Deuteronomy 5:23

23 When you heard the voice from the darkness, as the mountain was blazing with fire, all your older leaders and leaders of your tribes came to me.

Deuteronomy 5:23 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 5:23

And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst
of the darkness
The thick darkness, where God was, and with which the mountain was covered, ( Exodus 20:21 )

for the mountain did burn with fire;
which is a reason both why the Lord spoke out of the midst of the fire, the mountain on which he descended burning with it and also for his speaking out of the midst of darkness, because not only a thick cloud covered the mountain, but it was altogether on a smoke, which ascended as the smoke of a furnace, ( Exodus 19:16 Exodus 19:18 )

that ye come near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes and your
elders;
or wise men, as the Targum of Jonathan; by which it appears, that not only the common people were frightened at what they heard and saw on Mount Sinai, but those of the first rank and eminence among them, who were the most famous for their authority and wisdom.

Deuteronomy 5:23 In-Context

21 "You must not want to take your neighbor's wife. You must not want to take your neighbor's house or land, his male or female slaves, his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

22 The Lord spoke these commands to all of you on the mountain in a loud voice out of the fire, the cloud, and the deep darkness; he did not say anything else. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets, and he gave them to me.

23 When you heard the voice from the darkness, as the mountain was blazing with fire, all your older leaders and leaders of your tribes came to me.

24 And you said, "The Lord our God has shown us his glory and majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks to him.

25 But now, we will die! This great fire will burn us up, and we will die if we hear the Lord our God speak anymore.