Deuteronomy 5
YAHWEH spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the midst of the fire
In this chapter, Moses begins teaching the people of Israel the Law again, so he starts with the Ten Commandments, and reminds the people of what happened when YAHWEH first spoke these words to them on Mt. Sinai.
Bible Passage:
5:1 And Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears this day, that you may learn them, and observe to do them. 2 YAHWEH our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 YAHWEH did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. 4 YAHWEH spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the midst of the fire 5 (I stood between YAHWEH and you at that time, to show you the word of YAHWEH. For you were afraid because of the fire, and did not go up onto the mount), saying,
6 ‘I am YAHWEH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
7 You shall have no other gods before me.
8 You shall not make for yourselves a graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow yourselves down to them, nor serve them; for I, YAHWEH, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me; 10 and showing lovingkindness to thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
11 You shall not take the name of YAHWEH your God in vain. For YAHWEH will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain.
12 Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as YAHWEH your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to YAHWEH your God. In it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates; that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 And you shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and YAHWEH your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore, YAHWEH your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
16 Honor your father and your mother, as YAHWEH your God commanded you; that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you, in the land which YAHWEH your God gives you.
17 You shall not murder.
18 You shall not commit adultery.
19 You shall not steal.
20 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
21 You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.’
22 These words YAHWEH spoke to 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 upon two tablets of stone, and gave them to me. 23 And it came to pass, when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; 24 and you said, ‘Behold, YAHWEH our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God does speak with man, and he lives. 25 Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us, if we hear the voice of YAHWEH our God any more, then we shall die. 26 For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? 27 You go near, and hear all that YAHWEH our God shall say. Then speak to us all that YAHWEH our God shall speak to you; and we will hear it, and do it.’
28 And YAHWEH heard the voice of your words, when you spoke to me; and YAHWEH said to me, ‘I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They have well said all that they have spoken. 29 Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever! 30 Go say to them, “Return you to your tents.” 31 But as for you, stand here by me, and I will speak to you all the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it.’ 32 You shall observe to do therefore as YAHWEH your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 You shall walk in all the way which YAHWEH your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.
Reflection:
God’s longing for the people in verse 29 is really heartbreaking. He is wishing that the people did have the heart within them that truly honored him so that he could bless them and their children. But he sees into the heart of man, and he knows their hearts do not actually fear him in that manner. That is an incredible insight into the heart of YAHWEH, he wants people to be obedient. He is not looking to punish them, his heart desires for them to truly fear him and obey his commandments. But he cannot ignore the character of their heart or their actions and not punish the wickedness he finds there. And this is why discipline is so important for the people of God. Just like Hebrews 12 reminds us, God disciplines those he loves so that we might share in his holiness. Discipline is a sign that we are true children of God, because he disciplines those he loves.
Questions and Answers:
Verse 1: Why is the “H” in “Hear” bold? [Monique, 33]
I love that you have all started to notice every little thing in the text. It’s nice to know that you have an editorial eye, which helps you to be a good reader. This is just a printing error as far as I can tell. There isn’t anything that dwells behind it in the Hebrew and there is no reason to have this letter bold specifically. I’ve also looked at the text in other printings and the letter isn’t bold there or in any other translation. So it must be a simple mistake that someone accidentally made the “H” bold in the document and it was never noticed when it was printed.
Verse 3: What is Moses saying here? [Monique, 33]
Moses is recognizing the specificity of YAHWEH’s connection with this generation of Israel. God could have chosen to do this at any point in history, but he chose them. He could have given the covenant to any generation since the people of Israel had been in Egypt, he could have given the Law to Jacob’s sons if he had chosen to. But it wasn’t with any of their fathers that God chose to make the covenant, it was with them. Moses wants the people to realize the sacredness of what God offered to this generation and to treat that reality with the weight and honor that it deserves.
Verses 17-21: I am only counting 5 commandments, not 10. What are the others? [Elisha, 8]
My guess is you are only seeing the shorter human relationship commandments. You shall not murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, or covet your neighbor’s things. There’s five. Those are the final five commandments, so the other five you are missing were all earlier. Those stand out because they are smaller than the longer paragraph ones up higher in the text. They start at “You shall have no other gods before me.” Then no idols, don’t take YAHWEH’s name in vain, observe the Sabbath, and honor your father and your mother. Those five and the five you saw make a total of ten commandments.
Verse 21: Does covet mean the same thing as desire? [Gwendolyn, 9]
Yes, the Hebrew verb “hamad” just means to desire something. In English though, covet adds a negative connotation that is implied in the commandment. It implies the greedy desire to make it your own and to want it with lustfulness. In the Bible, “hamad” is used with both neutral and negative contexts. The root can be used for the trees being “desirable” in Genesis 2, and the wise man having “desirable” things in his house in Proverbs 21. It is also used to talk about how Eve “desired” to become wise by disobeying God’s command and eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So I would say yes the basic meaning is the same, but covet is used here because it makes it clear in the English that we are talking about desiring after something in an evil way.
Recording of the Passage:
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