Exodus 20

Exo 20:1 And God spake all these words, saying,

The Hebrew name which is rendered in our King James Version as the ten commandments occurs in Exo_34:28; Deu_4:13; Deu_10:4. It literally means “the Ten Words.” The Ten Commandments are also called the law, even the commandment Exo_24:12, the words of the covenant Exo_34:28, the tables of the covenant Deu_9:9, the covenant Deu_4:13, the two tables Deu_9:10, Deu_9:17, and, most frequently, the testimony (e. g. Exo_16:34; Exo_25:16), or the two tables of the testimony (e. g. Exo_31:18). In the New Testament they are called simply the commandments (e. g. Mat_19:17). Thus we know that the tables were two, and that the commandments were ten, in number.

All these words – one scholar supposes that these words belong to the latter part of the concluding verse of Exodus 19, 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 re-ascended 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. Some learned men are of opinion that the Ten Commandments were delivered on May 30, being then the day of pentecost.

The laws delivered on Mount Sinai have been variously named. In Deu_4:13, they are called The Ten Words. In the preceding chapter, Exo_19:5, God calls them 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. And the word covenant here evidently refers to the laws given in this chapter, as is evident from Deu_4:13: And he declared unto you his Covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments. They have been also termed the moral law, because they contain and lay down rules for the regulation of the manners or conduct of men. Sometimes they have been termed the Law, by way of eminence, as containing the grand system of spiritual instruction, direction, guidance, etc. And frequently the Decalogue which is a literal translation into Greek of the Ten Words, of Moses.

Among scholars they are generally divided into what they term the first and second tables. The First table containing the first, second, third, and fourth commandments, and comprehending the whole system of theology, the true notions we should form of the Divine nature, the reverence we owe and the religious service we should render to him. The Second, containing the six last commandments, and comprehending a complete system of ethics, or moral duties, which man owes to his fellows, and on the due performance of which the order, peace and happiness of society depend. By this division, the First table contains our duty to God; the Second our duty to our Neighbor. This division, which is natural enough, refers us to the grand principle, love to God and love to man, through which both tables are observed. Matthew 22:36-40 Master, which is the great commandment in the Law? Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

And God spake all these words - Which follow, commonly called the decalogue, or ten commandments; The law of the ten commandments is a law of God's making; a law of his own speaking. God has many ways of speaking to the children of men by his spirit, conscience, providences; his voice in all which we ought carefully to attend to: but he never spake at any time upon any occasion as he spake the ten commandments, which therefore we ought to hear with the more earnest heed. This law God had given to man before, it was written in his heart by nature; but sin had so defaced that writing, that it was necessary to revive the knowledge of it.

And God spake all these words --The Divine Being Himself was the speaker (Deu_5:12, Deu_5:32-33), in tones so loud as to be heard--so distinct as to be intelligible by the whole multitude standing in the valleys below, amid the most appalling phenomena of agitated nature. Had He been simply addressing rational and intelligent creatures, He would have spoken with the still small voice of persuasion and love. But He was speaking to those who were at the same time fallen and sinful creatures, and a corresponding change was required in the manner of God's procedure, in order to give a suitable impression of the character and sanctions of the law revealed from heaven.

And God spake all these words --The promulgation of the ten words of God, containing the fundamental law of the covenant, took place before Moses ascended the mountain again with Aaron (Exo_19:24).

