Deuteronomy 5

Translator Notes

1. Moses assembles the entire nation for a covenant renewal address. The three verbs — 'learn' (lemadtem), 'take care' (ushemartem), 'observe' (la'asotam) — create a progression: understanding, then vigilance, then practice. The covenant is not intuitive — it must be taught, guarded, and performed. This verse frames everything that follows: what you are about to hear, you must internalize and live.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. Moses uses karat berit ('cut a covenant') — the standard Hebrew idiom for establishing a covenant, derived from the ancient practice of cutting animals in a ratification ceremony (see Gen 15:10-18). Deuteronomy uses 'Horeb' for the mountain Exodus calls 'Sinai' — both names refer to the same event. The first-person 'with us' (immanu) prepares for the remarkable claim in v3.

Translator Notes

1. This is one of the most audacious claims in the Torah. The Horeb covenant was made with the previous generation — most of this audience was born afterward. Yet Moses insists: 'not with our ancestors but with us.' The covenant is not inherited history; it is present-tense obligation. Every generation stands at Sinai. The emphatic Hebrew piling — anachnu elleh poh hayyom kullanu chayyim ('we ourselves, these here, today, all of us, living') — drives the point: you, not your grandparents, are the covenant partners.

Translator Notes

1. Panim bepanim ('face to face') — the same phrase used of Moses in Deut 34:10, but here applied to the entire nation. At Horeb, God spoke directly to the people, not only through Moses. This creates a tension with v5 (where Moses stands as mediator), which the narrative resolves by distinguishing the initial direct speech (the Ten Commandments) from subsequent legislation (mediated through Moses). The fire is both terrifying and communicative — God's voice comes from within it.

Translator Notes

1. Moses describes his unique position: 'standing between' (omed bein) God and Israel. He is the mediator — not a barrier but a bridge. The people's fear of the fire prevented them from ascending, so Moses stood in the gap. This parenthetical establishes Moses's authority to restate the Decalogue: he was there, between God and the people, and he transmits God's exact words. The verb lehaggid ('to declare') implies faithful relay, not interpretation.

Translator Notes

1. The preamble is identical to Exodus 20:2. Anokhi YHWH Elohekha ('I am the LORD your God') is not a commandment but the foundation on which all commandments rest. The exodus — 'who brought you out of Egypt' — is the credential. God's authority to command flows from His prior act of deliverance. 'House of slavery' (beit avadim) is the standard Deuteronomic epithet for Egypt. The entire Decalogue hangs on this verse: these are the words of a rescuer to the rescued.

Translator Notes

1. The first commandment: exclusive allegiance. The phrase al-panay ('before My face / in My presence') can mean 'in preference to Me,' 'alongside Me,' or 'in My sight.' All three readings say the same thing: no rival deity may occupy any space that belongs to the LORD. The command does not address whether other gods exist — it addresses Israel's loyalty. This is covenant language: the vassal may serve only one sovereign.

Translator Notes

1. The prohibition covers three cosmic domains — heaven, earth, water — encompassing everything in creation. Nothing created may represent the Creator. The word pesel ('carved image') refers to an object shaped by human hands; temunah ('form, likeness') extends the prohibition to any visual representation. The command protects God's freedom: an image fixes and limits what is infinite and free. Israel's God cannot be contained in human-made forms.

Translator Notes

1. Two verbs — 'bow down' (hishtachaveh, prostration in worship) and 'serve' (ta'avdem, ongoing devotion) — cover both ritual and lifestyle worship of images. El qanna ('zealous/jealous God') — the same term used in Deut 6:15 — describes God's fierce, exclusive passion for Israel's loyalty. 'Visiting iniquity on children' describes the generational consequences of idolatry, not arbitrary punishment of the innocent — the social effects of covenant betrayal cascade through families.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The asymmetry between v9 and v10 is the theological heart of the second commandment: three-to-four generations of consequence versus thousands of generations of chesed. God's disposition tilts overwhelmingly toward steadfast love. The word chesed here is the register term — covenant loyalty, faithful love, mercy that keeps promises. Those who 'love Me and keep My commandments' describes the posture of a faithful covenant partner: love expressed through obedience.

