Devarim 5:4

4 Hashem talked with you panim b’panim in the har out of the midst of the eish,

Devarim 5:4 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 5:4

The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount
Meaning, not in that free, friendly, and familiar manner, in which he sometimes talked with Moses, of whom this phrase is used, ( Exodus 33:11 ) , but publicly, audibly, clearly, and distinctly, or without the interposition of another; he did not speak to them by Moses, but to them themselves; he talked to them without a middle person between them, as Aben Ezra expresses it: without making use of one to relate to them what he said; but he talked to them directly, personally:

out of the midst of the fire;
in which he descended, and with which the mountain was burning all the time he was speaking; which made it very awful and terrible, and pointed at the terrors of the legal dispensation.

Devarim 5:4 In-Context

2 Hashem Eloheinu made a Brit with us in Chorev.
3 Hashem made not this Brit with Avoteinu, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive today.
4 Hashem talked with you panim b’panim in the har out of the midst of the eish,
5 (I stood between Hashem and you at that time, to show you the Devar Hashem; for ye were afraid by reason of the eish, and went not up into the har) saying:
6 I am Hashem Eloheicha, Which brought thee out of Eretz Mitzrayim, from the bais avadim.
The Orthodox Jewish Bible fourth edition, OJB. Copyright 2002,2003,2008,2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International. All rights reserved.