HarperCollins Study Bible

by Harold W. Attridge

  4.5–8 Israel will be renowned as a great nation (cf. 26.5; Gen 12.2; 18.18; 46.3; Ex 32.10) by virtue of its ethical character and the responsive nearness of its divine sovereign (cf. Ex 3.7; Judg 3.9, 15; 4.3; Ps 145.18; Isa 55.6–7). This entire law, whose just provisions and prudent observance by Israel will gain acclaim from other nations (cf. Ezra 7.25; Pss 19.7–10; 147.19–20), is the Mosaic torah proclaimed and published in Deuteronomy. See 4.44–45; 31.9–13.

  4.9–31 The case against idolatry.

  4.9 Transmission through the generations of Israel’s normative experience and polity is a major Deuteronomic concern (e.g., 6.7, 20–25; 11.19–21; 29.29; 31.12–13).

  4.10–11 The assembly at Horeb: see 5.2–5; 9.10; 10.4. Cf. Ex 19.7–25; 20.18–21.

  4.12 Key motifs in the expository argument are fire…no form…voice; see vv. 15–16, 23–25, 33, 36.

  4.13–14 The Horeb covenant (Hebrew berit) was essentially defined by the stipulations of the Decalogue; teaching Israel how to implement them in its national life was Moses’ charge. See 5.2–31; 10.4; Ex 34.27–28.

  4.15–19 An exposition of 5.8 (Ex 20.4) argues that Israel’s imageless worship (cf. Ex 20.23; 34.17; Lev 19.4; 26.1) is a consequence of the visual formlessness of the Lord’s presence at Horeb.

  4.20 By iron-smelter is meant the harshness of servitude in Egypt (cf. 1 Kings 8.51; Isa 48.10; Jer 11.4). In the exodus, Israel became the Lord’s very own possession, or “heritage” (cf. 32.8–9; 9.26, 29; 1 Sam 10.1; 1 Kings 8.53; Ps 33.12).

  4.21–23 The fact of Moses’ absence ought never again give rise to idolatry, as happened in the golden calf episode (cf. 9.12–14; Ex 32.1–10).

  4.24 Especially in combination, the epithets devouring fire (9.3; Ex 24.17; cf. Pss 18.8; 50.3) and jealous God (5.9; 6.15; Ex 34.14; Josh 24.19) express the vehement passion of the Lord’s self-defense against idolatry and other acts of profanation. See also 32.19–22; Lev 10.1–3; Num 16.35; 25.11.

  4.25–27 In view here is the exilic Dispersion as an actualization of curses owing to Israel’s breach of covenant (cf. 28.64–67; Lev 26.30–39). Heaven and earth are invoked as enduring witnesses that Moses had foreseen this fate (cf. 30.19; 31.28).

  4.28 Other gods…wood and stone. See also 28.36, 64; 29.17; 2 Kings 19.18; cf. Pss 115.4–8; 135.15–18; Isa 44.9–20; Jer 10.2–5.

  4.29–31 In view too is a renewal of covenant, predicated on Israel’s genuinely remorseful seeking of the Lord (see 6.5 on all your heart and soul) and the Lord’s perennial graciousness (cf. 5.10; 30.1–5; Lev 26.40–45; 1 Kings 8.46–51; Jer 29.10–14; Hos 14.1–7). The latter attribute is invoked by the epithet merciful God (Ex 34.6–7; cf. Neh 9.17, 31; Pss 103.8–14; 145.8–9; Jon 4.2).

  4.32–40 The Lord’s incomparability (see note on 3.24) has its counterpart in Israel’s unique experiences of divine providence. The unprecedented events of the exodus and conquest (vv. 34, 37–38) and the revelation at Horeb (vv. 33, 36) give empirical support to Israel’s monotheistic creed: the LORD (Yahweh) is God (lit. “the Deity”) and there is no other (vv. 35, 39). Cf. 32.39; 1 Kings 8.60; Isa 43.10–13; 44.6; Joel 2.27.

  4.41–43 An appended note reports that Moses himself designated three cities in the Transjordan to serve as places of refuge for persons who commit unintentional homicide (19.1–13; cf. Num 35.10–28; Josh 20).

  4.44–48 A second preface (cf. 1.1–5) introduces the covenantal legislation promulgated through Moses.

  4.44–45 The comprehensive Hebrew term for this corpus is torah (translated as law in NRSV; see Introduction). Primary components of the legislation are the decrees (also 6.17, 20; cf. Ps 25.10), the basic “terms” of the covenant, i.e., the Ten Commandments, and the statutes and ordinances (e.g., 5.1; 11.32–12.1; 26.16), a compound designation for the constitutional rules, procedures, and precedents set forth in 12.2–26.15.

  4.46–48 A brief reprise of 2.26–3.29.

