Deuteronomychapter 5
33 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Deuteronomy Overview.
This chapter opens the second and longest address of the book, and it begins with the ten words given at Horeb. Moses is speaking to people who were children or unborn when the mountain burned. He wants them to hear the covenant as made with them. Listen for the small differences between this telling and the one in Exodus. Listen also for the people's fear at the mountain and for what God says about it. Read it as the foundation on which every law in the chapters that follow is built.
Context
- Who
- Children and grandchildren of the people who stood at the mountain
- What
- The Ten Commandments given a second time, with Moses recalling how the people asked him to stand between them and God at Horeb.
- Where
- The plains of Moab east of the Jordan, recalling the giving of the law at Horeb, the mountain also called Sinai.
- 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 covenant at Horeb about forty years earlier.
- Why
- To bind the covenant made at Horeb on the generation about to enter the land, and to show why Moses speaks the law to them.
Historical context
Moses speaks as the man who stood between the LORD and the people at Horeb, which verse 5 states inside a parenthesis. He is giving the ten words a second time to people who were children when they were first spoken.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The ten words were the core stipulations of the covenant, and the way they were kept follows the practice of the day. In the treaties of that world each party held a full copy of the whole document, so the two stone tablets are most likely two complete copies deposited together rather than a division of the ten across two stones.
A first hearer knew what was unusual in the Sabbath command. Exodus 20:11 grounds the day in creation and verse 15 here grounds it in slavery, and verse 14 extends the rest to the son and daughter, the manservant and maidservant, the ox and the donkey and the foreigner inside the gates. Adam Clarke counts three ends for the day and names the rest of the servants as one of them. A rest day that covered the whole labour force was unknown elsewhere in that world.
A first hearer also knew what honouring father and mother carried. In a society with no written records and no public provision, the old depended on their grown children, and the household was the school where the law was passed on. John Gill reads the ox and the donkey of verse 14 by their work, the one for ploughing and treading out corn and the other for carrying burdens.
The scene at the mountain is given in physical terms, fire, cloud, deep darkness and a voice. The people asked Moses to go up and listen for them because they were sure that hearing God again would kill them. That request is how Israel came to have a mediator, and verse 28 records that God called it well said.
Significance
The line that lands hardest is verse 3, that the covenant was made with all of us who are alive here today. The generation that could have called Horeb their parents' business is told the words are addressed to them.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The Sabbath clause reminded them what kind of God they had. They had been the unpaid labour of an empire, and they were handed a law that protected the people who worked for them.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter gives the Ten Words a second time, and the Sabbath command in it differs by one word from the form at Sinai. Rashi on Deuteronomy 5:12:1 notes that the first giving says remember and this one says observe. His answer is that both words were spoken in one utterance, as one word, and were heard in one hearing, which he takes from the Mekhilta. A Jewish household keeps both senses of the day on that reading, the guarding and the calling to mind. Rashi on Deuteronomy 5:15:1 adds the reason the chapter itself gives for the day. Israel was freed from slavery on the condition of becoming a servant to God and keeping his commandments.
How it is read
The covenant is read here as made with the living rather than with the dead. Rashi on Deuteronomy 5:3:1 reads the verse as saying the covenant was made with the fathers, and with the generation standing there as well. Rashi on Deuteronomy 5:4:1 carries a saying of Rabbi Berechia on the words face to face. Moses tells them he is no agent standing between a seller and a buyer, since the seller himself is speaking to them. Rashi refers that to Pesikta Rabbati 21. Rashi on Deuteronomy 5:5:1 then reads the next verse as Moses describing his own place while he stood between the Lord and the people. On the first command, Rashi on Deuteronomy 5:7:1 reads before me as any place where God is, and that is the entire world, with a second reading of so long as I exist. Rashi on Deuteronomy 5:16:1 holds that the honour of parents had already been commanded at Marah, citing Exodus 15:25 and Sanhedrin 56b. Rashi on Deuteronomy 5:24:1 reads the people's request for Moses to speak in their place as a failure of love. Every quotation above is from a corpus entry marked kept, the Rashi of Rosenbaum and Silbermann, public domain. Ibn Ezra stands across the second half of this chapter as a linked entry, at Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 5:1:1, 5:2:1, 5:14:1, 5:21:1, 5:23:1 and 5:25:1 through 5:30:1. Malbim on Deuteronomy 5:20:1 and 5:22:1 is linked in the same way, and both are cited by ref alone.
