Deuteronomy 5:31

But as for thee, stand thou here by me, and I will speak unto thee all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

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

29. Oh, that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me—God can bestow such a heart, and has promised to give it, wherever it is asked (Jer 32:40). But the wish which is here expressed on the part of God for the piety and steadfast obedience of the Israelites did not relate to them as individuals, so much as a nation, whose religious character and progress would have a mighty influence on the world at large.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But as for thee, stand thou here by me,.... On the mount by him whither he was called up; Moses was not permitted to go to his tent when the children of Israel were, but was ordered to wait upon the Lord to receive instructions from him, which he was to communicate to the people, being a kind of a mediator between God and them, as they requested, and which was granted them:

and I will speak unto thee all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments: all laws, moral, ceremonial, and judicial, which belong to them as men, as in a church state, and members of a body politic:

which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them; for all doctrine is in order to practice, without which all instructions, and theoretical notions, signify little: and these they were more especially to do, and some of them peculiarly:

in the land which I give them to possess it: the land of Canaan, and which laid on them no small obligation to do the commandments of God; since of his free favour and good will, and as a pure gift of his, he had bestowed upon them a land flowing with milk and honey, into which he was just now about to bring them; as nothing can more strongly engage souls to a cheerful obedience to the service of God, whether in private or in public, than the consideration of the great and good things which God of his rich grace bestows upon them, and has promised to them, and prepared for them, and will quickly put them into the possession of; and upon such an account Moses presses the observance of the commands of God in the following verses.

Geneva Study Bible

But as for thee, stand thou here by me, and I will speak unto thee all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

31. Moses is commanded to stand by God in order to receive other laws (than the Ten Words) to teach the people subsequently.

all the commandment] or charge; Heb. miṣwah. ‘ “The (or this) commandment “recurs Deuteronomy 6:1, Deuteronomy 7:11, Deuteronomy 30:11; with “all,” Deuteronomy 6:25, Deuteronomy 8:1, Deuteronomy 9:8; Deuteronomy 9:22, Deuteronomy 15:5, Deuteronomy 19:9, Deuteronomy 27:1 (of a special injunction), Deuteronomy 31:5. As Deuteronomy 11:22, Deuteronomy 19:9 show, it denotes the deuteronomic legislation generally (esp. on its moral and religious side) viewed as the expression of a single principle, the fundamental duty of Deuteronomy 6:5’ (Driver); yet it is also possible to interpret it here, as in Deuteronomy 11:22, Deuteronomy 19:9, of the principles underlying the laws and expounded in this discourse. See below on Deuteronomy 6:1.

the statutes, and the judgements] With Sam. omit the preceding and. The statutes and judgements (the usual deuteronomic phrase) are thus the contents or detailed applications o (the miṣwah, the separate laws to be subsequently given in Moab on the eve of the people’s entrance to the promised land (as the rest of the verse declares), and which are contained in chs. 12–26.

the land which I give them] Rather, am about to give them. So without addition Deuteronomy 4:1, Deuteronomy 11:17, in the Pl. address, and Deuteronomy 15:7, Deuteronomy 18:9, Deuteronomy 26:2, Deuteronomy 27:2-3, Deuteronomy 28:8; Deuteronomy 28:52, all passages in the Sg. address. With the addition to possess it as here, Deuteronomy 3:18 (hath given), Pl.; Deuteronomy 9:6, Deuteronomy 12:1, Deuteronomy 17:14 (shalt possess), Deuteronomy 19:14, all Sg. (except perhaps Deuteronomy 12:1, which is doubtful). With the addition for an inheritance, Deuteronomy 4:21, Deuteronomy 15:4 (+ to possess it), Deuteronomy 19:10, Deuteronomy 24:4, Deuteronomy 25:19, Deuteronomy 26:1, all Sg. Cp. Deuteronomy 12:10 causeth you, Deuteronomy 19:3 causeth thee, to inherit.

Deuteronomy 5:31

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.