Translator Notes

1. The verb tissa ('take up, carry, bear') suggests not just speaking but carrying God's name — as a representative bears a sovereign's banner. Lashshav ('for emptiness, for worthlessness') goes beyond profanity to include any use of God's name that empties it of weight: false oaths, manipulative prayers, hollow invocations of divine authority. To bear God's name is to represent Him; to do so lashshav is to misrepresent Him. The warning — lo yenaqqeh ('will not hold guiltless, will not acquit') — is one of the strongest negative statements in the Decalogue.

Translator Notes

1. Deuteronomy uses shamor ('guard, keep') where Exodus 20:8 uses zakhor ('remember'). The two are complementary: remember the Sabbath (hold it in mind) and guard it (protect its boundaries). Jewish tradition holds that both words were spoken simultaneously at Sinai — a concept captured in the Sabbath hymn Lekha Dodi. The addition 'as the LORD your God has commanded you' (ka'asher tsivvekha) — absent from Exodus 20 — reminds Israel that this is not a new command but a renewal of an existing one.

Translator Notes

1. The six days of labor are not a concession but a command — work is expected and dignified. The Hebrew melakhah ('work, skilled labor, craft') is the same word used for the work of building the tabernacle (Exod 31:3-5) and for God's creative work in Genesis 2:2. Human labor participates in God's own pattern of purposeful creation followed by rest.

Translator Notes

1. Deuteronomy adds a social justice clause absent from Exodus 20: 'so that your male servant and your female servant may rest just as you do' (lema'an yanuach avdekha va'amatekha kamokha). The Sabbath is not just personal piety — it is mandated rest for the most vulnerable. The word kamokha ('like you, just as you do') asserts the equal dignity of servants before God's rest. The list of those covered is comprehensive: children, servants, animals, and foreigners. No one in Israel's household may be forced to work when God has declared rest.

Translator Notes

1. The most significant difference between Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5: Exodus grounds the Sabbath in creation ('in six days the LORD made heaven and earth... and rested on the seventh day'). Deuteronomy grounds it in liberation ('you were a slave in Egypt'). The two rationales are complementary, not contradictory: creation establishes the pattern; the exodus reveals the purpose. You rest because God rests — and because you know what it means to never rest. Former slaves understand the gift of Sabbath in a way the free-born never can.

Translator Notes

1. Deuteronomy adds a second promise — 'and that it may go well for you' (ulema'an yitav lakh) — absent from Exodus 20:12. The commandment to honor (kabbed, from kavod — 'to make heavy, to give weight to') parents bridges the two halves of the Decalogue: it is both a duty toward God (who commands it) and toward other people (the parents themselves). Paul identifies this as the first commandment with a promise attached (Eph 6:2).

Translator Notes

1. Hebrew versification combines four commandments in a single verse — each only two words in Hebrew: lo tirtsach, lo tin'af, lo tignov, lo ta'aneh. The staccato rhythm is deliberate: these are absolute prohibitions, stated without qualification or explanation. The verb ratsach ('murder') is distinct from other Hebrew killing verbs (harag, hemit, muth) — it specifically denotes unlawful killing. Deuteronomy substitutes ed shav ('worthless/vain testimony') for Exodus 20:16's ed shaqer ('false testimony') — broadening the prohibition from lying to any testimony that lacks substance or integrity.

Translator Notes

1. Deuteronomy makes two changes from Exodus 20:17. First, it separates 'wife' (eshet re'ekha) from the property list, giving her a distinct prohibition with the verb tachamod ('covet') — while the property list uses a different verb, tit'avveh ('crave, desire'). Exodus uses tachamod for both. Second, Deuteronomy adds 'his field' (sadehu) to the property list — reflecting the agricultural reality of settled life in the land, which the Exodus version (delivered before settlement) does not address. The tenth commandment is unique: it legislates internal desire, not external action.

Translator Notes

1. Moses emphasizes three features of the Decalogue's delivery: it was spoken to the entire assembly (not privately to Moses), it came from terrifying theophanic phenomena (fire, cloud, arafel — the same 'deep darkness' of Exod 20:21), and 'He added nothing more' (velo yasaf) — the Ten Words are complete as spoken. God then inscribed them on stone — the only part of the Torah written by God's own hand (or finger, per Exod 31:18). The two tablets are given to Moses as mediator, connecting back to v5.

Translator Notes

1. The people's response to the theophany: they approached Moses, not God. The tribal leaders and elders came as representatives. The darkness (choshekh) and the burning mountain create an overwhelming sensory experience — hearing God's voice from impenetrable darkness while the mountain itself is on fire. The people's retreat to Moses marks the transition from direct divine speech (the Decalogue) to mediated legislation (everything after).