What the rabbis say
The rabbis teach that the voice at Horeb did not pause. Rashi on Deuteronomy 5:19:1 gives the Targum's rendering that God did not cease, and the reason given for it. A man cannot say all his words in one breath and must stop, and the tradition holds that God has no such need. Rashi adds a second reading in the same place, that God never again revealed himself with such publicity, and cites Sanhedrin 17a. They teach that remember and observe were one utterance heard at once, which Rashi carries on Deuteronomy 5:12:1 from the Mekhilta. The corpus also holds the Midrash and the Talmud on this chapter as locators without their text. Among them are Avot DeRabbi Natan 13:2 at verse 1, Bamidbar Rabbah 12:4 at verse 4 and Berakhot 5a:22 at verse 7. Others are Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 7:9:2 at verse 9, Bava Kamma 54b:13 at verse 13, Bava Kamma 55a:1 at verse 16 and Avodah Zarah 5a:13 at verse 26.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Deuteronomy 5:3:1, 5:4:1, 5:5:1, 5:7:1, 5:12:1, 5:15:1, 5:16:1, 5:19:1 and 5:24:1, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, public domain, 1929 to 1934; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 5:1:1, 5:2:1, 5:14:1, 5:21:1, 5:23:1 and 5:25:1 to 5:30:1, cited by ref alone, CC-BY-NC; Malbim, Malbim on Deuteronomy 5:20:1 and 5:22:1, cited by ref alone, no English version; Midrash and Talmud, Avot DeRabbi Natan 13:2, Bamidbar Rabbah 12:4, Berakhot 5a:22, Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 7:9:2, Bava Kamma 54b:13, Bava Kamma 55a:1 and Avodah Zarah 5a:13, cited by ref alone; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/deuteronomy/5.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Not with our fathers, but with us
Deuteronomy 5:1-3
Verse 3 says the covenant was made "with all of us who are alive here today" and not "with our fathers," pressing it onto the people standing before Moses. Albert Barnes reads the fathers as the patriarchs, since God did make a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. What the verse denies, on his reading, is that the covenant made at Horeb was made with them.
Deuteronomy 5:1
“And Moses called all Israel, and said - Hear, etc. - 1. God speaks to the people. 2. The people are called to hear what God speaks. 3. To learn what they heard, that they may be thoroughly instructed in the will of God. 4. To keep God’s testimonies ever in mind, and to treasure them up in a believing and upright heart. 5. That they might do them - obey the whole will of God, taking his word for the invariable rule of their conduct. Should not all these points be kept in view by every Christian assembly?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Deuteronomy 5:1
“He refers them to the covenant made with them in Horeb, as that which they must govern themselves by. See the wonderful condescension of divine grace in turning the command into a covenant, that we might be the more strongly bound to obedience by our own consent and the more encouraged in it by the divine promise, both which are supposed in the covenant.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Moses names the law a covenant before he recites a single commandment, and he places it at Horeb, the name Deuteronomy uses for Sinai. John Gill cites Aben Ezra that Horeb and Sinai are one mountain with two summits, and points to Exodus 24:7, where the people answered the book of the covenant with a promise to obey.
Deuteronomy 5:2
“The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Which is Sinai, as Aben Ezra observes; it being the same mountain, only it had two tops, which bore these different names; for certain it is that the decalogue after repeated was given at Sinai, and had the nature and form of a covenant; see Exo 24:7.”
The fighting men who stood at Horeb had died in the wilderness, as 2:14 records, yet Moses counts his hearers as parties to that covenant. John Wesley explains that it was made with the elders in person and with the younger in their parents, who covenanted for them. Eusebius of Caesarea reads the verse as pointing past Sinai to a greater and glorious covenant.
