Deuteronomy 5
PATVer. 1* joLND Moses called all Israel, and said unto thepi.) That is, summoned all the elders, and heads of their tribes, who were to communicate what he said to the rest: thus it is commonly expounded. But that which he saith, xxix. 10, 11. seems to direct us to another interpretation; that he himself went from tribe to tribe, and repeated these ten words (as they are called), placing himself in several parts of their camp, that every one might hear what he said. And ihis was sometime after he had, in. like manner, exhorted them to obedience in the foregoing preface.. (See iv. 41.) Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day.) Mind what I now say unto you. * That ye may learn them y and keep and do them.’) That ye may not be ignorant of such important truths, nor negligent in the practice of them; which is the end of knowledge. " *•• *>
Deuteronomy 5:2
The Lord our God made a covenant with y$ in Horeb.) See Exod. xxiv. 3. 5 — 8.
Deuteronomy 5:3
The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers,) viz. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; with whom he covenanted to give their posterity the land of Canaan; but did not make to them this discovery of his will, which was the matter of the covenant at Horeb. - But ivith us, even us, who are all here alive this day-) A great part of those who were then at Horeb were now alive; viz. all under twenty years old. And if they had been all dead, Moses might have said, He made it with us; because they w r crc still the same people, though the particular persons were dead, with whom the covenant was made, not only for themselves, but for their posterity.
Deuteronomy 5:4
The Lord talked ivith you face to face in the mount, &c. Openly, clearly, and distinctly; or by himself, without the mediation of Moses; but in no visible shape: for that is expressly denied in the foregoing chapter, iv.
Deuteronomy 5:5
I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to shew you the word of the Lord.) As a mediator, whom God employed to prepare.them to meet him, (Exod. xix. 10,11, &c.) and to prescribe them the bounds, at what distance they should keep, (ver. 12.) and to bring them forth to meet with him, (ver. 17.) and to charge them to keep within their bounds, (ver. 21.) And, on the other side, to represent their desires unto God, after he had.spoken to them, (Exod. xx. 19.) ^ So that he was truly a mediator between God and them; and stood also in a middle place/ at the foot of the mount, while they stood further off. For ye ivere afraid by reason of the fire.) Exod. xx. 18* And went not up into the mount.) Exod. xix. 17. xx. 21.
Deuteronomy 5:6
I am the Lord thy God, tvhich brought thee oiit of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.) This preface to the ten commandments is explained, Exod. xx. 2.
Deuteronomy 5:7
Thou shalt have none other gods before me.) See Exod. xx. 3. It is wisely observed by Grotius, (lib. ii. dc Jure Belli et Pacis, cap. 20. sect. 45.) that true religion was ever built upon these four principles: First, that there is a God, and that he is but One. Secondly, that God is nothing of thoso things that we see with our eyes, but something more sublime than them all. Thirdly, that he takes care of human affairs, and judges them most justly! Fourthly, that he is the maker of all things whatsoever’. Which principles arc explained in these first four precepts of the decalogue; the unity of the Godhead being delivered in the first place. Ver. S-^-rlO.. Thou shalt not make tliee any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing, &c.] The second principle, that God’s nature is invisible, is contained in this second commandment; being the ground of this prohibition, t6 make any image of him: which the best of the heathen forbade also for this very re&son, f £2c ovk tycnrTZ<j%at Btov Svva- Tov-aXXa)^ n vo7/<T£t, because it-is. impossible /o conceive God othe7wise, but by the mind alone, as Plutarch reports the sense of Numaamong the Ronians. And we find the same as plainly said by Antisthenes among the Greeks, in Clemens Alexandrinus/‘O^aXjuotc o>x bparat, ohltvi totta, hi- 7Ttp avrbv ovd&g SvvaTai hpaQuv 1% iIkqvoq: he is not seen by the eyes, nor is like to any thing; and therefore none ca?i learn any thing of him by an image. Nor could the vulgar, I am. apt to think, have been kept so long, and so generally as they were, to the worship of them, if it had not been by bold fictions, that some of them were Aio7T£tTi, fallen down from heaven; and that all of them were Qua, koX Sdag fxerovatag dvairXza, Divine things, and full of a Di vine commmdeation, as Jamblichus speaks. And, to make them more reverenced, while some of them were’Eju^avf;, conspicuous to. all the people, others were kept secret in the inmost part. of their temple, as having hidden in them a symbolical. presence of God, as Proclus speaks upon Timaeus. Which Ezek. Spanhcmius justly thinks was done in imitation of what Moses saith concerning God’s presence upon the mercy-seat in the holy of holies. (Observationcs in Callimachum, p. 586, &c.) Sec. upon these three verses my annotations’ on Exod. xx. 4— G..
