Commentaria in Deuteronomium
Chapter 5
Moses repeats and renews the Decalogue to the people. Secondly, verse 22, he relates the fear of the people when the law was given on Sinai, by which struck they asked that God would speak the other precepts not to them but to Moses: hence Moses alone went up the mountain to God.
1. And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the ceremonies and judgments which I speak in your ears this day: learn them, and fulfil them in work. 2. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3. He made not the covenant with our fathers, but with us, who are present and living. 4. He spoke to us face to face in the mount, out of the midst of the fire. 5. I was the mediator and stood between the Lord and you at that time, to shew you his words; for you feared the fire, and went not up into the mountain; and he said: 6. I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 7. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. 8. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or that abideth in the waters under the earth. 9. Thou shalt not adore them, and thou shalt not serve them. For I am the Lord thy God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, 10. And shewing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments. 11. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for he shall not be unpunished that taketh his name upon a vain thing. 12. Observe the day of the sabbath, to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. 13. Six days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy works. 14. The seventh is the day of the sabbath, that is, the rest of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt do no work therein, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy ox, nor thy ass, nor any of thy beasts, nor the stranger that is within thy gates: that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest, even as thyself. 15. Remember that thou also didst serve in Egypt, and the Lord thy God brought thee out from thence with a strong hand and a stretched out arm. Therefore hath he commanded thee that thou shouldst observe the sabbath day. 16. Honour thy father and mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee, that thou mayest live a long time, and it may be well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God will give thee. 17. Thou shalt not kill. 18. Neither shalt thou commit adultery. 19. And thou shalt not steal. 20. Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour. 21. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife: nor his house, nor his field, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his. 22. These words the Lord spoke to all the multitude of you in the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, and the cloud, and the darkness, with a loud voice, adding nothing more: and he wrote them in two tables of stone, which he delivered to me. 23. But you, after you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, and saw the mountain burn, came to me, all the princes of the tribes, and the ancients, and said: 24. Behold the Lord our God hath shewn us his majesty and greatness, we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire, and we have proved this day that God speaking with man, man hath lived. 25. Why then shall we die, and this exceeding great fire consume us? For if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we shall die. 26. What is all flesh, that it should hear the voice of the living God, who speaketh out of the midst of the fire, as we have heard, and be able to live? 27. Do thou rather approach, and hear all things that the Lord our God shall say to thee: and thou shalt speak to us, and we will hear and do them. 28. And when the Lord heard this, he said to me: I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to thee: they have spoken all things well. 29. Who shall give them to have such a mind, to fear me, and to keep all my commandments at all times, that it may be well with them and with their children for ever? 30. Go, and say to them: Return into your tents. 31. But stay thou here with me, and I will speak to thee all my commandments, and ceremonies, and judgments: which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them in the land which I will give them for a possession. 32. Keep therefore and do the things which the Lord your God hath commanded you: you shall not go aside, either to the right hand or to the left; 33. But shall walk in the way that the Lord your God hath commanded, that you may live, and it may be well with you, and your days be long in the land of your possession.
3. HE MADE NOT THE COVENANT WITH OUR FATHERS,—not only with our fathers did God make a covenant on Sinai, but also with us. Like is Genesis xxxii, 28, and elsewhere. Secondly, and more simply, as if to say: God made not the covenant on Sinai with Isaac, Jacob and the other fathers, who died in Egypt or before, but with us ourselves, who are living. For, as St. Augustine notes, many were present and survived who as children had heard the law in Horeb, who namely had not yet reached the twentieth year, and therefore were neither numbered nor involved in the penalty of the murmurers, of which Numbers xiv, 29, that they should perish in the desert; whom Moses calls all. For he understands “all” in an accommodated sense, namely all who had heard the law on Sinai and still survived. The Hebrew words have greater emphasis: not with our fathers did Jehovah make this covenant, but with us, with us who are here this day, all living, at least with us living.
5. I WAS THE MEDIATOR AND STOOD BETWEEN.—Moses was therefore mediator between God and the people, as the Apostle says to the Galatians iii, 19: why then should not Saints be called mediators?
6. I AM THE LORD THY GOD, WHO BROUGHT THEE OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, OUT OF THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE.—In Hebrew, out of the house of
4. HE SPOKE TO US FACE TO FACE.—Not that you saw his form or appearance: for this he denied, chapter iv, 12; but “face to face,” that is, in presence, without a go-between. For the Decalogue, from verse 6 to 22, an angel in the place of God proclaimed from Sinai before all the people; but the remaining precepts, judicial and ceremonial, the Hebrews received only through the go-between Moses, as follows, who went up alone into the mountain, when the people, for fear of the fire and of the angelic voice, being terrified and fleeing from the mountain, returned by command of God to their camp and tents, as is said in verses 30 and 31.
servants, namely out of the workhouse, that is, out of Egypt, where thou servedst a most hard servitude. Note: for “Lord,” the Hebrew is the tetragrammaton name Jehovah, which is proper to the divine essence, which is the fountain of every creature, to which therefore, as to the first and highest principle of all, man and every creature ought to render the highest religious service. Again, for “God,” the Hebrew is Elohim, which signifies God as judge and governor of all; Elohim therefore inculcates on the Hebrews the majesty, wisdom, dominion and supreme authority of God the lawgiver.
7. THOU SHALT NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME.—No strange gods are true, but there is one true God, who, being common to all, can be strange to none. They are called strange gods, therefore, not because they truly are such, but because foreigners, namely nations alien from the true God, hold and worship them as gods; hence the Hebrew is: There shall not be to thee other elohim, that is, gods. He forbids, therefore, that any other be held as God, even if there be only one; but commands that they acknowledge and worship him alone as the one God, both by the inward sense and affection of the mind, and by outward adoration and sacrifice.
and the Chaldee translate, besides me, as if to say: Worship not idols while I see, and while I behold even thy most hidden thoughts; think not that thou canst be hidden from my eyes, nor wish to inflict so grave an injury on my majesty who behold all things. Secondly, “before me” could be taken as “over against me,” as if to say: Set not other gods over against me, as is said in the Hebrew at verse 23, Thou shalt not have strange gods with me; and with this agrees well “besides me,” as the Septuagint translate.