Deuteronomy 5:3
“The “fathers” are, as in Deu 4:37, the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. With them God did indeed make a covenant, but not the particular covenant now in question. The responsibilites of this later covenant, made at Sinai by the nation as a nation, attached in their day and generation to those whom Moses was addressing.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 5:3
“Not with our fathers - Only: but with us, who are all alive - He saith not, that all who made the covenant at Sinai are now alive, but this covenant was made with all that are now alive; which is most true, for it was made with the elders in their persons, and with the rest in their parents, who covenanted for them.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 5:3
“See how distinctly he alludes to this [Mosaic] covenant when he says God did not give the same covenant to their fathers [Abraham and Noah]. For if he had said that absolutely no covenant was given to their fathers it would have been a false statement. For Holy Scripture testifies that a covenant of some kind was given both to Abraham and Noah. And so Moses adds that one "not the same" was given to their fathers. This points to that other greater and glorious covenant, by which all of these were shown forth as friends of God.”
Eusebius of Caesarea · written before 339 · PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 1.6patristic
Deuteronomy 5:4-5
The phrase "face to face" in verse 4 stands beside 4:12 and 4:15, where the people "saw no form" and heard only a voice. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take it as directness of address, with no sight of a form implied. Verse 5 sets Moses "between the LORD and you" because "you were afraid of the fire," the mediation the people ask for in verses 23 to 27.
Deuteronomy 5:4
“The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount--not in a visible and corporeal form, of which there was no trace (De 4:12, 15), but freely, familiarly, and in such a manner that no doubt could be entertained of His presence.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The verse ends with And He said, which hands the recital to God's own words in verse 6. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see Moses here as a type of Christ, the one mediator of 1 Timothy 2:5. John Wesley limits the word Moses declared to the statutes and judgments that followed, since God spoke the Ten Commandments himself.
Deuteronomy 5:5
“Between the Lord and you - As a mediator between you, according to your desire. The word of the Lord - Not the ten commandments, which God himself uttered, but the following statutes and judgments.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The ten words spoken out of the fire
Deuteronomy 5:6-7
The ten words open with a rescue that has already happened, and the commandment follows it. Exodus 20:2 gives the same preface in the same words, so the order is fixed in both accounts, what God did and then what Israel owes. House of bondage returns at 6:12, 8:14, 13:5 and 13:10, each time in a warning about forgetting him or being drawn away after other gods, so the preface becomes a refrain the rest of the book uses.
The first word forbids Israel any other god before the LORD, and it follows directly on the claim of verse 6 that he alone brought them out of slavery. John Wesley turns each commandment in this chapter into questions for the reader's conscience, and his question here is whether one has worshipped God in spirit and in truth.
Deuteronomy 5:7
“There being little said, concerning the spiritual sense of the Ten Commandments, in the notes on the twentieth of Exodus, I think it needful to add a few questions here, which the reader may answer between God and his own soul. Thou shalt have none other gods before me - Hast thou worshipped God in spirit and in truth?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 5:8-11
The second word forbids making an idol and bowing to it, and verse 9 names God "a jealous God" as the reason. The "third and fourth generations" stand against "a thousand generations," so mercy far outreaches the visiting of iniquity. Verse 11 guards the name and leaves its penalty to God, who "will not leave anyone unpunished," with none assigned to a magistrate.
Deuteronomy 5:8
“Thou shalt not make any graven image - Hast thou not formed any gross image of God in thy mind? Hast thou always thought of him as a pure spirit, whom no man hath seen, nor can see? And hast thou worshipped him with thy body, as well as with thy spirit, seeing both of them are God's?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
visiting the iniquity of the fathers: The prohibition names two acts, bowing down and worshipping, so the second word reaches the posture of the body as well as the heart. The visiting of iniquity is bounded by its closing words, of those who hate Me. John Wesley, on verse 8, asks whether the reader has worshipped God with his body as well as with his spirit.
Loving devotion translates the Hebrew hesed, the steadfast loyalty God keeps within his covenant. Those who receive it are those who love Me and keep My commandments, so love and obedience are named together a chapter before 6:5 makes love the first command. Matthew Henry, on verse 1, calls it the condescension of grace that God turned the command into a covenant.
