9 Thou shalt not bow down H7812 thyself unto them, nor serve H5647 them: for I the LORD H3068 thy God H430 am a jealous H7067 God, H410 visiting H6485 the iniquity H5771 of the fathers H1 upon the children H1121 unto the third H8029 and fourth H7256 generation of them that hate H8130 me,
Thou shalt not make H6213 unto thee any graven image, H6459 or any likeness H8544 of any thing that H834 is in heaven H8064 above, H4605 or that is in the earth H776 beneath, or that is in the water H4325 under the earth: H776 Thou shalt not bow down H7812 thyself to them, nor serve H5647 them: for I the LORD H3068 thy God H430 am a jealous H7067 God, H410 visiting H6485 the iniquity H5771 of the fathers H1 upon the children H1121 unto the third H8029 and fourth H7256 generation of them that hate H8130 me; And shewing H6213 mercy H2617 unto thousands H505 of them that love H157 me, and keep H8104 my commandments. H4687
And I prayed H6419 unto the LORD H3068 my God, H430 and made my confession, H3034 and said, H559 O H577 Lord, H136 the great H1419 and dreadful H3372 God, H410 keeping H8104 the covenant H1285 and mercy H2617 to them that love H157 him, and to them that keep H8104 his commandments; H4687 We have sinned, H2398 and have committed iniquity, H5753 and have done wickedly, H7561 and have rebelled, H4775 even by departing H5493 from thy precepts H4687 and from thy judgments: H4941 Neither have we hearkened H8085 unto thy servants H5650 the prophets, H5030 which spake H1696 in thy name H8034 to our kings, H4428 our princes, H8269 and our fathers, H1 and to all the people H5971 of the land. H776 O Lord, H136 righteousness H6666 belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion H1322 of faces, H6440 as at this day; H3117 to the men H376 of Judah, H3063 and to the inhabitants H3427 of Jerusalem, H3389 and unto all Israel, H3478 that are near, H7138 and that are far off, H7350 through all the countries H776 whither thou hast driven H5080 them, because of their trespass H4604 that they have trespassed H4603 against thee. O Lord, H136 to us belongeth confusion H1322 of face, H6440 to our kings, H4428 to our princes, H8269 and to our fathers, H1 because we have sinned H2398 against thee. To the Lord H136 our God H430 belong mercies H7356 and forgivenesses, H5547 though we have rebelled H4775 against him;
That G3704 upon G1909 you G5209 may come G2064 all G3956 the righteous G1342 blood G129 shed G1632 upon G1909 the earth, G1093 from G575 the blood G129 of righteous G1342 Abel G6 unto G2193 the blood G129 of Zacharias G2197 son G5207 of Barachias, G914 whom G3739 ye slew G5407 between G3342 the temple G3485 and G2532 the altar. G2379 Verily G281 I say G3004 unto you, G5213 All G3956 these things G5023 shall come G2240 upon G1909 this G5026 generation. G1074
As concerning G2596 G3303 the gospel, G2098 they are enemies G2190 for your sakes: G1223 G5209 but G1161 as touching G2596 the election, G1589 they are beloved G27 for G1223 the fathers' G3962 sakes. G1223 For G1063 the gifts G5486 and G2532 calling G2821 of God G2316 are without repentance. G278
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Deuteronomy 5
Commentary on Deuteronomy 5 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
A. The True Essence of the Law and Its Fulfilment
The exposition of the law commences with a repetition of the ten words of the covenant, which were spoken to all Israel directly by the Lord Himself.
Deuteronomy 5:1-5 form the introduction, and point out the importance and great significance of the exposition which follows. Hence, instead of the simple sentence “ And Moses said ,” we have the more formal statement “ And Moses called all Israel, and said to them .” The great significance of the laws and rights about to be set before them, consisted in the fact that they contained the covenant of Jehovah with Israel.
Deuteronomy 5:2-3
“ Jehovah our God made a covenant with us in Horeb; not with our fathers, but with ourselves, who are all of us here alive this day .” The “ fathers” are neither those who died in the wilderness, as Augustine supposed, nor the forefathers in Egypt, as Calvin imagined; but the patriarchs, as in Deuteronomy 4:37. Moses refers to the conclusion of the covenant at Sinai, which was essentially distinct from the covenant at Sinai, which was essentially distinct from the covenant made with Abraham ( Genesis 15:18), though the latter laid the foundation for the Sinaitic covenant. But Moses passed over this, as it was not his intention to trace the historical development of the covenant relation, but simply to impress upon the hearts of the existing generation the significance of its entrance into covenant with the Lord. The generation, it is true, with which God made the covenant at Horeb, had all died out by that time, with the exception of Moses, Joshua, and Caleb, and only lived in the children, who, though in part born in Egypt, were all under twenty years of age at the conclusion of the covenant at Sinai, and therefore were not among the persons with whom the Lord concluded the covenant. But the covenant was made not with the particular individuals who were then alive, but rather with the nation as an organic whole. Hence Moses could with perfect justice identify those who constituted the nation at that time, with those who had entered into covenant with the Lord at Sinai. The separate pronoun ( we ) is added to the pronominal suffix for the sake of emphasis, just as in Genesis 4:26, etc.; and אלּה again is so connected with אנחנוּ , as to include the relative in itself.