And God spake all these words -- in the popular Jewish Midrash, the statement in Deu_33:2 And he said: The LORD came from Sinai and rose up from Seir to them. He shone forth from Mount Paran, and He came with ten thousands of saints. From His right went a fiery law for them. Psa_68:17 The chariots of God are myriads, thousands of thousands; the Lord is among them, in Sinai, in the holy place, that Jehovah came down upon Sinai “out of myriads of His holiness,” i.e., attended by myriads of holy angels, seems to have given rise to the notion that God spake through angels. And even from the New Testament this cannot be proved to be a doctrine of the Scriptures. For when Stephen says to the Jews, in Act_7:53 who received the Law through disposition of angels, and did not keep it and Paul speaks of the law in Gal_3:19 Why then the Law? It was added because of transgressions, until the Seed should come to those to whom it had been promised, being ordained through angels in the Mediator's hand these expressions leave it quite uncertain what the part of the angels consisted, or what part they took in connection with the giving of the law. That Stephen cannot have meant to say that God spoke through a number of finite angels, is evident from the fact, that in Act_7:38 This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him in Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received the living words to give to us, he had spoken just before of the Angel (in the singular) who spoke to Moses upon Mount Sinai, and had described him in Act_7:35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge? God has sent this one to be a ruler and a redeemer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the Bush and Act_7:30 And forty years being fulfilled to him, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in the desert of Mount Sinai in a flame of fire in a bush as the Angel who appeared to Moses in the bush, i.e., as no other than the Angel of Jehovah who was identical with Jehovah. “The Angel of the Lord” occupies the same place in Act_7:38 as “Jehovah” in Ex 19. The angels in Act_7:53 and Gal_3:19 are taken from Deut 33. According to the Old Testament, however, the law was given through the medium of angels, only so far as God appeared to Moses, as He had done to the patriarchs, in the form of the “Angel of the Lord,” and Jehovah came down upon Sinai, according to Deu_33:2, surrounded by myriads of holy angels as His escort.

And God spake all these words -- The account of the delivery of them in Exo. 19 and in Exo_20:18-21 is in accordance with their importance as the recognized basis of the covenant between Yahweh and His ancient people (Exo_34:27-28; Deu_4:13; 1Ki_8:21, etc.), and as the divine testimony against the sinful tendencies in man for all ages. While it is here said that “God spake all these words,” and in Deu_5:4, that He “talked face to face,” in the New Testament the giving of the law is spoken of as having been through the ministration of Angels Act_7:53 who received the Law through disposition of angels, and did not keep it. Gal_3:19 Why then the Law? It was added because of transgressions, until the Seed should come to those to whom it had been promised, being ordained through angels in the Mediator's hand. Heb_2:2 For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and if every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward,

And God spake all these words -- The words of the covenant, or ten words, were written by God upon two tables of stone (Exo_31:18), and are called the law and the commandment in Exo_24:12, as being the kernel and essence of the law. But the Bible contains neither distinct statements, nor definite hints, with reference to the numbering and division of the commandments upon the two tables. The different views have arisen in the course of time. Some divide the ten commandments into two pentads, one upon each table. Upon the first they place the commandments concerning (1) other gods, (2) images, (3) the name of God, (4) the Sabbath, and (5) parents; on the second, those concerning (1) murder, (2) adultery, (3) stealing, (4) false witness, and (5) coveting.

And God spake all these words -- God speaks many ways to the children of men; by conscience, by providences, by his voice, to all which we ought carefully to attend; but he never spake at any time so as he spake the Ten Commandments. This law God had given to man before; it was written in his heart; but sin so defaced it, that it was necessary to revive the knowledge of it. The law is spiritual, and takes knowledge of the secret thoughts, desires, and dispositions of the heart. Its grand demand is love, without which outward obedience is mere hypocrisy. It requires perfect, unfailing, constant obedience; no law in the world admits disobedience to itself. Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all, Jam_2:10. Whether in the heart or the conduct, in thought, word, or deed, to omit or to vary any thing, is sin, and the wages of sin is death.

Exo 20:2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

I am the Lord thy God - This verse does not contain the first of these commands, but is a preface to them, showing that God had a right to enact and enjoin the people of Israel laws; and that they were under obligation to attend unto them with reverence, and cheerfully obey them, since he was the Lord, the eternal and immutable Jehovah, the Being of beings, who gives being to all creatures, and gave them theirs, and therefore had a right to give them what laws he pleased; and he was their God, their covenant God, in a special and peculiar manner, their King and their God, they being a Theocracy, and so more immediately under his government, and therefore had laws given them preferable to what any other people had:

Brought thee out of the land of Egypt - And by this very thing have proved Himself to be superior to all gods, unlimited in power, and most gracious as well as fearful in operation. This is the preface or introduction, but should not be separated from the first commandment Exodus 20:3 You shall have no other gods before Me.