Deuteronomy 5:11
Thmi shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, &c. This contains the third principle beforementioned, that God takes notice of all things, even of our thoughts, and governs all our affairs: for it is the foundation of an oath, that God knows our very hearts, and is witness to our meaning, as well. as our words; and will, if we swear falsely, punish us for it: which is an acknowledgment also both of the justice and the power of God. (Sec upon Exod. xx. 7.). *
Deuteronomy 5:12
Keep the sabbath-day to sanctify it.) They were to keep it in memory, that they might sanctify it, as it is Exodl xx.. 8. (Sec there.) And it was sanctified, or set apart for special ends and purposes, ihat they -might give to thp 4R2 Microsoft ® G7G A COMxMENTARY [chap. blessed God the seventh part of the week (as Abarbincl speaks upon these words), and might learn the Divine law, together with the Kabalah, or traditional exposition of the words, and mark well the niceties of it: for which he quotes a saying out of the Gemara of the Jerusalem Talmud, " Sabbaths and feasts were not given, but to learn the law upon them." Which is the reason, he saith, of another speech of theirs, in their Midrasch, or allegorical exposition upon Exodus, that “the sabbath wcighcth against all the commandments;” because it was a principal means to make them known and observed. There is not much said, indeed, in express words, concerning this end of the rest of the sabbath: but common reason told the Jews, it could not be intended merely as a day of ease from labour, but for the solemn service of God, and instruction in their duty to him. -4s the Lord thy God commanded thee.] At Marah, say the Jews commonly, where he gave them a statute and an ordinance. (Sec Exod. xv. 25.) But one of them saith better, At Marah it was designed, and at Siiiai it was commanded. But they do not look back far enough for the original of this commandment: for there being two things in this day, the rest of it, and the religion; the rest of it was in remembrance of their deliverance out of Egypt, and the overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, which completed their deliverance; immediately after which they kept their first sabbatical rest. The religion was in remembrance of the creation of the world; and so this day had been observed from the beginning by the patriarchs, though wc find no mention made of their resting: and that may possibly be the meaning of these words, as the Lord thy God commanded thee; that is, immediately after he had finished the creation of the world.
Deuteronomy 5:13
Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work.) See upon Exod. xx. 9.
Deuteronomy 5:14
But the Seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any xvork, &c. The reason why they might not do any work on this day, is given in Exod. xx. 11. which is wholly omitted here; because Moses had another reason to add, for the enforcement of this precept: and refers them (in the foregoing words, ver. 12. As the Lord thy God hath commanded thee) to what he had said in the books of Genesis and Exodus: where he had set down the reason which God himself gave with his own mouth,- for the religious observation of this day; because in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, &c. So that this commandment was designed to establish the fourth principle I mentioned, that God is the maker of all things. To preserve the memory and sense of which (as the author of the answer, Ad Orthodoxos, observes, lxix.) this rest was instituted, to be observed with a more than ordinary sanctity; it being of such great moment, that the first sabbath-breaker was punished with death, because the voluntary violation of it contained in it a denial, that tho world was created by God. Tliat thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou.’] Mercy towards men, as well as piety towards God, was a reason for the observation of the sabbatical rest.
