Charles Ellicott Commentary Deuteronomy 5

And Moses called all Israel, and said. —What follows is therefore presented to us as an actual exhortation, not merely a portion of a book.

The statutes and judgments. —The religious ordinances and institutions, and the general requirements. The mention of these is placed before the Decalogue, of which they are only the application —to a special people under special circumstances. More precisely, the words apply rather to what follows the Decalogue than to the Ten Commandments themselves. (See Deuteronomy 6:1.)

The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. —It must never be forgotten that the Law is a covenant in its very form. (See Note on Deuteronomy 5:6.)

Not ... with our fathers, but with us. —That is, according to the usage of the Hebrew language in drawing contrasts, not only with our fathers (who actually heard it), but with us also, who were, by descent, in our fathers, and for whom the covenant was intended no less than for them; and, in fact, every man who was above forty-two at the time of this discourse might actually remember the day at Sinai.

The Lord talked with you face to face. —Yet they saw no manner of similitude (Deuteronomy 4:12), i.e., no visible form: but the very words of God reached their ears. So in Exodus 20:22, You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.

In this verse a colon seems too large a stop after “the word of the Lord.” Perhaps it should rather be read thus: “I stood between Jehovah and you at that time (for you were afraid by reason of the fire), and you went not up into the mount).” The cause of their not going up into the mount was not their fear, but the express prohibition of Jehovah, as may be seen by Exodus 19:0.