The Opening Exhortation, 1-5

5:1 Then Moses called all the people of Israel together and said to them: “Listen, Israel, to the statutes and ordinances that I am about to deliver to you today; learn them and be careful to keep them! 5:2 The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 5:3 He did not make this covenant with our ancestors but with us, we who are here today, all of us living now. 5:4 The LORD spoke face to face with you at the mountain, from the middle of the fire. 5:5 (I was standing between the LORD and you at that time to reveal to you the message of the LORD, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain.) He said:

The Ten Commandments, 6-21

5:6 “I am the LORD your God, he who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the place of slavery. 5:7 You must not have any other gods besides me. 5:8 You must not make for yourself an image of anything in heaven above, on earth below, or in the waters beneath. 5:9 You must not worship or serve them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God. I punish the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons for the sin of the fathers who reject me, 5:10 but I show covenant faithfulness to the thousands who choose me and keep my commandments. 5:11 You must not make use of the name of the LORD your God for worthless purposes, for the LORD will not exonerate anyone who abuses his name that way. 5:12 Be careful to observe the Sabbath day just as the LORD your God has commanded you. 5:13 You are to work and do all your tasks in six days, 5:14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. On that day you must not do any work, you, your son, your daughter, your male slave, your female slave, your ox, your donkey, any other animal, or the foreigner who lives with you, so that your male and female slaves, like yourself, may have rest. 5:15 Recall that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there by strength and power. That is why the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. 5:16 Honor your father and your mother just as the LORD your God has commanded you to do, so that your days may be extended and that it may go well with you in the land that he is about to give you. 5:17 You must not murder. 5:18 You must not commit adultery. 5:19 You must not steal. 5:20 You must not offer false testimony against another. 5:21 You must not desire another man’s wife, nor should you crave his house, his field, his male and female servants, his ox, his donkey, or anything else he owns.”

“You must not make for yourself an image of anything in heaven above, on earth below, or in the waters beneath” – ‘Although the Israelites repudiated actual physical images of Yahweh, they were not lacking in creativity when it came to rhetorical imagery for Yahweh, drawn vigorously from the created and human order. Israel’s language imagery for Yahweh made him very “visible” to the mental eye through a rich and often daring anthropomorphic and metaphorical style. The affirmation that Yahweh is personal seemed more urgent than fear about his invisible spirituality…Yahweh is the living God, and any carved statue is necessarily lifeless. Something that can do nothing is no image of the God who can do all things. The only legitimate image of God, therefore, is the image of God created in his own likeness – the living, thinking, working, speaking, breathing, relating human being (not even a human statue will do, but only the living person)…As the speaking God, Yahweh reveals, addresses, promises, challenges, confronts, demands. Any attempt to turn Yahweh into a voiceless statue effectively gags God. Idolatry therefore is fundamentally an escape from the living voice and commands of the living God’ (Wright)

“I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God” – ‘The jealousy of Yahweh is a function of his covenant commitment to his people. Having committed himself exclusively to them, he requires loyalty in return. In a context of committed love, the exclusion of rivals (i.e. jealousy) is a perfectly proper concern, as that celebration of human love declares:

Love is as strong as death its jealousy as unyielding as the grave. (Song 8:6)

‘The covenant relationship between God and God’s people really means something only if God is totally committed to it. A God who was not jealous for the reciprocal committment of God’s [people would be as contemptible as a husband who didn’t care whether or not his wife was faithful to him. Part of our problem with this profound covenantal reality is that we have come to regard religion, like everything else, as a matter of “consumer choice,” which we have virtually deified for its own sake. We resent monopolies. But the unique and incomparable, only living God makes necessarily exclusive claims and has the right to a monopoly on our love…Jealousy is God’s love protecting itself.’ (Wright)

“I punish the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons for the sin of the fathers who reject me” – cf. Ex 34:6f – “The Lord…by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”

“You must not offer false testimony against another” – ‘Though the primary reference of the commandment is to false testimony in court, it also embodies a concern about truthfulness in the wider spheres of human relating. The OT, especially in the Psalms and Wisdom literature, has a passionate interest in truth, partly as a reflection of an essential characteristic of Yahweh himself, and partly out of an throroughly practical and consequential awareness of the cost to individuals and society as a whole when lying becomes endemic.’ (Wright)

‘The commandment is not simply about telling the truth in general, but about telling the truth in the place where it counts most, because that is where lying can cost most – the court of law.’ (Wright, on Deut 5:20)

The OT law recognised that temptations to give false witness may come from

• fraud and greed, Lev 19:11-13
• slander and hatred, Lev 19:16-18
• crowd pressure and conspiracy, Ex 23:1f
• misplaced favouritism, Ex 23:3; Lev 19:15
• family loyalties, Deut 13:6-11

‘It therefore established a remarkable retributive law on perjury: anyone discovered to have given false testimony was to be punished with the same punishment that the victim of his accusation would have received if the verdict had gone against him, Deut 19:16-21. One wonders what a salutary effect such a law might have in the modern world, which is plagued with misscarriages of justice notoriously caused by false testimony and conspiracy.’

Along with idolatry and oppression, the perversion of justice was one of the main targets of the prophets. Indeed, the three form a trinity of evil, and are apparent together in the story of how the king and queen robbed Naboth of his vineyard, 1 King 21. Later, in the days of Amos, justice had become systematically corrupt, and truthful witnessed were hated and intimidated, Amos 5:7,10,12f,15; cf. Isa 5:20-23; 10:1f; Hos 4:1f; Jer 5:1f, 26-28; 7:9.

(See Wright)

v21 ‘It is worth reflecting that these last five commandments, which occur so widely in ancient Near Eastern law codes, reflect certain fundamental requirements for all societies. We may believe that they owe their origin to the Creator of the universe. That they should form part of the decalogue is only an indication of their divine origin.’ (Thompson)

The Narrative of the Sinai Revelation and Israel’s Response, 22-33

5:22 The LORD said these things to your entire assembly at the mountain from the middle of the fire, the cloud, and the darkness with a loud voice, and that was all he said. Then he inscribed the words on two stone tablets and gave them to me. 5:23 Then, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness while the mountain was ablaze, all your tribal leaders and elders approached me. 5:24 You said, “The LORD our God has shown us his great glory and we have heard him speak from the middle of the fire. It is now clear to us that God can speak to human beings and they can keep on living. 5:25 But now, why should we die, because this intense fire will consume us! If we keep hearing the voice of the LORD our God we will die! 5:26 Who is there from the entire human race who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the middle of the fire as we have, and has lived? 5:27 You go near so that you can hear everything the LORD our God is saying and then you can tell us whatever he says to you; then we will pay attention and do it.” 5:28 When the LORD heard you speaking to me, he said to me, “I have heard what these people have said to you—they have spoken well. 5:29 If only it would really be their desire to fear me and obey all my commandments in the future, so that it may go well with them and their descendants forever. 5:30 Go and tell them, ‘Return to your tents!’ 5:31 But as for you, remain here with me so I can declare to you all the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that you are to teach them, so that they can carry them out in the land I am about to give them.” 5:32 Be careful, therefore, to do exactly what the LORD your God has commanded you; do not turn right or left! 5:33 Walk just as he has commanded you so that you may live, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land you are going to possess.

v33 “So that…” – Five times in this short passage (Deut 5:32-6:3) the rewards of heartfelt obedience are set out.