Deuteronomy 5:27

5:23-33 Moses refers to the consternation caused by the terror with which the law was given. God's appearances have always been terrible to man, ever since the fall; but Christ, having taken away sin, invites us to come boldly to the throne of grace. They were in a good mind, under the strong convictions of the word they heard. Many have their consciences startled by the law who have them not purified; fair promises are extorted from them, but no good principles are fixed and rooted in them. God commended what they said. He desires the welfare and salvation of poor sinners. He has given abundant proof that he does so; he gives us time and space to repent. He has sent his Son to redeem us, promised his Spirit to those who pray for him, and has declared that he has no pleasure in the ruin of sinners. It would be well with many, if there were always such a heart in them, as there seems to be sometimes; when they are under conviction of sin, or the rebukes of providence, or when they come to look death in the face. The only way to be happy, is to be holy. Say to the righteous, It shall be well with them. Let believers make it more and more their study and delight, to do as the Lord God hath commanded.

Go thou near,.... To the mount, and to God on it: and hear all that the Lord our God shall say; for they supposed, by the continuance of the Lord on the mount, and the fire burning on it, that he had more to say, which they were not averse to hear; but desired it might be not immediately delivered to them, but by the means of Moses; the sound of the words, and the sight of the fire, being so terrible to them: and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee: they did not doubt, knowing the faithfulness of Moses, his declaring all unto them that should be told him by the Lord; and they were desirous that he should, they did not want to have anything withheld from them, only they could not bear to see and hear things immediately from the Lord: and we will hear it and do it; hearken to it, and receive it, as the word of God, and not man, and yield a ready and cheerful obedience, even to everything that should be required; see Exodus 20:19.

These verses contain a much fuller narrative of the events briefly described in Exodus 20:18-21 . Here it is important to call attention to the fact that it was on the entreaties of the people that Moses had taken on him to be the channel of communication between God and them. God approved Deuteronomy 5:28 the request of the people, because it showed a feeling of their own unworthiness to enter into direct communion with God. The terrors of Sinai had done their work; they had awakened the consciousness of sin.

27 . Go thou near ] The technical term for approach to the Deity, and to His representatives ( Deuteronomy 5:23 and Deuteronomy 1:22 ). E, using another verb, has and Moses drew near ( Exodus 20:21 ). For the rest of the verse E has simply Speak thou with us and we shall hearken ( Exodus 20:19 ). Deuteronomy 5:27

Deuteronomy 5:24-27 contain a rhetorical, and at the same time really a more exact, account of the events described in Exodus 20:18-20 (15-17). ואתּ ( Deuteronomy 5:24 ), a contraction of ואתּה, as in Numbers 11:15 (cf. Ewald, 184, a.). Jehovah's reply to the words of the people ( Deuteronomy 5:28-31 ) is passed over in Exodus 20 . God approved of what the people said, because it sprang from a consciousness of the unworthiness of any sinner to come into the presence of the holy God; and He added, "Would that there were always this heart in them to fear Me," i.e., would that they were always of the same mind to fear Me and keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and their children for ever. He then directed the people to return to their tents, and appointed Moses as the mediator, to whom He would address all the law, that he might teach it to the people (cf. Deuteronomy 4:5 ). Having been thus entreated by the people to take the office of mediator, and appointed to that office by the Lord, Moses could very well bring his account of these events to a close ( Deuteronomy 5:32 , Deuteronomy 5:33 ), by exhorting them to observe carefully all the commandments of the Lord, and not to turn aside to the right hand or to the left, i.e., not to depart in any way from the mode of life pointed out in the commandments (cf. Deuteronomy 17:11 , Deuteronomy 17:20 ; Deuteronomy 28:14 ; Joshua 1:7 , etc.), that it might be well with them, etc. (cf.

(16) Cursed be he that setteth light. —The first curse points to the first two commandments of the first table, and the second to the first commandment in the second table. If we mark off the first offence specified, secret idolatry—the only one which distinctly recalls the first commandment of the Law, and also the last general curse which embraces all transgression whatever, the intervening offences seem more easily arranged. We have duty to parents enforced ( Deuteronomy 27:16 ) and the rights of neighbours ( Deuteronomy 5:17 ), the blind ( Deuteronomy 27:18 ), and the unprotected ( Deuteronomy 27:19 ) come next. The next four precepts are all concerned with purity, first in the nearer, afterwards in the more distant relations ( Deuteronomy 27:20-23 ). The last two precepts concern slander and treachery ( Deuteronomy 27:24-25 ). Evidently the offences specified are examples of whole classes of actions; and the twelve curses may have some reference to the number of the tribes.