Deuteronomy 5:31

31 But you, Moses, must stay here with me. I will tell you all the commandments, the regulations, and the case laws that you must teach the Israelites to do in the land that I am giving them to possess.

Deuteronomy 5:31 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 5:31

But as for thee, stand thou here by me
On the mount by him whither he was called up; Moses was not permitted to go to his tent when the children of Israel were, but was ordered to wait upon the Lord to receive instructions from him, which he was to communicate to the people, being a kind of a mediator between God and them, as they requested, and which was granted them:

and I will speak unto thee all the commandments, and the statutes, and
the judgments:
all laws, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, which belong to them as men, as in a church state, and members of a body politic:

which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them;
for all doctrine is in order to practice, without which all instructions, and theoretical notions, signify little: and these they were more especially to do, and some of them peculiarly,

in the land which I give them to possess it:
the land of Canaan, and which laid on them no small obligation to do the commandments of God; since of his free favour and good will, and as a pure gift of his, he had bestowed upon them a land flowing with milk and honey, into which he was just now about to bring them; as nothing can more strongly engage souls to a cheerful obedience to the service of God, whether in private or in public, than the consideration of the great and good things which God of his rich grace bestows upon them, and has promised to them, and prepared for them, and will quickly put them into the possession of; and upon such an account Moses presses the observance of the commands of God in the following verses.

Deuteronomy 5:31 In-Context

29 If only their minds were like this: always fearing me and keeping all my commandments so that things would go well for them and their children forever!
30 Go and tell them: You may go back to your tents.
31 But you, Moses, must stay here with me. I will tell you all the commandments, the regulations, and the case laws that you must teach the Israelites to do in the land that I am giving them to possess.
32 So you must carefully do exactly what the LORD your God commands you. Don't deviate even a bit!
33 You must walk the precise path that the LORD your God indicates for you so that you will live, and so that things will go well for you, and so you will extend your time on the land that you will possess.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Heb is singular, commandment (see 6:1).
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