Exodus 20:1

And God spake all these words,.... Which follow, commonly called the decalogue, or ten commands; a system or body of laws, selected and adapted to the case and circumstances of the people of Israel;

And God spake all these words, saying, And God spake all these words , [ kaal (H3605) hadªbaariym (H1697)] - words, precepts, or commandments, all bear the same meaning, and are used synonymously by

EXODUS CHAPTER 20 The object of man’ s worship, ,2. The decalogue, . The people fear, . They desire Moses to speak to them, and not God, . Moses encourages them, . Moses drawing near the darkness, God speaks to him, ,22. God’ s charge about making no other gods, . God’ s command to build an altar, and of what they should make it, ,25; and in what manner they should approach unto it, . Or, Then, to wit, when Moses was returned into the mount. God spake immediately, and not by an angel. For though an ambassador or messenger may act in the name of his master, yet it is against the use of all ages and places for such to call themselves by his name. As well might an ambassador of France say, I am the king of France, which all men would account absurd, arrogant, and ridiculous, as an angel might say, I am the Lord. All these words, i.e. commands, for so the word is used, .

Exodus 20:1 And God spake all these words, saying,Ver. 1. God spake all, &c.] All the ten are of divine authority. Papists disannulling the second, that yet they may retain the number of ten words, so loath are heretics to have their asses’ ears seen, divide the last, which yet is called "the commandment," not the commandments. Vasques, not able to answer our argument, saith that the second commandment belonged to the Jews only.

XX. THE TEN .(1) God spake.—It is distinctly stated in Deuteronomy that the Ten Commandments were spoken to “all the assembly of Israel,” by God, “out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice” (Deuteronomy 5:22). It was not till after their delivery that the people entreated to be spared further communications of so awful a character. How the sounds were produced is a mystery unrevealed, and on which it is idle to speculate. Jehovah alone appears as the speaker in the Old Testament; in the New, we hear of the instrumentality of angels (Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19; Hebrews 2:2). All these words.—In Scripture the phrase used to designate the Ten Commandments is “the Ten Words” (Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 4:13; Deuteronomy 10:4). It has been universally recognised, both by the Jewish and Christian Churches, that they occupy an unique position among the utterances which constitute God’s revelation to man. Alone uttered publicly by God in the ears of the people, alone inscribed on stone by the finger of God Himself, alone, of all commands, deposited in the penetrale of worship—the Ark—they formed the germ and basis, the very pith and kernel of the covenant which God, through Moses, made with man, and which was to continue for above thirteen hundred years the exposition of His will to the human race. They enunciate a morality infinitely above that of all the then existing nations of the earth—nay, above that of the wisest of mankind to whom revelation was unknown. There is no compendium of morality in Confucianism, in Buddhism, in the religion of Zoroaster, or of Egypt, or of Greece or Rome, which can be put in competition with the Decalogue. Broad exceedingly (Psalms 119:96), yet searching and minute in its requirements; embracing the whole range of human duty, yet never vague or indeterminate; systematic, yet free from the hardness and narrowness commonly attaching to systems: the Decalogue has maintained and will always maintain itself, if not as an absolutely complete summary of human duty, yet as a summary which has never been superseded. When our Lord was asked what a man must do to inherit eternal life, He replied by a reference to the Decalogue: “Thou knowest the commandments” (Mark 10:19). When the Church would impress on her children their complete duty both to God and man, she requires them to be taught the “Ten Words.” When adult Christians are to be reminded, before coming to Holy Communion, of the necessity of self-examination and repentance, the same summary is read to them. It is an extraordinary testimony to the excellence of the compendium that, originating in Judaism, it has been maintained unchanged in a religious system so different from Judaism as Christianity.

CHAPTER XX The preface to the ten commandments, 1, 2. The FIRST commandment, against mental or theoretic idolatry, 3. The SECOND, against making and worshipping images, or practical idolatry, 4-6. The THIRD, against false swearing, blasphemy, and irreverent use of the name of God, 7. The FOURTH, against profanation of the Sabbath, and idleness on the other days of the week, 8-11. The FIFTH, against disrespect and disobedience to parents, 12. The SIXTH, against murder and cruelty, 13. The SEVENTH, against adultery and uncleanness, 14. The EIGHTH, against stealing and dishonesty, 15. The NINTH, against false testimony, perjury, c., 16. The TENTH, against covetousness, 17. The people are alarmed at the awful appearance of God on the mount, and stand afar off, 18. They pray that Moses may be mediator between God and them, 19. Moses encourages them, 20. He draws near to the thick darkness, and God communes with him, 21, 22. Farther directions against idolatry, 23. Directions concerning making an altar of earth, 24 and an altar of hewn stone, 25. None of these to be ascended by steps, and the reason given, 26. NOTES ON CHAP. XX Verse 1. All these words] Houbigant supposes, and with great plausibility of reason, that the clause את כל הדברים האלה eth col haddebarim haelleh, "all these words," belong to the latter part of the concluding verse of chap. xix., which he thinks should be read thus: And Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them ALL THESE WORDS; i.e., delivered the solemn charge relative to their not attempting to come up to that part of the mountain on which God manifested himself in his glorious majesty, lest he should break forth upon them and consume them. For how could Divine justice and purity suffer a people so defiled to stand in his immediate presence? When Moses, therefore, had gone down and spoken all these words, and he and Aaron had reascended the mount, then the Divine Being, as supreme legislator, is majestically introduced thus: And God spake, saying. This gives a dignity to the commencement of this chapter of which the clause above mentioned, if not referred to the speech of Moses, deprives it. The Anglo-Saxon favours this emendation: [Anglo-Saxon], God spoke THUS, which is the whole of the first verse as it stands in that version. Some learned men are of opinion that the TEN COMMANDMENTS were delivered on May 30, being then the day of pentecost. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS The laws delivered on Mount Sinai have been variously named. In Deuteronomy 4:13, they are called עשרת הדברים asereth haddebarim, THE TEN WORDS. In the preceding chapter, Exodus 19:5, God calls them את בריתי eth berithi, my COVENANT, i.e., the agreement he entered into with the people of Israel to take them for his peculiar people, if they took him for their God and portion. IF ye will obey my voice indeed, and KEEP my COVENANT, THEN shall ye be a peculiar treasure unto me.

1. And God spake, &c.] the sequel in E to Exodus 19:19.

The Hebrew name which is rendered in our King James Version as the ten commandments occurs in Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 4:13; Deuteronomy 10:4.

1. God spake — The Creator of man and the world, who has all authority in heaven and earth, is the fountain of law.