Open an explanation beneath verses with notes. Your notes and highlights stay on this device.
Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, “Hear, Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears today, that you may learn them, and observe to do them.”
Verse 1. All Israel: not one was wanting, Calmet. 29:10. God enabled all to hear the words of their lawgiver, ( Menochius.) by an evident miracle. Jansen. Calmet.
The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.
The LORD didn’t make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive today.
Verse 3. Fathers, the ancient patriarchs, who were not favoured in such a signal manner. Menochius.—Though many of those who had heard the words of God at Horeb, were dead, and had not enjoyed the full benefit of the covenant, some still remained, and the children of the deceased were about to enter the land which had been there promised. Bible.—God did not make a covenant with the Patriarchs only, but also with their posterity at Horeb. D.
The LORD spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the middle of the fire,
Verse 4. To us. Hebrew and Septuagint “to you.”—Face to face, in such a manner that no doubt could be entertained of his presence. Saint Augustine—God addressed the decalogue to all the people, who saw no similitude. But to Moses he delivered the rest of his ordinances, with as much familiarity and condescension as one friend would use in speaking to another. Exodus 33:2. Calmet.
(I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to show you the LORD’s word; for you were afraid because of the fire, and didn’t go up onto the mountain) saying,
Verse 5. Mediator. Saint Paul acknowledges this title of Moses, (Galatians 3:9,) who was a figure of Jesus Christ, the mediator of the New Testament. Hebrews 8:6. 9:15. 12:24. Calmet.—Let not Protestants, therefore, reject this title with so much indignation, when it is applied in the like limited sense to the saints, to denote that they pray for us, as we pray for one another. Christ is the one mediator (1 Timothy 2) of redemption. Bible.
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
Verse 7. Sight. Chaldee, “Thou shalt not have any other god but me.” Elohim often designates the true God. Calmet.—See the decalogue explained, (Exodus 20,) where we have observed, that pictures are only forbidden when they are the objects of sovereign worship, as the context here plainly shews, verse 9. Other images God himself authorized, ( Worthington.) even in the old law, and in the most sacred place, where people were ordered to fall prostrate before the ark, to adore his footstool. Psalms 98:5. If, therefore, a people so prone to idolatry as the Jews were, might have pictures in the temple of God without danger, how can any one suppose that the images of Jesus Christ, and of his saints, are necessary incentive to idolatry among Christians, who all know that God will allow of no rival! Bible.
“You shall not make a carved image for yourself—any likeness of what is in heaven above, or what is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me
Verse 9. Serve. We must neither treat idols, nor their images, with the honour due to God alone. Saint Augustine q. 61. in Gen.—If we do, he will punish our infidelity.—Generation, for a long time, or as long as the remembrance of the parents’ wickedness subsists, so as to have an influence upon others. Bible.—God mercifully defers correction. Saint Jerome in Ezec. xvii. He chastises those who imitate their wicked forefathers.
and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who misuses his name.
Verse 11. In vain, by perjury. See verse 20, where the same word is used, ( D.) or by any irreverent speech. Menochius.
LORD or GOD in all caps is from the Hebrew יהוה Yahweh except when otherwise noted as being from the short form יה Yah.
or, You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain;
“Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you.
You shall labor six days, and do all your work;
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God, in which you shall not do any work—neither 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 livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.
You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
Verse 15. Therefore. This is another reason why the Jews were to observe the sabbath with particular rigour. The institution of a day of rest every week, ( Bible.) was intended to preserve the memory of the creation. Calmet.—God also requires that his people should be grateful on this day for the rest which he had granted to them, ( Bible.) and preserve carefully all the monuments of the true religion. Calmet.
“Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
“You shall not murder.
“You shall not commit adultery.
Verse 18. Adultery. Under this name God forbids every species of impurity. Saint Augustine q. 71. Menochius.
“You shall not steal.
“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
Verse 20. False. Hebrew shave, “vain,” is synonymous with sheker, “false,” used Exodus 20:16.
“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.”
Verse 21. His. Here the Samaritan copy inserts the order for erecting an altar upon Mount Garizim, which we have given, Exodus 20:26. It occurs below. Calmet. 28:2, and so forth Calmet.
The LORD spoke these words to all your assembly on the mountain out of the middle of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice. He added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me.
Verse 22. More to the people: the other precepts were communicated to Moses. The Chaldee and others give a contrary turn to the Hebrew “and he ceased not” ever since to instruct us. Calmet.—Moses gives the sense, not the very words of the decalogue, in which he is not guilty of any lie. Saint Augustine q. 8. D.
When you heard the voice out of the middle of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders;
Verse 23. You said, by the mouths of your princes. Exodus 20:19.
and you said, “Behold, the LORD our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the middle of the fire. We have seen today that God does speak with man, and he lives.
Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the LORD our God’s voice any more, then we shall die.
Verse 25. Die. Past experience did not entirely remove from them the fear which was so generally entertained, that the sight of the heavenly beings would prove destructive. So Daniel (Calmet. 10:17,) said on a similar occasion, my breath is stopped. Bible.
For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as we have, and lived?
Go near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall say, and tell us all that the LORD our God tells you; and we will hear it, and do it.”
The LORD heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me; and the LORD 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.
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!
Verse 29. A mind. God speaks like men, and insinuates how agreeable to him is a disposition influenced by a salutary fear. He does not mean that He cannot convert the heart of man. E.—God exerts his power over our will by persuasive invitations. Maimonides.
“Go tell them, ‘Return to your tents.’
But as for you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandments, 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.”
You shall observe to do therefore as the LORD your God has commanded you. You shall not turn away to the right hand or to the left.
Verse 32. Left: a proverbial expression, to signify that no sort of transgression is to be allowed. Menochius.—It is of the same import as, You shall not add, and so forth Calmet. 4:2. Calmet.
You shall walk in all the way which the LORD 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.