Brought thee out of the land of Egypt - It has been asked: Why, on this occasion, was not the Lord rather proclaimed as “the Creator of Heaven and Earth”? The answer is, Because the Ten Commandments were at this time addressed by Yahweh not merely to human creatures, but to the people whom He had redeemed, to those who had been in bondage, but were now free men Exo_6:6-7; Exo_19:5. The commandments are expressed in absolute terms. They are not sanctioned by outward penalties, as if for slaves, but are addressed at once to the conscience, as for free men. The well-being of the nation called for the infliction of penalties, and therefore statutes were passed to punish offenders who blasphemed the name of Yahweh, who profaned the Sabbath, or who committed murder or adultery. (See Lev_18:24-30 note.) But these penal statutes were not to be the ground of obedience for the true Israelite according to the covenant. He was to know Yahweh as his Redeemer, and was to obey him as such Rom_13:5 Therefore you must be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake.

out of the house of bondage - where they had been servants and slaves, but now were made free, and were become a kingdom of themselves, under their Lord, King, Lawgiver, and Savior, Jehovah himself, and therefore to be governed by laws of his enacting; and this shows that this body of laws was delivered out to the people of Israel, and primarily belong to them; for of no other can the above things be said.

I am the Lord thy God - Herein, God asserts his own authority to enact this law; and proposeth himself as the sole object of that religious worship which is enjoined in the four first commandments. They are here bound to obedience. Because God is the Lord, Jehovah, self - existent, independent, eternal, and the fountain of all being and power; therefore he has an incontestable right to command us. He was their God; a God in covenant with them; their God by their own consent. He had brought them out of the land of Egypt - Therefore they were bound in gratitude to obey him, because he had brought them out of a grievous slavery into a glorious liberty. By redeeming them, he acquired a farther right to rule them; they owed their service to him, to whom they owed their freedom. And thus, Christ, having rescued us out of the bondage of sin, is entitled to the best service we can do him. The four first commandments, concern our duty to God (commonly called the first - table.) It was fit those should be put first, because man had a Maker to love before he had a neighbor to love, and justice and charity are then only acceptable to God when they flow from the principles of piety.

Exo 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Before me - Literally, “before my face.” The meaning is that no god should be worshipped in addition to Yahweh. The polytheism which was the besetting sin of the Israelites did not in later times exclude Yahweh, but associated Him with false deities.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me - no strange gods - none that thou art not acquainted with, none who has not given thee such proofs of his power and godhead as I have done in delivering thee from the Egyptians, dividing the Red Sea, bringing water out of the rock, quails into the desert, manna from heaven to feed thee, and the pillar of cloud to direct, enlighten, and shield thee. By these miracles God had rendered himself familiar to them, they were intimately acquainted with the operation of his hands; and therefore with great propriety he says, Thou shalt have no strange gods before me; This commandment prohibits every species of mental idolatry, and all inordinate attachment to earthly and sensible things. As God is the fountain of happiness, and no intelligent creature can be happy but through him, whoever seeks happiness in the creature is necessarily an idolater; as he puts the creature in the place of the Creator, expecting that from the gratification of his passions, in the use or abuse of earthly things, which is to be found in God alone. The very first commandment of the whole series is divinely calculated to prevent man’s misery and promote his happiness, by taking him off from all false dependence, and leading him to God himself, the fountain of all good.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me - This is the first command, and is opposed to the polytheism of the nations, the Egyptians, from whom Israel was just come, and the Canaanites, into whose land they were going; this law was given, to them in all generations; for there is but one only living and true God, the maker of all things; all others have only the name, and are not by nature gods; they are other gods than the true God is; they are not real, but fictitious deities.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me - The sin against this commandment, which we are most in danger of, is giving that glory to any creature which is due to God only. Pride makes a God of ourselves, covetousness makes a God of money, sensuality makes a God of the belly. Whatever is loved, feared, delighted in, or depended on, more than God, that we make a god of. This prohibition includes a precept which is the foundation of the whole law, that we take the Lord for our God, accept him for ours, adore him with humble reverence, and set our affections entirely upon him. The sentence is quite a general one, and not only prohibits polytheism and idolatry, the worship of idols in thought, word, and deed, but also commands the fear, love, and worship of God the Lord. Nearly all the commandments are couched in the negative form of prohibition, because they presuppose the existence of sin and evil desires in the human heart

Exo 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

Graven image - Any sort of image is here intended.