Deuteronomy 5:15
And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee from thence, &c. therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath-day.] This is a new ground for the observation of the sabbath; because God had given them rest from their hard labour in Egypt. Which obliged them to keep that seventh day, which God appointed at the giving of manna (being the day on which he overthrew Pharaoh in the lied Sea), as the memory of the creation of the world obliged. them to keep one day in seven. So our Mr. Medc hath explained it. (See my annotations on Exod. xiv. 30.) And Maimonides hath something to the same purpose, in his More Nevochim, par. ii. cap. 31. (See upon Exod. xx. 11.) Ver. 1G. Honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee.] In the twentieth of Exodus, ver. 12. sec there. To which I shall here add, that the laws of Solon made those children infamous, who did not afford sustenance to their parents, and provide them a habitation. And by the ancient law of Athens, he that rc-‘proached his parents was disinherited; if he struck them, his hand was cut off; if he left them unburied, lie lost their estate, and wa§ banished his country: and another law punished this ingratitude with death. Sec J.Meursius, in his Themis. Attica, lib. i. cap. 2, 3. where he shews, that by parents they understood not only father and mother, but grandfather and grandmother; nay, Tovtu>v fivr^p *m irarrjp lav in Zuhxi,z. e. great-grandmother and great-grandfather, if they Were yet alive, as Isoeus tells us, Orat. vii. And the ground of all these law T s, w r as a sense they had, as iEschines tells us, That men ought to honour their parents, as they did the gods, Ovq *K “gov Set rtfx(tv toTc £eo7c« (Sec Sam. Petitus, in Leges Atticas, lib. iii. tit. 3.) AVhence Hicrocles calls parents, 0eot hriyuoi, earthly gods. And Philo, upon the decalogue, 0cot l^avcTc, &c. visible gods, who imitate him that is unbegotten, by giving life. And accordingly, next to the precepts concerning the worship of God, Moses here places immediately the duty owing unto parents….. That thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, &c] These last words arc added to what God spake, Exod. xx. 12. as an explication of the foregoing. Whereby they are excited to obedience, by the promise not only of a long life, hut of a happy. I say obedience; for that is included in honour, as the. apostle explains it, Coloss.iii. 20. " Children obey your parents in all things;” that is, where God hath not commanded the contrary, and w T here it is not inconsistent with the public good; which is alway to be preferred, even before the duty that is. owing to natural parents. Insomuch, that common reason taught the heathen, that for the good of the society, the son is. to lay aside the Tcvercnce he should pay to his father, and the father to pay it unto the son, that is, when he is in public office: thus the famous Fabius Cnnctator commended his son, for making him light off from his horse, when he met him in his consulship, as Plutarch tells us. And sec A. Gellius, lib. xi. Noct. Attic.cap.l. andlib.xiii. cap. nit. and lib. xiv. in tho beginning.
Deuteronomy 5:17
Thou shalt not kill. If a man killed another involuntarily, he was banished by the laws of Athens from his country for a year: but if he killed another k 7rpovofac, as Demosthenes speaks, out offorethought, and designedly, he was put to death: (see Sam. Petitus, lib. vii. in Leges Atticas, tit. 1. p. 508. 512.) Yea, so detestable was this sin accounted, that even ra fyvx*, lifeless things, such as wood, ©» CHAP- V.] UPON DEUTERONOMY. or stone, or iron, wherewith a man was killed, Draco ordered to be thrown out of their coasts. (lb. p. 523.)
Deuteronomy 5:18
Thou shalt not commit adultery. This crime was also punished with death by the laws of Draco. Solon, indeed, left it to the liberty of the husband, who caught another man in bed with his wife, either to kill him, if he pleased, or to let him redeem his life with a sum of money. But if after this he lived with his wife, he was infamous, as Demosthenes tells us, who saith, she might not come publicly into their temples: if she did, any man might treat her as he pleased, only not kill her: so that she was so odious as to be thrown, “Ek re t?jc oiKiac rov avSpoc, tcai c£ hpuv rwv rije 7roAewc» both out of the house of her husband, and out of holy places of the city. Nor might she go abroad with any ornaments (Mr; tZ&vai Kovfiuv&ai, is the law of Solon): if she did, any body might take them away from her, and tear her clothes in pieces, and beat her, only not maim her in any part of her body. (See the same Petitus, lib. vi. tit. 4.)
Deuteronomy 5:19
Neither shalt thou steal. The laws of Draco punished all theft with death: which Solon thought too severe, and therefore changed that punishment into making satisfaction, by restoring double; yet still making it death, if any man stole above such a value, or took anything out of the public baths, and such-like places, though of never so little value. (See in the same author, lib. vii. tit. 5.)
Deuteronomy 5:20
Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour. There was an action, at Athens, lay both against false witnesses, and him that produced them; who had a fine set upon them, and were made infamous. And if they were found thrice in the same fault, Tovrotfc iSu teal avrovg, KaX rove Ik tovtwv, aTtfiovg elvai, both they themselves, and all their posterity, were made infamous, as Andocides speaks. (See ib. p. 559.)