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The people's awe centers on two revelations: they saw God's kavod ('glory') and godlo ('greatness'), and they heard His voice from the fire. Their astonishment is specific: 'God speaks with a human being, and that person lives' (yedabber Elohim et-ha'adam vachai). The expectation was death — to encounter God directly should be fatal. The survival itself is the miracle. The word kavod here is the register term — God's weighty, overwhelming presence made visible.

Translator Notes

1. The people's fear is not irrational — the fire is real and enormous. Their logic is honest: we survived once, but we cannot endure more direct contact with God. The verb tokhleinu ('will consume us') treats the divine fire as a devouring force. Their request (coming in v24) is for Moses to serve as permanent mediator — to hear God's voice for them and relay His words. This is the theological origin of the prophetic office: the people's own request for mediated revelation.

Translator Notes

1. The rhetorical question — 'who among all flesh (kol-basar) has heard the living God (Elohim chayyim) speaking from fire and lived?' — treats Israel's Sinai experience as absolutely unique in human history. The phrase Elohim chayyim ('living God') distinguishes the God of Israel from inert idols: this God speaks, acts, and is dangerously alive. The implied answer is: no one, ever. Israel's survival of direct divine encounter is unprecedented and unrepeatable.

Translator Notes

1. The people commission Moses as permanent mediator: 'You go near... then tell us.' The final words — veshama'nu ve'asinu ('we will listen and obey') — echo the na'aseh venishma of Exodus 24:7, though in reversed order (hear then do, rather than do then hear). The people pledge obedience to mediated revelation, establishing the pattern for all subsequent prophetic communication. Moses becomes the prototype for every prophet who will follow.

Translator Notes

1. God's response is remarkable: He approves the people's request. Hetivu kol-asher dibberu ('they have done well in all they have said') — God agrees that direct divine encounter is too much for mortal flesh and endorses the mediation model. This divine validation of human limitation is theologically significant: God accommodates human weakness not as a concession but as wisdom. The prophetic office — hearing God for the people — is God's own design, not a human invention.

Translator Notes

1. God's lament — mi-yitten ('who will give,' an idiomatic 'if only!') — is one of the most startling verses in the Torah. God wishes for something He apparently does not compel: a heart that would consistently revere Him and obey. The implication is that obedience requires an inner transformation that the law itself cannot produce. Deuteronomy will return to this theme in 30:6 ('the LORD your God will circumcise your heart'). This verse anticipates Jeremiah's new covenant (Jer 31:33) and Ezekiel's heart of flesh (Ezek 36:26).

Translator Notes

1. A practical command after the intense theophany: go home. The people's encounter with God at the mountain is over; normal life resumes. But 'return to your tents' also marks a transition — Moses will now remain with God to receive the rest of the Torah (v28), while the people return to ordinary life. The separation between prophet and people is formalized.

Translator Notes

1. God addresses Moses directly: 'You — stand here beside Me.' While the people return to their tents, Moses stays in God's presence to receive the full body of legislation. The phrase poh amod immadi ('stand here beside Me') is an invitation to sustained intimacy — Moses will occupy the position between God and people that v5 described, not just temporarily but as his permanent role. Everything Moses teaches from here forward — the 'commandment, statutes, and ordinances' — is what he receives in this divine audience.

Translator Notes

1. The command to walk straight — 'not turning right or left' (lo tasuru yamin usmol) — uses a path metaphor that runs throughout Deuteronomy. The Torah is a road; deviation in either direction leads away from God. The phrase will be repeated for Joshua (Josh 1:7) and for the future king (Deut 17:20). It implies that the covenant path is narrow and specific — not a vague disposition but a defined way of life.

Translator Notes

1. The chapter closes with three purpose clauses: 'so that you may live' (tichyun), 'so that it may go well' (vetov lakhem), 'so that you may have long life' (veha'araktem yamim). Obedience and life are linked — not as reward but as natural consequence. The covenant path is the path of life; departure from it leads to diminishment. The phrase 'the entire way' (bekhol-hadderekh) — literally 'in all the road' — frames Torah observance as a comprehensive journey, not a checklist. The closing word — tirashu ('possess,' from yarash) — points forward to the land that awaits.