Deuteronomy 5:22

22 "These words Yahweh spoke to your whole assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire and the very thick cloud [with] a loud voice, and {he did not add anything}, and [then] he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

Deuteronomy 5:22 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 5:22

These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the
mount
The above ten words or commands, which were spoken so audibly and loudly by the Lord himself on Mount Sinai, that the whole congregation of the people of Israel heard them:

out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness;
in which the Lord was; see ( Deuteronomy 4:11 ) ,

with a great voice, and he added no more;
ceased speaking; after he had delivered the ten commands, he said no more at that time. The Targum of Jonathan is,

``with a great voice which ceased not.''

It ceased not until all were delivered, and then it did; it was a continued voice, yet clear and distinct:

and he wrote them in

two tables of stone;
marble stone, as the Targum of Jonathan; which is much more likely than what the paraphrase has on ( Deuteronomy 4:13 ) , this is an emblem of the duration of the law:

and delivered them unto me;
to Moses, and by him to be delivered to the people, who though they had heard them would be apt to forget them; and therefore they were written, that they might read them, and meditate on them, and be careful to keep them.

Deuteronomy 5:22 In-Context

20 'And you shall not falsely bear evidence against your neighbor.
21 'And you shall not covet the wife of your neighbor, and you shall not crave the house of your neighbor, his field or his slave or his slave woman or his ox and his donkey or anything {that belongs to your neighbor}.'
22 "These words Yahweh spoke to your whole assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire and the very thick cloud [with] a loud voice, and {he did not add anything}, and [then] he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
23 {And then} {when you heard} the voice from the midst of the darkness, and [as] the mountain [was] burning with fire, and [and] all the heads of your tribes and your elders approached me,
24 you said, 'Look, Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire; this day we have seen that God can speak with a human being, {yet he remains alive}.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Literally "and not he added"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.