Deuteronomy 5:4

4 Face to face he spake to us in the hill, from the midst of the fire. (Face to face he spoke to you on the mountain, from the midst of the fire.)

Deuteronomy 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.

Deuteronomy 5:4 In-Context

2 Our Lord God made a bond of peace with us in Horeb; (The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Mount Sinai;)

3 he made not covenant with our fathers, but with us that be present, and live. (he did not make the covenant with our fathers, but with us who be alive, and present here today.)

4 Face to face he spake to us in the hill, from the midst of the fire. (Face to face he spoke to you on the mountain, from the midst of the fire.)

5 I was (a) reconciler and a mediator betwixt God and you in that time, that I should tell to you his words, for ye dreaded the fire, and ye went not up into the hill. And he said, (I was a reconciler and a mediator between God and you at that time, to tell you his words, for ye feared the fire, and ye would not go up the mountain. And he said,)

6 I am thy Lord God, that led thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of servage. (I am the Lord thy God, who led thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of servitude, or of slavery.)