Deuteronomy 5:4-5
“ Jehovah talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire ,” i.e., He came as near to you as one person to another. בּפנים פּנים is not perfectly synonymous with פּנים אל פּנים , which is used in Exodus 33:11 with reference to God's speaking to Moses (cf. Deuteronomy 34:10, and Genesis 32:31), and expresses the very confidential relation in which the Lord spoke to Moses as one friend to another; whereas the former simply denotes the directness with which Jehovah spoke to the people. - Before repeating the ten words which the Lord addressed directly to the people, Moses introduces the following remark in Deuteronomy 5:5 - “ I stood between Jehovah and you at that time, to announce to you the word of Jehovah; because ye were afraid of the fire, and went not up into the mount ” - for the purpose of showing the mediatorial position which he occupied between the Lord and the people, not so much at the proclamation of the ten words of the covenant, as in connection with the conclusion of the covenant generally, which alone in fact rendered the conclusion of the covenant possible at all, on account of the alarm of the people at the awful manifestation of the majesty of the Lord. The word of Jehovah, which Moses as mediator had to announce to the people, had reference not to the instructions which preceded the promulgation of the decalogue (Exodus 19:11.), but, as is evident from Deuteronomy 5:22-31, primarily to the further communications which the Lord was about to address to the nation in connection with the conclusion of the covenant, besides the ten words (viz., Exodus 20:18; 22:1-23:33), to which in fact the whole of the Sinaitic legislation really belongs, as being the further development of the covenant laws. The alarm of the people at the fire is more fully described in Deuteronomy 5:25. The word “ saying ” at the end of Deuteronomy 5:5 is dependent upon the word “ talked ” in Deuteronomy 5:4; Deuteronomy 5:5 simply containing a parenthetical remark.
In vv. 6-21, the ten covenant words are repeated from Ex 20, with only a few variations, which have already been discussed in connection with the exposition of the decalogue at Exodus 20:1-14. - In Deuteronomy 5:22-33, Moses expounds still further the short account in Exodus 20:18-21, viz., that after the people had heard the ten covenant words, in their alarm at the awful phenomena in which the Lord revealed His glory, they entreated him to stand between as mediator, that God Himself might not speak to them any further, and that they might not die, and then promised that they would hearken to all that the Lord should speak to him (Exodus 20:23 -31). His purpose in doing so was to link on the exhortation in vv. 32, 33, to keep all the commandments of the Lord and do them, which paves the way for passing to the exposition of the law which follows. “A great voice” (Exodus 20:22) is an adverbial accusative, signifying “ with a great voice” (cf. Ges.
Deuteronomy 5:24-27 contain a rhetorical, and at the same time really a more exact, account of the events described in Exodus 20:18-20 (15-17). ואתּ (Deuteronomy 5:24), a contraction of ואתּה , as in Numbers 11:15 (cf. Ewald , §184, a .). Jehovah's reply to the words of the people (Deuteronomy 5:28-31) is passed over in Ex 20. God approved of what the people said, because it sprang from a consciousness of the unworthiness of any sinner to come into the presence of the holy God; and He added, “ Would that there were always this heart in them to fear Me,” i.e., would that they were always of the same mind to fear Me and keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and their children for ever. He then directed the people to return to their tents, and appointed Moses as the mediator, to whom He would address all the law, that he might teach it to the people (cf. Deuteronomy 4:5). Having been thus entreated by the people to take the office of mediator, and appointed to that office by the Lord, Moses could very well bring his account of these events to a close (Deuteronomy 5:32, Deuteronomy 5:33), by exhorting them to observe carefully all the commandments of the Lord, and not to turn aside to the right hand or to the left, i.e., not to depart in any way from the mode of life pointed out in the commandments (cf. Deuteronomy 17:11, Deuteronomy 17:20; Deuteronomy 28:14; Joshua 1:7, etc.), that it might be well with them, etc. (cf. Deuteronomy 4:40). וטוב , perfect with ו rel. instead of the imperfect.