Deuteronomy 5:1-8

Context

The Opening Exhortation

5:1 Then Moses called all the people of Israel together and said to them:¹ “Listen, Israel, to the statutes and ordinances that I am about to deliver to you today; learn them and be careful to keep them! 5:2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 5:3 He² did not make this covenant with our ancestors³ but with us, we who are here today, all of us living now. 5:4 The Lord spoke face to face with you at the mountain, from the middle of the fire. 5:5 (I was standing between the Lord and you at that time to reveal to you the message⁴ of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain.) He said:

The Ten Commandments

5:6 “I am the Lord your God, he who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the place of slavery. 5:7 You must not have any other gods⁵ besides me.⁶ 5:8 You must not make for yourself an image⁷ of anything in heaven above, on earth below, or in the waters beneath.⁸

[5:1] ¹tn Heb “and Moses called to all Israel and he said to them”; NAB, NASB, NIV “Moses summoned (convened NRSV) all Israel.”

[5:3] ²tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[5:3] ³tn Heb “fathers.”

[5:5] ⁴tn Or “word” (so KJV, NASB, NIV); NRSV “words.”

[5:7] ⁵tn Heb “there must not be for you other gods.” The expression “for you” indicates possession.

[5:7] ⁶tn Heb “upon my face,” or “before me” (עַל־פָּנָיַ, ’al-panaya). Some understand this in a locative sense: “in my sight.” The translation assumes that the phrase indicates exclusion. The idea is that of placing any other god before the Lord in the sense of taking his place. Contrary to the view of some, this does not leave the door open for a henotheistic system where the Lord is the primary god among others. In its literary context the statement must be taken in a monotheistic sense. See, e.g., 4:39; 6:13-15.

[5:8] ⁷tn Heb “an image, any likeness.”

[5:8] ⁸tn Heb “under the earth” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV); NCV “below the land.”