As the first commandment forbids the worship of any false god, seen or unseen, it is here forbidden to worship an image of any sort, whether the figure of a false deity Jos_23:7 or one in any way symbolic of Yahweh (see Exo_32:4). The spiritual acts of worship were symbolized in the furniture and ritual of the tabernacle and the altar, and for this end the forms of living things might be employed as in the case of the Cherubim (see Exo_25:18 note): but the presence of the invisible God was to be marked by no symbol of Himself, but by His words written on stones, preserved in the ark in the holy of holies and covered by the mercy-seat.

any graven image - As the word signifies to hew, carve, grave, etc., it may here signify any kind of image, either of wood, stone, or metal, on which the axe, the chisel, or the graving tool has been employed. This commandment includes in its prohibitions every species of idolatry known to have been practiced among the Egyptians.

Or any likeness - To know the full spirit and extent of this commandment, this place must be collated with Deu_4:15-19 Therefore take good heed to yourselves, for you saw no kind of likeness on the day the LORD spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make yourselves a graven image, the likeness of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish in the waters beneath the earth; and lest you lift up your eyes to the heavens, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, lest you should be driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has allotted to all nations under all the heavens. In the likeness of Male or Female, all who have even the slightest acquaintance with the ancient history of Egypt , know that Osiris and his wife Isis were supreme divinities among that people. The likeness of any Beast, such as the ox and the heifer. Among the Egyptians the ox was not only sacred but adored. The likeness of any winged Fowl such as the ibis, or stork, or crane, and hawk, may be here intended, for all these were objects of Egyptian idolatry. The likeness of any thing that Creepeth The crocodile, serpents, the scarab beetle, were all objects of their adoration. The likeness of any Fish Supposedly all fish were esteemed sacred animals among the Egyptians. In short, oxen, heifers, sheep, goats, lions, dogs, monkeys, and cats; the ibis, the crane, and the hawk; the crocodile, serpents, frogs, flies, and the scarab beetle; the Nile and its fish; the sun, moon, planets, and stars; fire, light, air, darkness, and night, were all objects of Egyptian idolatry, and all included in this very circumstantial prohibition as detailed in Deuteronomy, and very forcibly in the general terms of the text: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in the Heavens above, or that is in the Earth beneath, or that is in the Water under the earth. And the reason of this becomes self-evident, when the various objects of Egyptian idolatry are considered.

Exo 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

Jealous God - This shows in a most expressive manner the love of God to this people. He felt for them as the most affectionate husband could do for his spouse; and was jealous for their fidelity, because he willed their invariable happiness.

a jealous God - jealous of his own honor and glory, and will not give it to another; even to graven images, nor suffer it to be given to them.

Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children - This necessarily implies if the children walk in the steps of their fathers; for no man can be condemned by Divine justice for a crime of which he was never guilty; see Ezekiel 18. Idolatry is however particularly intended, and visiting sins of this kind refers principally to national judgments. By withdrawing the Divine protection the idolatrous Israelites were delivered up into the hands of their enemies, from whom the gods in whom they had trusted could not deliver them. This God did to the third and fourth generations, i.e., successively; as may be seen in every part of the Jewish history, and particularly in the book of Judges. And this, at last, became the grand and the only effectual and lasting means in his hand of their final deliverance from idolatry; for it is well known that after the Babylonish captivity the Israelites were so completely saved from idolatry, as never more to have disgraced themselves by it as they had formerly done. These national judgments, thus continued from generation to generation, appear to be what are designed by the words in the text, Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children, etc.

Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children - (Compare Exo_34:7; Jer_32:18). Sons and remote descendants inherit the consequences of their fathers’ sins, in disease, poverty, captivity, with all the influences of bad example and evil communications. (See Lev_26:39; Lam_5:7 following)

visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children - meaning chiefly, if not solely, the iniquity of idolatry; which being such an insult on his honor, it is treated by him as high treason is among men; not only he punishes the authors and perpetrators of it in their own persons, which is meant by "visiting", but upon their children also, which are parts of themselves; and whatsoever is inflicted on them is the same as on themselves, and is an addition to, and a sensible aggravation of their punishment; and especially these are visited in such a manner, when they tread in their father's steps, and fill up the measure of their iniquity.

