B. Chs. 5 11. The Second Discourse Introductory to the Laws This discourse is characterised throughout by emphasising, as the foundation of everything, Israel's relation and duty to Jehovah their God. Without love, fear, and loyalty towards Him, without a knowledge of what He is and has shown Himse... [ Continue Reading ]
_called unto_ i.e. summoned together. So rightly LXX. _all Israel_ D's characteristic phrase for the people: see Deuteronomy 4:44. _Hear, O Israel_ The verb is the only Sg. in this Pl. passage. So in the same association in other Pl. passages: Deuteronomy 4:1; Deuteronomy 20:3 (cp. Deuteronomy 1:8... [ Continue Reading ]
_covenant_ See Deuteronomy 4:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
_not … with our fathers_ Rather, _forefathers_, i.e. the Patriarchs -those great Grandfathers of thy Church 1 [119] with whom, however, D recognises a previous covenant, Deuteronomy 4:31; Deuteronomy 7:12; Deuteronomy 8:18. The immediate fathers of the generation had all passed away before the entry... [ Continue Reading ]
_face to face_ i.e. person with person, without the intervention of another. The metaphor is hardly an instance of the tendency of D's style to hyperbole 2 [120]. For although all that the people perceived was a _voice_, or _sound, of words_(Deuteronomy 4:12), this came at first _directly_to the who... [ Continue Reading ]
(_I stood between the Lord and you … to shew you the word_ In Heb. a circumstantial clause: _I standing between Jehovah and you at that time, in order to publish_, or _declare, to you the word_, etc.; to articulate what though _directly_declared had been in its awfulness but a sound of words (Deuter... [ Continue Reading ]
-The Preface" to the Ten Commandments: the same as in Exodus 20:2. The phrases used, though occurring much more frequently in D, are also found (either exactly as here or with grammatical variations) in J and E (see on Exodus 20:2); so it is difficult to say whether the original form was simply _I a... [ Continue Reading ]
The First Commandment as in Exodus 20:3. IN FRONT OF _me_ a strong phrase, but of what exact degree of strength is doubtful. Literally _over against my face_, or _presence_. By D it is elsewhere (Deuteronomy 21:16) taken as _in precedence_, or _preference, to_; but in Job 16:14 it merely means _in a... [ Continue Reading ]
_any form_ See on Deuteronomy 4:12.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Second Commandment; the differences from Exodus 20:4-6 are very slight (Ex. has the conjunction before _any form_and omits it before _the third_) and the Versions show them to be uncertain. On the questions of date raised by the prohibition of images see above, p. 85. The substance of the comman... [ Continue Reading ]
_a jealous God_ See on Deuteronomy 4:24.... [ Continue Reading ]
_shewing mercy_ better, LOYAL or TRUE LOVE; cf. Deuteronomy 7:9; Deuteronomy 7:12 _keeping covenant_and _true love_(Sg.). The Heb. term _ḥesed_as including both affection and constancy is peculiarly appropriate here.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Third Commandment exactly as in Exodus 20:7. On the need for this in Israel see on Deuteronomy 6:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Observe_ A.V. _keep_, instead of _remember_, Exodus 20:8. In D _remember_is used almost exclusively of historical facts, e.g. Deuteronomy 5:15; Deuteronomy 7:18; Deuteronomy 8:2; Deuteronomy 9:7; Deuteronomy 15:15; Deuteronomy 16:3; but once with God, the giver of wealth, as the object,... [ Continue Reading ]
The Fourth Commandment as in Exodus 20:8-11 with the following differences:... [ Continue Reading ]
in it] not in Heb. text either here or in Ex., but supplied in both places by Sam. and LXX; so too in the Nash papyrus (see Driver, _Exod._417). _nor thy_ BONDMAN] Exodus 20:10 omits the conjunction. So too Sam. and LXX here. _nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle_ another obvious exp... [ Continue Reading ]
