Deuteronomy 5:25

25 Why therefore shall we die, and shall this greatest fire devour us? For if we hear more the voice of our Lord God, we shall die. (And so why should we risk death again? for this great fire shall devour us! Yea, if we hear the voice of the Lord our God again, surely we shall all die!)

Deuteronomy 5:25 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 5:25

Now therefore why should we die?
&c.] Since we are now alive, and have so wonderfully escaped the danger we were exposed unto, let us be careful that we are not liable to it again:

for this great fire will consume us:
if it continues, and we are exposed to it; perhaps some of them might remember the fire that burnt in the uttermost parts of the camp at Taberah, and the destruction of Korah and the two hundred and fifty men with him by fire, ( Numbers 11:1 ) ( 16:35 ) ,

if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we shall die;
for it was such a voice of words they could not endure as to the matter of them, and therefore entreated the word might not be spoken to them any more; it being the killing letter, and the ministration of condemnation and death; and the manner in which it was delivered was so terrible, that they concluded they could not live, but must die if they heard it again; and imagined that if the fire continued, the flames of it would spread and reach them, and they would not be able to escape them.

Deuteronomy 5:25 In-Context

23 And after that ye heard the voice from the midst of the darknesses, and ye saw the hill burn, all ye princes of the lineages, and the greater men in birth, nighed to me, (And after that ye heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, and ye saw the mountain burning with fire, all ye leaders of the tribes, and the men of great age, that is, the elders, came to me,)

24 and ye said, Lo! our Lord God hath showed to us his majesty and greatness; we heard his voice from [the] midst of the fire, and we have proved today that a man liveth, God speaking with man. (and ye said, Lo! the Lord our God hath shown us his majesty and his greatness; we heard his voice from the midst of the fire, and we have proven today that a person can live, even after God hath spoken with him.)

25 Why therefore shall we die, and shall this greatest fire devour us? For if we hear more the voice of our Lord God, we shall die. (And so why should we risk death again? for this great fire shall devour us! Yea, if we hear the voice of the Lord our God again, surely we shall all die!)

26 What is each man, that he hear the voice of God living, that speaketh from [the] midst of the fire, as we have heard, and that he may live? (For what person hath ever heard the voice of the living God, speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and still lived to tell about it?)

27 Rather nigh thou, and hear thou all things which our Lord God shall say to thee; and thou shalt speak to us, and we shall hear, and do those words. (Instead, thou go near, and listen thou to all the things that the Lord our God shall say to thee; and thou shalt tell us, and we shall hear, and do those things.)