Deuteronomy 9:10

9:10 The Lord gave me the two stone tablets, written by the very finger ¹  of God, and on them was everything ²  he ³  said to you at the mountain from the midst of the fire at the time of that assembly.

Deuteronomy 10:4

10:4 The Lord ⁴  then wrote on the tablets the same words, ⁵  the ten commandments, ⁶  which he ⁷  had spoken to you at the mountain from the middle of the fire at the time of that assembly, and he ⁸  gave them to me.

Deuteronomy 18:16

18:16 This accords with what happened at Horeb in the day of the assembly. You asked the Lord your God: “Please do not make us hear the voice of the Lord our ⁹  God any more or see this great fire any more lest we die.”

Deuteronomy 31:12

31:12 Gather the people – men, women, and children, as well as the resident foreigners in your villages – so they may hear and thus learn about and fear the Lord your God and carefully obey all the words of this law.

Deuteronomy 4:10

4:10 You ¹⁰  stood before the Lord your God at Horeb and he ¹¹  said to me, “Assemble the people before me so that I can tell them my commands. ¹²  Then they will learn to revere me all the days they live in the land, and they will instruct their children.”

¹ sn The very finger of God. This is a double figure of speech (1) in which God is ascribed human features (anthropomorphism) and (2) in which a part stands for the whole (synecdoche). That is, God, as Spirit, has no literal finger nor, if he had, would he write with his finger. Rather, the sense is that God himself – not Moses in any way – was responsible for the composition of the Ten Commandments (cf. Exod 31:18; 32:16; 34:1).

² tn Heb “according to all the words.”

³ tn Heb “the Lord” (likewise at the beginning of vv. 12, 13). See note on “he” in 9:3.

⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Heb “according to the former writing.” See note on the phrase “the same words” in v. 2.

⁶ tn Heb “ten words.” The “Ten Commandments” are known in Hebrew as the “Ten Words,” which in Greek became the “Decalogue.”

⁷ tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

⁸ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” earlier in this verse.

⁷ tn The Hebrew text uses the collective singular in this verse: “my God…lest I die.”

¹⁰ tn The text begins with “(the) day (in) which.” In the Hebrew text v. 10 is subordinate to v. 11, but for stylistic reasons the translation treats v. 10 as an independent clause, necessitating the omission of the subordinating temporal phrase at the beginning of the verse.

¹¹ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 4:3.

¹² tn Heb “my words.” See v. 13; in Hebrew the “ten commandments” are the “ten words.”