Deuteronomy 5:3

3 The Lord did not make this covenant with your fathers, but with you: ye are all here alive this day.

Deuteronomy 5:3 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 5:3

The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers
That is, not with them only, as Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Abendana remark; for certain it is that this covenant was made, or law was given, to the immediate fathers of this present generation of Israelites, whose carcasses had fallen in the wilderness; unless this is to be understood of their more remote ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with whom the covenant of grace was made, or afresh made manifest, especially with the former; when the law, the covenant here spoken of, was not delivered until four hundred and thirty years after, ( Galatians 3:16 Galatians 3:17 ) ,

but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day;
many of them were then present at the giving of the law, and though under twenty years of age, could remember it, and the circumstances of it; and besides, they were the same people to whom it was given, though not consisting wholly of the same individuals.

Deuteronomy 5:3 In-Context

1 And Moses called all Israel, and said to them, Hear, Israel, the ordinances and judgments, all that I speak in your ears this day, and ye shall learn them, and observe to do them.

2 The Lord your God made a covenant with you in Choreb.

3 The Lord did not make this covenant with your fathers, but with you: ye are all here alive this day.

4 The Lord spoke to you face to face in the mountain out of the midst of the fire.

5 And I stood between the Lord and you at that time to report to you the words of the Lord, (because ye were afraid before the fire, and ye went not up to the mountain) saying,