Deuteronomy 5:25

Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, then we shall die.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 5:25. Why should we die? — For though God hath, for this season, kept us alive, yet we shall never be able to endure any further discourse from him in such a terrible manner, but shall certainly sink under the burden of it.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

23-28. And … ye came near unto me—(See on [117]Ex 20:19).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Why should we die? for though God hath for this season kept us alive to our admiration, yet we shall never be able to endure any further discourse from him in such a terrible manner, but shall certainly sink under the burden of it. Compare Genesis 16:13 Judges 6:22.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Now therefore why should we die?.... 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,

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.

Geneva Study Bible

Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, then we shall die.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Deuteronomy 5:25

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

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. Deuteronomy 4:40). וטוב, perfect with ו rel. instead of the imperfect.