The third word guards the name by which Israel swore and prayed, and in vain means to emptiness, which takes in the false oath that Leviticus 19:12 forbids. John Gill, on verse 6, notes that this chapter gives the commandments in the order and nearly the words of Exodus 20, with a few additions.
Deuteronomy 5:12-14
Exodus 20:8 has "Remember the Sabbath day," while this account has "Observe" and adds "as the LORD your God has commanded you," a clause verse 16 repeats and Exodus lacks both times. John Gill reads it as recalling a duty Israel already knew, citing the manna at Exodus 16:23. Verse 14 closes with a clause Exodus lacks, "so that your manservant and maidservant may rest as you do."
Deuteronomy 5:12
“Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it,.... Or observe it, by setting it apart as a time of natural rest, and for the performance of holy and religious exercises; see Exo 20:8, where the phrase is a little varied, "remember the sabbath day to keep it holy"; it having been instituted before: as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee; not at Sinai only, for the same might then have been observed of all the rest of the commands, but before the giving of the law, at the first of the manna; see Exo 16:23.”
The commandment sets the working week before it sets the rest, so the six days of labour belong to the same command as the seventh. All your work is to be finished within them, which leaves the Sabbath clear. John Gill, on verse 12, reads keeping the day as setting it apart for natural rest and for holy and religious exercises.
The command is addressed to the head of the household, and each one on the list, from son and daughter to the foreigner within your gates, depends on him to be given rest. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown observe that the rest of servants is a reason for the Sabbath different from the memorial of creation given in Exodus 20:8-11.
Deuteronomy 5:14
“Nor thine ox, nor thine ass,.... In Exo 20:10, it is only in general said: nor thy cattle: here by way of illustration and explanation the ox and the ass are particularly mentioned; the one being used in ploughing ground, and treading out the corn, and the other in carrying burdens; and it is added: nor any of thy cattle; as their camels, or whatever else they were wont to use in any kind of service; they were none of them to do any kind of work on the sabbath day.”
Exodus 20:11 grounds the Sabbath in the six days of creation. Verse 15 grounds it in the deliverance, "Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt," and both stand in the canon with neither replacing the other. Adam Clarke holds the two together and reads the rest given to servants and livestock in verse 14 as a third purpose of the day.
Deuteronomy 5:15
“And remember that thou wast a servant - In this and the latter clause of the preceding verse Moses adds another reason why one day in seven should be sanctified, viz., that the servants might rest, and this is urged upon them on the consideration of their having been servants in the land of Egypt. We see therefore that God had three grand ends in view by appointing a Sabbath. 1. To commemorate the creation. 2. To give a due proportion of rest to man and beast.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
This commandment carries two promises here, "so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you," where Exodus 20:12 gives long life alone. Paul calls it "the first commandment with a promise" at Ephesians 6:2 and quotes both promises at 6:3, the fuller Deuteronomy form. The added "as the LORD your God has commanded you" matches verse 12.
Deuteronomy 5:16
“Have ye that are servants done all things as unto Christ? Not with eye-service, but in singleness of heart? Have ye who are masters, behaved as parents to your servants, with all gentleness and affection?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 5:17-20
These four commandments, from "You shall not murder" to "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor," run to a handful of words each and cover life, marriage, property and speech. Jesus recites them to the man who asks about eternal life at Mark 10:19. Paul sums them up at Romans 13:9 in the one decree "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Deuteronomy 5:17
“Thou shalt not kill,.... The following commands begin with the copulative "and", different from the manner in which they are expressed, Exo 20:17 which joins these together, and them with the preceding ones; hence the law is by some said to be one copulative, and may serve to illustrate a passage in Jas 2:10.”
The seventh word protects marriage, and Leviticus 20:10 sets the penalty of death for both parties. Jesus carries it inward at Matthew 5:27-28 to the look of desire. John Wesley asks whether the reader has used every means that scripture and reason suggest against unchastity, and he names watching, fasting and prayer.
Deuteronomy 5:18
“Hast thou used all the means which scripture and reason suggest, to prevent every kind and degree of unchastity? Hast thou laboured, by watching, fasting, and prayer, to possess thy vessel in sanctification and honour?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The eighth word guards what belongs to a neighbour, and the law at Exodus 22:1-4 sets restitution as its remedy. John Wesley grounds it higher, asking the reader to consider that the houses, lands and money he calls his own belong to God, the sole proprietor of heaven and earth.