Thou shall not bow down thyself to them - Perform any worship to them, show any reverence of them by any gesture of the body; one being mentioned, bowing the body, and put for all others, as prostration of it to the earth, bending the knee, kissing the hand, lifting up of hands or eyes to them, or by any outward action expressing a religious esteem of them, as if there was divinity in them:

nor serve them - in a religious manner, internally or externally, by offering sacrifice and burning incense to them; by praying to, or praising of them; by expressing love to them, faith and trust in them, hope and expectation of good things from them, and the like.

nor bow to them - that is, "make in order to bow." Under the auspices of Moses himself, figures of cherubim, brazen serpents, oxen, and many other things in the earth beneath, were made and never condemned. The mere making was no sin--it was the making with the intent to give idolatrous worship.

Exo 20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

showing mercy unto thousands - unto the thousandth generation. Yahweh’s visitations of chastisement extend to the third and fourth generation, his visitations of mercy to the thousandth; that is, forever. That this is the true rendering seems to follow from Deu_7:9 Therefore, know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations.

them that love me - And as love is the grand principle of obedience, and the only incentive to it, so there can be no obedience without it. Love, says the apostle, is the fulfilling of the law; Rom_13:10 Love works no ill to its neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And show their love by worshipping God, and him only, by serving him acceptably with reverence and godly fear, by a cheerful obedience to all his commands.

keep my commandments - not only this, but all others; for keeping these from right principles, and with right views, is an instance and evidence of love to God, Joh_14:15 If you love Me, keep My commandments and to such persons he shows mercy and kindness, performs acts of grace, and bestows on them blessings of goodness; and indeed it is owing to his own grace, mercy, and kindness to them, that they do love him, and from a principle of love observe his precepts; and this is shown to thousands, to multitudes, who are blessed with such grace as to love the Lord, and keep his commandments: though rather this is to be understood of a thousand generations, and not persons, and should have been supplied, as in the preceding verse, "unto a thousand generations", God being more abundant in showing mercy, and exercising grace and goodness, than he is rigorous in inflicting punishment.

Exo 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

The translators make the Third commandment bear upon any profane and idle utterance of the name of God. Others give it the sense, “Thou shalt not swear falsely by the name of Jehovah thy God.” The Hebrew word which answers to “in vain” may be rendered either way. The two abuses of the sacred name seem to be distinguished in Lev_19:12 And you shall not swear by My name falsely; nor shall you profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. Mat_5:33-37 Again, you have heard that it has been said to the ancients, "You shall not swear falsely, but you shall perform your oaths to the Lord." But I say to you, Do not swear at all! Not by Heaven, because it is God's throne; not by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet; not by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King; nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your word be, Yes, yes; No, no. For whatever is more than these comes from evil. The caution that a breach of this commandment incurs guilt in the eyes of Yahweh is especially appropriate, in consequence of the ease with which the temptation to take God’s name “in vain” besets people in their common conversation with each other.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain - This precept not only forbids all false oaths, but all common swearing where the name of God is used, or where he is appealed to as a witness of the truth. It also necessarily forbids all light and irreverent mention of God, or any of his attributes; and this the original word particularly imports: and we may safely add to all these, that every prayer, utterance, etc., that is not accompanied with deep reverence and the genuine spirit of piety, is here condemned also. In how many thousands of instances is this commandment broken in the prayers, whether read or extempore, of inconsiderate, bold, and presumptuous worshippers! And how few are there who do not break it, both in their public and private devotions! Even heathens thought that the names of their gods should be treated with reverence.

The Lord will not hold him guiltless - Whatever the person himself may think or hope, however he may plead in his own behalf, and say he intends no evil, etc.; if he in any of the above ways, or in any other way, takes the name of God in vain, God will not hold him guiltless.