  DEUTERONOMY 5

  The Ten Commandments

  1Moses convened all Israel, and said to them:

  Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I am addressing to you today; you shall learn them and observe them diligently. 2The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 3Not with our ancestors did the LORD make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. 4The LORD spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the fire. 5(At that time I was standing between the LORD and you to declare to you the wordsa of the LORD; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And he said:

  6I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 7you shall have no other gods beforeb me.

  8You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, 10but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generationc of those who love me and keep my commandments.

  11You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

  12Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. 13Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 14But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. 15Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

  16Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

  17You shall not murder.d

  18Neither shall you commit adultery.

  19Neither shall you steal.

  20Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.

  21Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife.

  Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

  Moses the Mediator of God’s Will

  22These words the LORD spoke with a loud voice to your whole assembly at the mountain, out of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, and he added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me. 23When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you approached me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders; 24and you said, “Look, the LORD our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the fire. Today we have seen that God may speak to someone and the person may still live. 25So now why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer, we shall die. 26For who is there of all flesh that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and remained alive? 27Go near, you yourself, and hear all that the LORD our God will say. Then tell us everything that the LORD our God tells you, and we will listen and do it.”

  28The LORD heard your words when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me: “I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you; they are right in all that they have spoken. 29If only they had such a mind as this, to fear me and to keep all my commandments always, so that it might go well with them and with their children forever! 30Go say to them, ‘Return to your tents.’ 31But you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandments, the statutes and the ordinances, that you shall teach them, so that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess.” 32You must therefore be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you shall n
ot turn to the right or to the left. 33You must follow exactly the path that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you are to possess.

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  a Q Mss Sam Gk Syr Vg Tg: MT word

  b Or besides

  c Or to thousands

  d Or kill

  5.1–12.1 This first major section of Mosaic torah consists of a series of hortatory keynotes (5.1–6.3; 6.4–8.20; 9.1–10.11; 10.12–12.1) treating fundamental aspects of the covenant relationship, especially the demand that Israel give willing and undivided allegiance to the Lord.

  5.1–6.3 The Israelites at Horeb heard only the Decalogue communicated to them directly by the Lord; they authorized Moses to receive and transmit to them the rest of the Lord’s covenantal legislation. See, in brief, 4.13–14.

  5.1–3 Moses’ audience today and their ancestors who had originally assembled at Horeb are generational manifestations of the corporate “Israel” with whom the Lord enacts this covenant (cf. 26.16–19; 29.10–15).

  5.4 Face to face. The Lord’s presence was immediate and unmistakable (cf. 34.10; Num 12.8).

  5.5 At that time…mountain, a parenthesis anticipating Moses’ role as the intermediary who articulated and amplified the divine speaking (see 5.22–31; cf. Ex 19.3–25).

  5.6–21 There are some substantive as well as minor differences between this version of the Decalogue (“the ten words”) and the one in Ex 20.2–17.

  5.6–10 These verses define the irreducible crux of the covenant relationship (see, e.g., 31.20; Josh 23.16; 2 Kings 17.35–39; Jer 11.9–13). Voiced in the divine first person, the verses form a coherent “word” and comprise a single paragraph in the Hebrew Masoretic Text (which NRSV divides into two segments to lend support to another enumeration of the commandments). The Lord’s declaration of sovereignty (v. 6) introduces a series of three injunctions that prohibit association of other deities and any form of idolatry with worship of the Lord (vv. 7–9a). The final clauses proclaim the chief dimensions of the Lord’s steadfastness, which should motivate Israel’s reciprocal fidelity to the bond of covenant (vv. 9b–10; cf. 4.24, 31; 7.9–10).

  5.7 Other gods are elsewhere understood to include celestial bodies (e.g., 17.3; cf. 4.19; 2 Kings 23.4–5) as well as various national deities (e.g., 6.14; 13.6–7; 1 Kings 11.4–8), all of which are typically associated with the veneration of their iconographic representations (e.g., 28.36, 64; 2 Kings 17.29–31; Jer 1.16). Before me, lit. “upon my face,” i.e., masking, eclipsing, or otherwise compromising the Lord’s unique identity and presence.

  5.8 An idol (Hebrew pesel) means any cast, carved, or sculpted image, whether ostensibly representing the Lord or some other divine entity or deified power. See, e.g., 4.16–18; 27.15; Judg 17.3–4; 18.30–31; 2 Kings 21.7; Isa 42.17; cf. also Ex 34.17; Lev 19.4; 1 Kings 14.9.

  5.9 Jealous God. See note on 4.24. Punishing children…parents. See notes on 7.10; 24.16.

  5.10 Steadfast love (Hebrew chesed) is the ardent faithfulness modeled by the Lord and appropriate to both familial and covenantal relationships. See esp. Ex 15.13; 34.6–7; Hos 2.19–20; 11.1–4; Mic 6.8.