Deuteronomy 5:19
“Neither shalt thou steal - Have you seriously considered, that these houses, lands, money, or goods, which you are used to call your own, are not your own, but belong to another, even God? Have you ever considered, that God is the sole proprietor of heaven and earth?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The ninth word is framed in the language of the court, where testimony could cost a man his life, and 19:16-19 gives the false witness the penalty he intended for his neighbour. John Wesley applies it to ordinary speech and counts it evil-speaking to repeat another's wrong unless it is needed for God's glory or the good of others.
Deuteronomy 5:20
“If I see a man do an evil thing, and tell it to another, unless from a full and clear conviction, that it is necessary to mention it just then, for the glory of God, the safety or good of some other person, or for the benefit of him that hath done amiss; and unless I then do it only so far, as is necessary to these ends, that is evil-speaking.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The tenth word changes its order: Exodus 20:17 names the house before the wife, and this account names the wife first and adds his "field" to the list. John Gill reads the change as setting the person ahead of property, and the field as landed inheritance such as Isaiah 5:8 says was being swallowed up. Paul cites it at Romans 7:7 as the commandment that showed him sin.
Deuteronomy 5:21
“Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife,.... Here a neighbour's wife is put before his house, different from Exo 20:17 and "his field" is added, which with what follows take in everything that is a man's property; and which is not to be desired or coveted in an unlawful manner by another, and much less should any means be made use of to deprive him of it; but "lust" is the thing intended and prohibited, be it after what it may, which is another man's: see Mat 5:28, of a man's field, see Isa 5:8.”
You speak to us, and we will hear
The words "He added nothing more" mark the end of what the whole nation heard directly, and Albert Barnes reads them as the close of God's speech to the people. After this everything comes through Moses, and Barnes takes the "two tablets of stone" as setting the ten words above the rest of the law. John Calvin stresses the "loud voice" and the witness of the "whole assembly."
Deuteronomy 5:22
“He added no more - i. e., He spoke no more with the great voice directly to the people, but addressed all other communications to them through Moses. This unique and sublime phenomenon, followed up by the inscription of the Ten Words on the two tables by the finger of God, marks not only the holiness of God’s Law in general, but the special eminence and permanent obligation of the Ten Words themselves as compared with the rest of the Mosaic enactments.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 5:22
“He adds, that it was "a great voice," i.e., a voice which had, in an unwonted manner, penetrated far and wide. Nor are the witnesses few, whom he cites, but all that vast multitude, which for the most part would have been more disposed to extinguish the glory of God, unless it had been there made known by manifest proofs.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Deuteronomy 5:22
“That was a dispensation of terror, designed to make the gospel of grace the more welcome, and to be a specimen of the terrors of the judgment-day, Ps. l. What other laws he gave them were sent by Moses, but no more were spoken in the same manner that the ten commandments were. He added no more, therefore we must not add: the law of the Lord is perfect.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 5:23-27
The heads of the tribes and the elders ask Moses to "listen to all that the LORD our God says" and tell them. Exodus 20:18-21 tells the scene with the people standing far off, and this account names who approached. Having heard God and lived, they fear hearing him again, and 18:15-18 answers with the promised prophet that Acts 3:22 and 7:37 apply to Christ.
Deuteronomy 5:23
“These verses contain a much fuller narrative of the events briefly described in Exo 20:18-21. Here it is important to call attention to the fact that it was on the entreaties of the people that Moses had taken on him to be the channel of communication between God and them. God approved Deu 5:28 the request of the people, because it showed a feeling of their own unworthiness to enter into direct communion with God. The terrors of Sinai had done their work; they had awakened the consciousness of sin.”
The elders begin by confessing what they saw, the LORD's glory and greatness, before they voice their fear. John Gill connects that glory to the manner in which the law was given, and to 2 Corinthians 3:7, where Paul speaks of the glory that attended the ministry engraved on stone.
why should we die?: Having survived once, the elders judge that they would not survive a second hearing. John Wesley reads them as saying that God had kept them alive for that occasion and that further speech of that kind would crush them. Matthew Henry notes that God's appearances have been terrible to man since the fall, and that Christ, having taken away sin, invites us to the throne of grace.
