Bible Commentaries
Deuteronomy 5

Verses 1-33

The Repetition of the Decalogue

This chapter repeats the Law of the Ten Commandments given on Mt. Sinai with the circumstances of its delivery: see Exodus 20, and the notes there.

3. Their fathers who had heard the Law given at Sinai were actually dead. But as the covenant had been made not with individuals, but with the nation of Israel, Moses could say that it was made not with our fathers, but with us. The expression is really equivalent to ’not only with our fathers but also with ourselves.’

6. This is the ground on which obedience to the Law is due. God’s free grace is the first fact in the covenant. On the Ten Commandments see on Exodus 20:1-17.

14, 15. In Exodus the obligation to keep the sabbath is made to rest on the fact of the divine creation of the world; here it rests on the divine redemption of Israel. In the former case the reason annexed to the commandment is universal, in the latter national. In both cases the commandment is the same, and it is possible that the original form of the Decalogue gave only the commandment without any reason attached to it: see Exodus 23:12 and on Exodus 20:10, Exodus 20:11.

23-33. Cp. Exodus 20:18-21.

24. And he liveth] This is a special token of the divine favour, because usually man cannot bear the immediate revelation of the divine majesty: cp. Exodus 33:20; Exodus 19:21; Exodus 20:19; Judges 6:23; Judges 13:22; Isaiah 6:2, Isaiah 6:5, and on Exodus 24:9-11;

29. The proper attitude of man towards God is not only one of reverence but of obedience.

31. Man needs, and God Himself provides, a Mediator.