Deuteronomy 5:24

24 you said, 'Look, Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire; this day we have seen that God can speak with a human being, {yet he remains alive}.

Deuteronomy 5:24 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 5:24

And ye said, behold, the Lord our God hath showed us his glory
and his greatness
In descending on Mount Sinai in the manner he did, and giving the law from thence with such solemnity; for there was a glory in the ministration of it, as the apostle argues ( 2 Corinthians 3:7-11 ) , it being delivered with so much majesty, and such a glorious apparatus attending it; see ( Deuteronomy 33:2 ) . Aben Ezra interprets this of the appearance of fire in which the Lord was, "and his greatness", of the thunders and lightnings, and the voice of the trumpet:

and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire;
the ten words, as the same interpreter rightly notes, which were vocally and audibly expressed out of the fire:

we have seen this day, that God doth talk with man, and he liveth;
they had proof of it in themselves; God had been talking with them out of the fire, and yet it did not reach and consume them, but they were still alive.

Deuteronomy 5:24 In-Context

22 "These words Yahweh spoke to your whole assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire and the very thick cloud [with] a loud voice, and {he did not add anything}, and [then] he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
23 {And then} {when you heard} the voice from the midst of the darkness, and [as] the mountain [was] burning with fire, and [and] all the heads of your tribes and your elders approached me,
24 you said, 'Look, Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire; this day we have seen that God can speak with a human being, {yet he remains alive}.
25 And so then why shall we die, for this great fire will consume us if {we continue} to hear the voice of Yahweh our God [any] longer, and [so] we shall die?
26 For who [is there of] all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire as we [have heard it] {and remained alive}?

Footnotes 2

Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.