Deuteronomy 5:25
“For who ever heard the voice of the living God, as we have, and lived? God's appearances have always been terrible to man, ever since the fall: but Christ, having taken away sin, invites us to come boldly to the throne of grace.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the voice of the living God: The elders call him the living God, and they set Israel apart from all flesh as the one people who heard him and survived. Cyril of Jerusalem reasons from this verse that if hearing God's voice brings death, the sight of God would do so more, and he sees Christ's coming as God tempering his grace to our measure.
Deuteronomy 5:26
“If to hear the voice of God speaking is a cause of death, how will the sight of God not cause death? And why wonder? Even Moses himself says, "I am greatly terrified and trembling." What then? Would you that he who came for our salvation become a minister of destruction because men could not bear him? Or rather that he should temper his grace to our measure?”
Cyril of Jerusalem · written before 386 · Catechetical Lecture 12.13-14patristic
The request ends in a promise, which verse 28 hears and approves and verse 29 answers with a wish for the heart to keep it. Matthew Henry notes that the people trusted Moses to bear what they could not, though a little earlier they had been ready to stone him, as Exodus 17 records.
Deuteronomy 5:28-29
God calls the request good, "They have done well in all that they have spoken," so the fear behind it draws no rebuke. Verse 29 is a wish, "If only they had such a heart," naming the one thing obedience needs and Israel lacked. The command at 10:16 to circumcise the heart and the promise at 30:6 that God will do it both answer this verse.
Deuteronomy 5:28
“Their owning the necessity of a mediator to deal between them and God was well said. Their desire to receive further directions from God by Moses, and their promise to observe what directions should be given them, were well said. And what is well said shall have its praise with God, and should have with us.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The Hebrew opens with an idiom of longing, literally who will give, and Adam Clarke builds on it the argument that the complaint assumes the people were free to receive or refuse such a heart. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note from Jeremiah 32:40 that God can bestow such a heart and has promised it. Matthew Henry reads the wish as God's earnest desire for the welfare of sinners.
Deuteronomy 5:29
“O that there were such a heart in them - Or rather, מי יתן והיה לבבם זה mi yitten vehayah lebabam zeh, Who will give such a heart to them, that they may fear, etc. They refuse to receive such a heart from me; who then can supply it? If they had not been such perfectly free agents as could either use or abuse their liberty, could God have made the complaint or expressed the earnest desire we find in this verse?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 5:29
“Oh, that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me--God can bestow such a heart, and has promised to give it, wherever it is asked (Jer 32:40).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 5:30-31
The people return to their tents while Moses is told, "But you stand here with Me," and the rest of the book runs on that arrangement. Chapters 6 to 26 deliver "all the commandments and statutes and ordinances" that verse 31 promises. They are to be kept "in the land that I am giving them to possess," so the law aims at a settled life.
Deuteronomy 5:30
“Go say to them, get you into your tents again. Which they had left, being brought by Moses, at the direction of God, to the foot of Mount Sinai, to receive the law from his mouth; this being done, they are ordered to return to their tents again, to their families, wives, and children.”
The people return to their tents while Moses remains with God, and what he receives is given for teaching. Matthew Henry sees here the settled arrangement by which God speaks to his people through men like themselves, Moses and the prophets, the apostles and the evangelists. Origen of Alexandria reads the words stand with Me as a call to the righteous to share God's steadiness.
Deuteronomy 5:31
“Blessed is that mind which, surpassing the nature and essence itself, deserves to hear what was said to Moses when he was separated from the people: 'But you stand with me' (Deut. V, 31)!”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Cain and Abel, Book 1, Chapter 2, Section 7patristic
Deuteronomy 5:32-33
The command not "to turn aside to the right or to the left" recurs for the judges at 17:11, the king at 17:20, the nation at 28:14 and Joshua at Joshua 1:7. It pairs with the ban at 4:2 on adding to or taking from the law, which Keil and Delitzsch note is standard in ancient covenant documents. Verse 33 ends on life, prosperity and long days.
