by side: heaven and earth are God's, and yet his portion is his people. He finds the ground of the choice only in what seemed good in God's eyes.
Deuteronomy 10:15
"He had a delight in thy fathers, and therefore chose their seed." Not that there was any thing in them to merit his favour, or to recommend them to it, but so it seemed good in his eyes.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The act is commanded of the people here, and at 30:6 it is promised as God's own work, "The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts". What the stipulations demand the closing chapters undertake to supply, and that is the shape of the whole book. Jeremiah 4:4 repeats the command, Romans 2:29 makes heart circumcision what counts, and Stephen joins both halves of this verse at Acts 7:51.
Deuteronomy 10:16
“Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart--Here he teaches them the true and spiritual meaning of that rite, as was afterwards more strongly urged by Paul (Ro 2:25, 29), and should be applied by us to our baptism, which is "not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God" [1Pe 3:21].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 10:16
“Circumcise - the foreskin of your heart - A plain proof from God himself that this precept pointed out spiritual things, and that it was not the cutting away a part of the flesh that was the object of the Divine commandment, but the purification of the soul, without which all forms and ceremonies are of no avail. Loving God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength, the heart being circumcised to enable them to do it, was, from the beginning, the end, design, and fulfillment of the whole law.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 10:17-19
the Lord your God is God of gods: "God of gods and Lord of lords" returns at Psalm 136:2-3 and rests on Christ at Revelation 17:14 and 19:16. A God "showing no partiality and accepting no bribe" is a judge no one can buy, as Acts 10:34 and Romans 2:11 say. This God defends the fatherless and widow and loves the foreigner, and verse 19, like Leviticus 19:34, makes that Israel's pattern from their years in Egypt.
Deuteronomy 10:17
“God of gods, and Lord of lords - That is, He is the source whence all being and power proceed; every agent is finite but himself; and he can counteract, suspend, or destroy all the actions of all creatures whensoever he pleases. If he determine to save, none can destroy; if he purpose to destroy, none can save. How absolutely necessary to have such a God for our friend! A great God - mighty - האל הגבר hael haggibbor, the mighty God; this is the very title that is given to our blessed Lord and Savior, Isa 9:6.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The judge who accepts no bribe in verse 17 acts here for the three who could offer none, the fatherless, the widow and the foreigner. The verb used for God's care of the foreigner is love, the same verb verse 15 used for his love of the fathers. Matthew Henry counts it God's honour to help the helpless and to succour those whom men are apt to wrong.
The command copies God's own act from verse 18, and John Gill gives both grounds: Israel is to love the stranger because the LORD loves him, and because they know from Egypt what a stranger's life is. Matthew Henry adds God's common providence over all nations, which are made of one blood.
Deuteronomy 10:19
“Love ye therefore the stranger,.... Because the Lord loves him; and another reason follows, particularly binding on the Israelites: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt; and therefore should sympathize with such, and show them compassion, relieve them in distress, and afford them whatever they want, and is in the power of their hands to communicate to them; remembering their own condition in Egypt, and how welcome such a treatment would have been to them then, as well as the kind and careful providence of God towards them at that time.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 10:19
“Two arguments are here urged to enforce this duty:-- (1.) God's common providence, which extends itself to all nations of men, they being all made of one blood.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 10:20-21
Four things are asked, to fear, to serve, to hold fast and to swear, and three were already given at 6:13. "Hold fast" is the addition, and its Hebrew verb is the one Genesis 2:24 uses of a man and his wife. "He is your praise" sets the praise on God, and the evidence is what "your eyes have seen".
Deuteronomy 10:20
“Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God,.... Which includes the whole worship of him, external and internal: him shalt thou serve; heartily and sincerely, according to his revealed will, and him only: and to him shall thou cleave; and not turn aside to follow other gods, and worship them: and swear by his name; and his only, whenever it is necessary to take an oath, which should not be done rashly or on trivial accounts; and never by any creature, but by the living God; see Deu 6:13.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 10:20
“We must adore his majesty, acknowledge his authority, stand in awe of his power, and dread his wrath. This is gospel duty, Rev. xiv. (2.) We must love him, be well pleased that he is, desire that he may be ours, and delight in the contemplation of him and in communion with him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The verse pairs two titles, your praise and your God, and grounds both in wonders the hearers saw. Matthew Henry reads He is your praise two ways, as the God who puts honour on Israel and as the God who expects honour from them. Adam Clarke takes the first sense and asks why people are ashamed to be known as religious when friendship with God is an eternal honour.
Deuteronomy 10:21
“Therefore love him and serve him, because of the relation wherein he stands to thee. He is thy God, a God in covenant with thee, and as such he is thy praise," that is [1.] "He puts honour upon thee; he is the God in whom, all the day long, thou mayest boast that thou knowest him, and art known of him. If he is thy God, he is thy glory." [2.] "He expects honour from thee.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 10:21
“He is thy praise - It is an eternal honor to any soul to be in the friendship of God. Why are people ashamed of being thought religious? Because they know nothing of religion. He who knows his Maker may glory in his God, for without him what has any soul but disgrace, pain, shame, and perdition? How strange is it that those who fear God should be ashamed to own it, while sinners boldly proclaim their relationship to Satan!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Seventy went down and a nation came out, Genesis 46:27 and Exodus 1:5 answered by the promise of the stars at Genesis 15:5. Stephen says seventy-five at Acts 7:14, following the Septuagint of Genesis 46:27, as does a Dead Sea scroll of Exodus, so the difference turns on the text before the speaker. The count is Moses' evidence that the oath to the fathers has held.
