John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 5:1

"And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and observe to do them." — Deuteronomy 5:1 (ASV)

And Moses called all Israel. Since the plan and order of exposition which I have adopted required that this same preface, as it is repeated word for word in Deuteronomy, should also be read here together, I have thought it appropriate to also insert the five verses which in this place precede it.

In the first verse, Moses exhorts the people to hear the judgments and statutes of God, which he sets before them. He likewise states the object of this: that they should keep²²² them, so as to do them.

This is as if to say that he was not offering them mere empty speculations, which it was enough to understand with the mind and to talk about, but that the rule for ordering their lives was also contained in his teaching. Therefore, it urgently demands their serious meditation.

²²² So in margin A.V.