Deuteronomy 5:32
“Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God doth command you,.... Observe every precept, as to matter and manner, which the Lord has commanded, and that under a sense of the great obligations laid on them by him, in giving them freely so good a land to possess: you shall not turn to the right hand or to the left; but walk in the way of the commandments of God, and not depart from them at all, but follow the Lord in his own ways fully.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 5:32
“Ye shall observe to do - He who marks not the word of God is never likely to fulfill the will of God. Ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left - The way of truth and righteousness is a right line; a man must walk straight forward who wishes to go to glory; no crooked or devious path ever led to God or happiness.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 5:32
“1 And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them. 2 The L ORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 The L ORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
walk in all the ways: The chapter closes by turning the commandments into a road, and the word all leaves no part of it to the walker's choice. Adam Clarke warns that anyone who keeps the precepts he has little wish to break while living in breach of others sins against God's authority as lawgiver.
Deuteronomy 5:33
“Ye shall walk in all the ways, etc. - God never gave a commandment to man which he did not design that he should obey. He who selects from the Divine testimonies such precepts as he feels but little inclination to transgress, and lives in the breach of others, sins against the grand legislative authority of God, and shall be treated as a rebel.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: The opening of the second address, the covenant stipulations restated, as Deuteronomy classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The ten words in series | Verses 6 to 21 run the commandments one after another, the four short ones at verses 17 to 20 in a handful of words each. John Gill observes that in this chapter they are joined by the copulative and, where Exodus 20:13 to 17 sets them without it, and he reads the law as one connected whole on that ground, with James 2:10 beside it.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Deuteronomy 5:17. | Deuteronomy 5:6, Deuteronomy 5:17, Deuteronomy 5:18, Deuteronomy 5:19, Deuteronomy 5:20 |
| As the LORD your God has commanded you | The clause falls twice in this chapter, at verse 12 on the Sabbath and at verse 16 on the honouring of parents, and in neither place in Exodus 20. John Gill takes it as pointing back to an obligation Israel already knew, and cites the manna at Exodus 16:23 for the Sabbath.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Deuteronomy 5:12. | Deuteronomy 5:12, Deuteronomy 5:16 |
| Three and four generations against a thousand | Verse 9 measures the visiting of iniquity to the third and fourth generation and verse 10 measures the loving devotion to a thousand, so the two clauses answer one another on scales that differ by a great deal. The site's published exposition records that 24:16 later rules that fathers shall not be put to death for the children, and that Ezekiel 18:20 takes the question up for the nation.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 5:8 to 11, The exposition_notes row on Deuteronomy 5:8 to 11, citing Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1866, and John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony, 1563. | Deuteronomy 5:9, Deuteronomy 5:10 |
| The people's speech and God's answer, quoted whole | Verses 24 to 27 give the words the heads of the tribes and the elders spoke, and verses 28 to 31 give God's reply to them. Albert Barnes records that this is a much fuller account of the scene Exodus 20:18 to 21 tells briefly, and that God approved the request because it showed the people's sense of their own unworthiness.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Deuteronomy 5:23. | Deuteronomy 5:24, Deuteronomy 5:27, Deuteronomy 5:28, Deuteronomy 5:29 |
| Desire of the wife, covet of the house | The tenth word changes its order here. Exodus 20:17 names the house first and uses one verb for both, and this account names the wife first, uses one verb of her and another of the house, and adds his field to the list. John Gill reads the change as setting the person ahead of the property, and takes the added field as the landed inheritance Isaiah 5:8 says was being swallowed up.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Deuteronomy 5:21. | Deuteronomy 5:21 |
The two accounts of the ten words
20 more paragraphs on the patterns
The Decalogue stands twice in the canon and the two accounts differ in four places. Both stand, and neither book reconciles them.
The Sabbath. Exodus 20:8 opens with remember and this account opens with keep. Exodus 20:11 grounds the day in the six days of creation and verse 15 here grounds it in the deliverance from Egypt. Adam Clarke holds the two together and counts three ends for the day, to commemorate the creation, to give a due proportion of rest to man and beast, and the rest of the servants that verses 14 and 15 name. Matthew Henry calls this the most considerable variation and reads the deliverance as the ground the Christian day was to remember.