A different reason for the keeping of the Sabbath from that given in Exodus 20:11. It is relevant to D's addition in the previous _v_., and at first seems intended only to enforce the extension of the Sabbath-law to slaves, _remember thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt and Jehovah thy God broug... [ Continue Reading ]
The Fifth Commandment as in Exodus 20:12, with however two additions: _as_ JEHOVAH _thy God commanded thee_ See on Deuteronomy 5:12. _and that it may go well with thee_ Cp. Deuteronomy 5:29. _giveth thee_ IS GIVING or ABOUT TO GIVE.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Sixth to the Ninth Commandments, as in Exodus 20:13-16, except that for the simple _not_used there, we have here _and not_= _neither_, to introduce the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Commandments; and that in the Ninth instead of _sheḳer_= _false_of Exodus 20:16 there is the wider term _shav" = vain,... [ Continue Reading ]
The Tenth Commandment, carrying the Law from the sphere of action into that of thought and feeling, and therefore not superfluous even in so brief a summary of the Law nor after the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Commandments (cp. Calvin, _in loco_). How necessary the Commandment is not merely as an addi... [ Continue Reading ]
The Close of the Ten Words and the writing of them. _your assembly_ or _congregation_. The Heb. _ḳahal_, lit. _gathering_, technically used throughout the O.T. for any assembly of the people or its representatives for organised, national action: (_a_) In the earlier writings it is most usual of the... [ Continue Reading ]
_ye came near unto me_ Deuteronomy 1:22. _even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders_ Perhaps a gloss (so Dill., Steuern., Berth.), for Deuteronomy 5:24 continues _and ye_(not _they_), and through the rest of the section the people as a whole are addressed.... [ Continue Reading ]
The people, fearing the fatal effect of hearing God's voice directly, request Moses to act as mediator. See Exodus 20:19-21, E, a much simpler form of the narrative, but containing in Deuteronomy 5:20 a saying of Moses not repeated here.... [ Continue Reading ]
_his greatness_ See Deuteronomy 3:24.... [ Continue Reading ]
See on Deuteronomy 4:33. It was contrary to expectation that the people survived the voice of God: they would not repeat the risk.... [ Continue Reading ]
_flesh_ Emphatic; it cannot endure immediate contact with spirit (Isaiah 31:3). _the living God_ Rather, A _living God_, cp. Deuteronomy 4:33. The phrase always occurs in the O.T. without the article even when as in 1 Samuel 17:26; 1 Samuel 17:36, and Jeremiah 23:36 it is _the_living God who is mean... [ Continue Reading ]
_Go thou near_ The technical term for approach to the Deity, and to His representatives (Deuteronomy 5:23 and Deuteronomy 1:22). E, using another verb, has _and Moses drew near_(Exodus 20:21). For the rest of the verse E has simply _Speak thou with us and we shall hearken_(Exodus 20:19).... [ Continue Reading ]
_And_ JEHOVAH _heard the voice of your words_ Deuteronomy 1:34. _they have well said_ Deuteronomy 18:17. Yet... [ Continue Reading ]
Jehovah approves the people's request and dismisses them to their tents. E simply, _the people stood afar off_(Exodus 20:21).... [ Continue Reading ]
_Oh that there were such an heart in them_, etc.] _heart_is in antithesis to the _said_and _spoken_of the previous verse. Approving their present mood as evinced in their words, God doubts its constancy. _all my commandments_ Sam. and LXX omit _all_. _always_ Heb. _all the days_. One of the many po... [ Continue Reading ]
Moses is commanded to stand by God in order to receive other laws (than the Ten Words) to teach the people subsequently. _all the commandment_ or _charge_; Heb. _miṣwah_. - "The (or this) commandment "recurs Deuteronomy 6:1; Deuteronomy 7:11; Deuteronomy 30:11; with "all," Deuteronomy 6:25; Deuteron... [ Continue Reading ]
Exhortations to obey this new charge: a number of characteristic deuteronomic formulas. Because of this and specially because of the phrase _which Jehovah your God has commanded you_, these verses are taken by some to be a later addition. Yet it was surely quite logical for the writer of the rest of... [ Continue Reading ]