Deuteronomy 5:21
Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour’s wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour’s house, &c. It is observed by some, that an exact order is observed in. the delivery of these precepts: for, first, he places such offences as are consummate, and then those that are but begun, and not perfected. And in the former, he proceeds from those that are most heinous unto those that are less grievous: for those offences are the greatest which disturb the public order, and consequently do mischief unto a great many. Such are those that are committed against governors and rulers, who are comprehended under the name of parents, by whose authority human society is preserved. And then, among those which are against particular persons, those are the greatest which touch a man’s life; next, those that wrong his family, the foundation of which is matrimony; then, those that wrong him in his goods, either directly by stealth, or more craftily by bearing false witness. Then, in the last place, those sins are mentioned which are not consummate, being gone no farther than desire; which in Exod. xx. 17. are expressed by one and the same word, but here by two; which we translate desire and covet: between which I know no difference, unless they express higher and lower degrees of the same sin. The contrary to which is, contentedncss with our portion, and thankfulness to God for it; which will not let us covet any thing belonging to another man, with his loss and damage.
Deuteronomy 5:22
These words th&Lord spake unto all the assembly in tJie mount; out of the midst oftltefire, of the clouds, and of the thick darkness. Exod. xix. 1G. xx. 13. This confutes the foolish fancy of the Jewish doctors, that the people heard only the first words of God, lam the Lore) thy God, ■&e.’tkou shalt have no other gods bat me; i. e. they heard him declare his existence, and his unity; but all the rest were reported to them by Moses. Nothing can be more contrary to what he here saith, that all these words (that is, the ten words beforementioned) were spoken to their whole assembly. (See More Nevochim, par. ii. cap. 33.). With a great voice.] That is, so loud that it might be heard by the whole camp. And he added no more.] All the rest of the commands ments,.which follow in Exod. xxi. xxii. and xxiii.Were delivered to Moses alone, and by him to the people, according to their own desire, (Exod. xx. 19. xxi. 1. xxiv. 3.) And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.] That is, the ten commandments, and no more, (Exod. xxiv. 12. xxxi. 18. xxxiv. 1. 28.) Lest what they heard with their ears should quickly slide out of their minds, he took care to have.it engraven with his own hands in these tables.
Deuteronomy 5:23
And it came to pass, when ye heardthe voice out of the midst of the darkness (for the mountain did barn with fire), that ye’ came near unto me; even all the heads of the tribes and elders.] After they had recovered out of the fright wherein they were at the conclusion of these words: when the thunderiugs, lightnings, and noise of the trumpet were so terrible, that they removed, and stood afar ofF, (Exod. xx. 18.)
Deuteronomy 5:24
And ye said t Behold, the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory, and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst oftltefire. Here Moses relates more largely what he said in short, Exod. xx. 19. We have seen this day, that God doth talk with man, and he liveth.] This looks like a thankful acknowledgment of the great goodness of God, in vouchsafing them such a favour as never any men had before, and which they could not expect again. And accordingly Moses makes use of it as an argument to be very observant of God’s commands, (Exod. xx. 22, 23.)
Deuteronomy 5:25
Now, therefore, why should tee die? for this great fire will consume us: for if we hear, the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we shall die. It is an ungrounded conceit of Maimonides (in the place abovementioned), that, when they had heard the first words, they fell into a swoon, and did not recover themselves till all the rest were spoken; which made them conclude, that they should really die, and never come to themselves again (as we speak), if they should hear him speak to them any more. The plain meaning is, that mortal men could not endure to hear him speak in that manner: for the voice was so loud, and accompanied with such flashes of fire, and such claps of thunder, as made them conclude, if it had continued longer, they should have expired.
Deuteronomy 5:26
For who is there of all flesh,. i. e. Of all men who are weak and frail, as the word flesh denotes. Tliathath heard the voice of the living God, speaking^out of the midst of fire (as we have) and lived?\ There is no instance of such a thing as this, which made them afraid of hearing him speak, in this manner, any more: for they did not mind God’s end and intention in this, (which Moses suggests to them in Exod. xx. 20.) but in a confusion of thoughts imagiucd, that though they had escaped once, the