The household list. Verse 14 names the ox and the donkey where Exodus 20:10 says cattle, and John Gill explains the two by their work, the one used in ploughing and treading out corn and the other in carrying burdens. The verse closes with a clause Exodus does not carry, that the manservant and the maidservant may rest as their master does.
The honouring of parents. Two promises hang on the commandment here, length of days and that it may go well, where Exodus 20:12 gives the length of days alone. Paul calls it the first commandment with a promise at Ephesians 6:2 and quotes both halves at Ephesians 6:3, which is the fuller form this chapter carries.
The tenth word. The order and the verbs change, and the field is added, which John Gill reads as setting the person ahead of the property.
Albert Barnes accounts for the differences as free adaptation. Moses adopts the ten words as a ground from which to reprove and exhort and repeats them with a measure of freedom, while both speaker and hearers recognised an authoritative form so familiar that it needed no verbatim reproduction. He observes that Jesus at Mark 10:19 and Paul at Ephesians 6:2 to 3 handle the same material the same way.
The debated readings in this chapter
Face to face. Verse 4 says the LORD spoke with them face to face, and 4:12 and 4:15 say they heard a voice and saw no form. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the phrase as directness of address rather than the sight of a shape, and record that there was no trace of a visible form. Verse 5 puts Moses between the LORD and the people in a parenthesis and gives the reason, their fear of the fire.
What the two tablets were. This site's published historical context row for Deuteronomy 5 reads them by the practice of the treaty documents, where each party kept a full copy, so the two are most likely two complete copies deposited together. The older reading divides the ten across the two stones. The page states no verdict.
How far verse 9 reaches. The visiting of iniquity to the third and fourth generation stands beside 24:16, which forbids Israel's courts to put fathers to death for children, and beside Ezekiel 18:20, which takes the question up for the nation.
The historical value
The chapter records the moment Israel got a mediator, and it records it as the people's own request. Exodus 20:18 to 21 tells the same scene with the people standing far off, and this account names who came forward, the heads of the tribes and the elders, and gives their speech at length.
The request is quoted back to Israel at 18:16 in their own words and is answered there with the prophet promised at 18:15 and 18:18. Acts 3:22 and Acts 7:37 apply that promise to Christ, so a sentence spoken out of fear at a mountain becomes the ground of a New Testament argument.
The New Testament's use
Jesus recites verses 17 to 20 with verse 16 to the man who asks about eternal life at Mark 10:19. Paul gathers the same commandments at Romans 13:9 under the one decree to love your neighbour as yourself.
Paul quotes the fuller Deuteronomy form of the fifth commandment at Ephesians 6:2 and 3 and calls it the first commandment with a promise. He reaches for the tenth at Romans 7:7 as the one that made him aware of coveting.
Hebrews 12:18 looks back at this mountain, burning with fire, in darkness, gloom and storm, and sets it against Zion. 2 Corinthians 3:7 calls the ministry engraved in letters on stone a glory that was fading, which John Gill sets beside the glory the people name at verse 24.
The wish at verse 29
God calls the people's request good, so the fear behind it draws no rebuke. Verse 29 is then a wish, and it names the one thing obedience would need. Adam Clarke renders the Hebrew as a question, who will give such a heart to them, and argues from the verse that the hearers were free agents. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown answer that God can bestow such a heart and has promised to give it.
The command at 10:16 to circumcise the heart and the promise at 30:6 that God will circumcise it both answer this verse, five and twenty five chapters on, and Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:26 carry the same want forward into the prophets.
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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
Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Deuteronomy 5:6; This site's published guide to Deuteronomy, src/components/book/guides/deuteronomy/DeuteronomyGuide.tsx, the section The Second Address: the Law Restated at 4:44 to 26:19, marked stipulations, which opens with the Decalogue re-given to the new generation and This site's published historical context row for Deuteronomy 5, scripts/data/historical-context/ch3-deu-jos.mjs, the row for Deuteronomy 5, reading the two tablets by the practice of treaty documents.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures; Eusebius of Caesarea, Proof of the Gospel; 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; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, Against Celsus.