Deuteronomy 5:21-31

21 '¹You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field or his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.'

Moses Interceded

22 "These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire, of the cloud and of the thick gloom, with a great voice, and He added no more. ²He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

23 "And when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders.

24 "You said, 'Behold, the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire; we have seen today that God speaks with man, yet he lives.

25 '³Now then why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer, then we will die.

26 'For ⁴who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?

27 'Go near and hear all that the LORD our God says; then speak to us all that the LORD our God speaks to you, and we will hear and do it.'

28 "The LORD heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, ⁵and the LORD said to me, 'I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken.

29 '⁶Oh * that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and ⁷keep all My commandments always *, that ⁸it may be well with them and with their sons forever!

30 'Go, say to them, "Return to your tents."

31 '⁹But as for you, stand here by Me, that I may speak to you all the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I give them to possess.'

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Deuteronomy 5:21-31 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 5

In this chapter Moses, after a short preface, De 5:1-5, repeats the law of the decalogue, or ten commands, with some little variation, De 5:6-21, and then reminds the Israelites of the terrible manner in which it was delivered to them, De 5:22,23 which put them upon making a request that Moses might be a mediator between God and them, and hear what the Lord had to say, and report it to them; to which they promised obedience, De 5:24-27 and which being agreeable to the Lord was granted, De 5:28-31, and this laid them under a greater obligation to observe the commands of God, and keep them, De 5:32,33.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 9

1. Exodus 20:17; Romans 7:7; Romans 13:9
2. Exodus 24:12; Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 4:13
3. Exodus 20:18, 19; Deuteronomy 18:16
4. Deuteronomy 4:33
5. Deuteronomy 18:17
6. Psalms 81:13; Isaiah 48:18
7. Deuteronomy 11:1
8. Deuteronomy 5:16, 33
9. Exodus 24:12

Footnotes 1

[a]. Lit "Go yourself"