  5.11–21 These nine articulated “words” or stipulations include third-person references to the Lord (vv. 11, 12, 14, 15, 16); they are apparently voiced by Moses on the Lord’s behalf (see v. 5).

  5.11 Wrongful use, invocation of the divine name in false oaths or for any magical, malicious, or blasphemous purpose (cf. Lev 19.12; 24.10–23; Ps 24.4; Jer 29.23; Hos 4.2).

  5.12–15 The command to hallow the sabbath day through observance of broadly inclusive communal rest is connected here with remembrance of the Lord’s intervention to release Israel from slavery in Egypt (cf. Ex 20.8–11; 23.12; 31.12–17; 34.21; Isa 58.13–14; Jer 17.21–27).

  5.16 Honor, respect for parental authority and dignity (cf. 21.18–21; 27.16; Ex 21.15, 17) and faithful performance of filial duties, such as care for aging parents (cf. Sir 3.1–16).

  5.17 Murder includes both negligent and premeditated homicide (cf. Ex 21.12–14, 29; Num 35.16–34).

  5.18–21 Neither, lit. “and not” i.e., the final terse prohibitions are linked in series.

  5.18 Adultery. Cf. Lev 18.20; 20.10; Prov 6.23–29; Jer 7.9.

  5.19 Steal, whether persons or property (cf. 24.7; Ex 21.16; 22.1).

  5.20 False witness. See 19.15–19; Ex 23.1–3; 1 Kings 21.5–14; Prov 25.18.

  5.21 Both the ninth and tenth “words” prohibit covetousness, but they distinguish lust to possess a neighbor’s wife (cf. Prov 6.25) from compulsive desire to alienate a neighbor’s house or other properties (cf. Isa 5.8; Mic 2.2).

  5.22–6.3 Moses’ authority to legislate and instruct in matters of the covenant was established through formal agreement at Horeb.

  5.22 These words. Only the preceding Decalogue. Like all Israel in developed Deuteronomic usage (cf. 5.1; 12.7, 12, 18; 29.2, 10–13), whole assembly seems to mean the full constituency of the covenant people, inclusive of women and children (cf. 16.16; 23.1–8; 31.12–13, 30; Ex 19.15; cf. Josh 8.35; 2 Kings 23.1–3. The tablets document Israel’s receipt of the Decalogue as the basic terms of the covenant (see 4.13; 9.9–11, 17; 10.1–5; cf. 31.9, 26).

  5.24 Glory and greatness, the awesome visual display of the Lord’s presence, which served as accompaniment to the divine speaking (cf. 4.10–12; Ex 19.9, 16–18; 24.9, 15–18; Num 16.19; cf. also Ex 33.18–23; 1 Kings 19.11–13).

  5.26 Living God, the God whose rule is manifest through word and deed (e.g., Josh 3.10; 1 Sam 17.26; 2 Kings 19.4, 16; Jer 10.10; 23.36).

  5.27 Listen and do it. Israel agreed to heed Moses’ voice as the Lord’s own.

  5.28–31 The Lord ratified Israel’s choice of Moses as intermediary, empowering him not only to transmit divine commandments but also to teach their application.

  5.32–6.1 Now, a generation later, Moses is about to fulfill his commission by providing Israel with the divinely sanctioned charter for its life in the land.

  DEUTERONOMY 6

  The Great Commandment

  1Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that the LORD your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, 2so that you and your children and your children’s children may fear the LORD your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. 3Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.

  4Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.a 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblemb on your forehead, 9and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

  Caution against Disobedience

  10When the LORD your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, 11houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you have eaten your fill, 12take care that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13The LORD your God you shall fear; him you shall serve, and by his name alone you shall swear. 14Do not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who are all around you, 15because the LORD your God, who is present with you, is a jealous God. The anger of the LORD your God would be kindled against you and he would destroy you from the face of the earth.

&nb
sp; 16Do not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. 17You must diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his decrees, and his statutes that he has commanded you. 18Do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may go in and occupy the good land that the LORD swore to your ancestors to give you, 19thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has promised.

  20When your children ask you in time to come, “What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the LORD our God has commanded you?” 21then you shall say to your children, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22The LORD displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household. 23He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors. 24Then the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case. 25If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the right.”

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  a Or The LORD our God is one LORD, or The LORD our God, the LORD is one, or The LORD is our God, the LORD is one

  b Or as a frontlet

  6.2 Fear means to revere and obey the Lord as trustworthy sovereign (e.g., 4.10; 5.29; 6.13, 24; 10.12).

  6.3 Land flowing with milk and honey. Cf. Ex 3.8; 13.5; 33.3. For the divine promises, see notes on 1.8; 1.10–11.

  6.4–8.20 This section offers Moses’ instruction on how Israel, when it comes into possession of a national homeland, must conduct its life by disciplined devotion to the Lord.