Deuteronomy 10:22
“Thy fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons,.... That is, in all; for there were not seventy besides Jacob and the patriarchs his sons, but with them; see Gen 46:26 and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude; as he promised they should be, Gen 15:5.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 10:22
“With threescore and ten persons - And now, from so small a beginning, they were multiplied to more than 600,000 souls; and this indeed in the space of forty years, for the 603,000 which came out of Egypt were at this time all dead but Moses, Joshua, and Caleb. How easily can God increase and multiply, and how easily diminish and bring low! In all things, because of his unlimited power, he can do whatsoever he will; and he will do whatsoever is right.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Spoken address, closing the account of the golden calf and opening the demand that rests on it, as Deuteronomy classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The question put straight to the hearer | Verse 12 turns from what God has done to what Israel owes, and puts it as a question addressed to the nation by name. The published note on these verses reads the words and now as the hinge of the chapter.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 10, the note on verses 12 and 13, which cites Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710. | Deuteronomy 10:12 |
| The five verbs of the answer | The question of verse 12 is answered with five verbs in one sentence, to fear, to walk, to love, to serve and to keep. Love stands in the middle of the list as a thing commanded, and verse 13 adds that the commandments are for Israel's own good.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 10, the note on verses 12 and 13, which sets Micah 6:8 beside the list. | Deuteronomy 10:12, Deuteronomy 10:13 |
| The whole world narrowed to one family | Verse 14 hands God the heavens, the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Verse 15 narrows all of that to one family, and the only ground offered is that the LORD set His affection on the fathers.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 10, the note on verses 14 and 15, which cites John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710. | Deuteronomy 10:14, Deuteronomy 10:15 |
| The rite of the body asked of the heart | Verse 16 takes the mark carried in the flesh since Genesis 17 and asks it of the heart instead. The same act is promised as God's own work at 30:6, so what the law demands here the closing chapters undertake to supply.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 10, the note on verse 16, which cites Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871. | Deuteronomy 10:16, Deuteronomy 30:6 |
| The titles stacked on a judge who takes no bribe | Verse 17 piles the titles up, God of gods, Lord of lords, the great, the mighty and the awesome God, and then turns them toward a courtroom. The God who owns the highest heavens is the God who feeds the fatherless, the widow and the foreigner.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 10, the note on verses 17 to 19, which carries Psalm 136:2-3, Acts 10:34 and Romans 2:11. | Deuteronomy 10:17, Deuteronomy 10:18 |
The New Testament's use
10 more paragraphs on the patterns
Stephen puts both halves of verse 16 together at Acts 7:51 when he calls his hearers stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. Paul makes circumcision of the heart the thing that counts at Romans 2:29, and Jeremiah 4:4 had already repeated the command.
The clause of verse 17 about a God who shows no partiality is carried into the New Testament at Acts 10:34 and Romans 2:11. The titles themselves stand on Christ at Revelation 17:14 and 19:16. Psalm 136:2 and 136:3 take the same pair of titles up in worship.
Verse 22 counts the fathers who went down to Egypt at seventy. Stephen gives the number as seventy-five at Acts 7:14, following the Greek reading of Genesis 46:27. The published note records that a Dead Sea scroll of Exodus carries seventy-five as well, so the difference turns on which text a speaker had in front of him.
Where Aaron died
Verses 6 and 7 break the speech and give a stretch of the wilderness record in the third person. Aaron dies at Moserah here, while Numbers 20:28 and Numbers 33:38 put his death on Mount Hor. Numbers 33:31-33 lists the same camps in the reverse order.
Three positions stand in the published exposition of these verses. Keil and Delitzsch read Moserah as the district at the foot of Hor, which lets both accounts stand without change. Benjamin Kennicott held the passage to be out of its place in the text. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown say plainly that they cannot account for the insertion at this point. The site states no verdict, and the accounts stand in the canon with the difference visible.
The ark made before the ark
Moses makes an ark of acacia wood at verse 3, and Bezalel builds the ark of Exodus 37:1 later. Readers have long divided over whether this is a plain chest made to hold the tablets until the tabernacle stood, or the same ark told out of its order. The published note on verses 1 to 3 carries both readings and settles neither.
What the tablets kept
Moses says of the tablets that there they are, a present tense spoken in Moab forty years on. The account at 1 Kings 8:9 says that when the ark came into Solomon's temple there was nothing in it except the two tablets of stone. Hebrews 9:4 names the golden pot of manna and Aaron's rod that budded along with the tablets. Both stand in the canon and the published note leaves the difference visible.
Keep studying
Places1
Words12
Subjects1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
The Jewish annual reading cycle, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, portion 46; This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 10, the note on verses 12 and 13, which reads the words and now as the turn and This site's published structure of Deuteronomy, src/components/book/guides/deuteronomy/DeuteronomyGuide.tsx, which places the chapter inside the second address at 4:44 to 26:19.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.