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Deuteronomy 5:23

in Deuteronomy 5

And when you heard the voice out of the darkness while the mountain was blazing with fire, all the heads of your tribes and your elders approached me,

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders;

KJV

And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, (for the mountain did burn with fire,) that ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders;

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This verse in Deuteronomy 5

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
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.

This site's exposition

And it came to pass, when ye heard

on Deuteronomy 5:23-27

The heads of the tribes and the elders come forward and ask Moses to hear for them, go thou near, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say. Exodus 20:18-21 tells the same scene with the people removing and standing afar off; this account names who approached and gives their speech at length, and both stand. What frightened them was that they had heard God and lived, verse 24, and what they fear in verse 25 is hearing him again. Deuteronomy 18:16 quotes the request back in their own words and answers it with the prophet promised at 18:15 and 18:18, which Acts 3:22 and Acts 7:37 apply to Christ.

The record, by era

The Reformation1 voice

A commentator

John Calvin

1509–1564

Commentaries (1554)

proposed

Assuredly, if they had been just and honest judges, it would have been sufficiently notorious, and certain to them, that Moses did not speak of himself, or of his own impulse, but that he was the organ of the Spirit; yet the doctrine of God was scorned by these proud, and perverse, and fretful beings, because it was brought to them by the hands of a mortal man.

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice - See the notes on Exo 20:18, etc.

The words behind it

15 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיְהִ֗יand it was

    vayhiH1961 →3559 times

  • כְּשָׁמְעֲכֶ֤םwhen heard you

    keshameakhemH8085 →1159 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • הַקּוֹל֙the voice

    hakolH6963 →506 times

  • מִתּ֣וֹךְfrom [the] middle of

    mitokhH8432 →418 times

  • הַחֹ֔שֶׁךְthe darkness

    hachoshekhH2822 →

  • וְהָהָ֖רand the mountain

    vehaharH2022 →546 times

  • בֹּעֵ֣ר[was] burning

    boerH1197 →94 times

  • בָּאֵ֑שׁwith <the> fire

    baeshH784 →378 times

  • וַתִּקְרְב֣וּןand you drew near !

    vatikrevunH7126 →280 times

  • אֵלַ֔יto me

    ʾelaiH413 →5510 times

  • כָּל־all

    kol-H3605 →5413 times

  • רָאשֵׁ֥י[the] chiefs of

    rasheiH7218 →599 times

  • שִׁבְטֵיכֶ֖םtribes your

    shivteikhemH7626 →190 times

  • וְזִקְנֵיכֶֽם׃and elders your

    vezikneikhemH2205 →178 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

4 in all, six open

About Deuteronomy

Moses Comes Down from Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Moses Comes Down from Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Deuteronomy: the study guide →Read Deuteronomy 5 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); John Calvin, Commentaries; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Deuteronomy 5 →