Thou shall not take the name of the Lord God in vain - Make use of the name Lord or God, or any other name and epithet of the divine Being, in a light and trifling way, without any show of reverence of him, and affection to him; whereas the name of God ought never to be mentioned but in a grave and serious manner, and with an awe of the greatness of his majesty upon the mind. The Targum restrains this to swearing by the name of the Lord; and so the Jewish writers generally interpret it either of swearing lightly, rashly, or falsely; and to this it may very well be extended, though not limited; and so forbids, as all profane oaths; imprecations, and curses by the name of God, which the mouths of wicked men are full of, so swearing by it in matters trivial, and of no importance;

Thou shall not take the name of the Lord God in vain - The word prohibits all employment of the name of God for vain and unworthy objects, and includes not only false swearing, which is condemned in Lev_19:12 as a profanation of the name of Jehovah, but trivial swearing in the ordinary intercourse of life, and every use of the name of God in the service of untruth and lying, for imprecation, witchcraft, or conjuring; whereas the true employment of the name of God is confined to “invocation, prayer, praise, and thanksgiving,” which proceeds from a pure, believing heart. The natural heart is very liable to transgress this command, and therefore it is solemnly enforced by the threat, “for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless”.

Exo 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Remember the sabbath day - There is no distinct evidence that the Sabbath, as a formal ordinance, was recognized before the time of Moses. The word “remember” may either be used in the sense of “keep in mind” what is here enjoined for the first time, or it may refer back to what is related in Exo_16:22-26.

Remember the sabbath day – Another scholar thinks this was an ancient institution, God calls them to remember it; as if he had said, Do not forget that when I had finished my creation I instituted the Sabbath, and remember why I did so, and for what purposes. The word shabbath signifies rest or cessation from labor; and the sanctification of the seventh day is commanded, as having something representative in it; and so indeed it has, for it typifies the rest which remains for the people of God, and in this light it evidently appears to have been understood by the apostle, Hebrews 4. Because this commandment has not been particularly mentioned in the New Testament as a moral precept binding on all, therefore some have presumptuously inferred that there is no Sabbath under the Christian dispensation.

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy - By abstaining from all servile work and business, and from all pleasures and recreations lawful on other days, and by spending it in religious exercises, both internal and external. This the Israelites are bid to "remember", by observing it in such a manner, because this command had been given them before at the first time the manna was rained about their tents, Exo_16:23

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy - The fourth commandment concerns the time of worship; God is to be served and honored daily; but one day in seven is to be particularly dedicated to his honor, and spent in his service. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy; in it thou shalt do no manner of work - It is taken for granted that the sabbath was instituted before. We read of God's blessing and sanctifying a seventh day from the beginning, Gen_2:3 And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He had rested from all His work which God created to make, so that this was not the enacting of a new law, but the reviving of an old law.

Remember the sabbath day - The Sabbath is considered as a type: the thing signified by the Sabbath is that rest in glory which remains for the people of God. The sabbath begun in the finishing of the work of creation; so will the everlasting sabbath in the finishing of the work of providence and redemption; As an ingredient in the Sinaitic law, it belonged to the “shadow of (good) things to come” (Col_2:17, cf. Heb_10:1), which was to be done away when the “body” in Christ had come. Christ is Lord of the Sabbath (Mat_12:8), and after the completion of His work, He also rested on the Sabbath. But He rose again on the Sunday; and through His resurrection, which is the pledge to the world of the fruits of His redeeming work, He has made this day the Lord's day for His Church, to be observed by it till the Captain of its salvation shall return, and having finished the judgment upon all His foes to the very last shall lead it to the rest of that eternal Sabbath, which God prepared for the whole creation through His own resting after the completion of the heaven and the earth.

The first four commandments [Exo_20:3-11] comprise our duties to God--the other six [Exo_20:12-17] our duties to our fellow men; and as interpreted by Christ, they reach to the government of the heart as well as the lip (Mat_5:17).

The Fourth Word, “Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy,” presupposes an acquaintance with the Sabbath, as the expression “remember” is sufficient to show, but not that the Sabbath had been kept before this. From the history of the creation that had been handed down, Israel must have known, that after God had created the world in six days He rested the seventh day, and by His resting sanctified the day (Gen_2:3). But hitherto there had been no commandment given to man to sanctify the day. This was given for the first time to Israel at Sinai, after preparation had been made for it by the fact that the manna did not fall on the seventh day of the week (Exo_16:22). Here therefore the mode of sanctifying it was established for the first time. The seventh day was to be a festival-keeper, see Exo_16:23, i.e., a day of rest belonging to the Lord, and to be consecrated to Him by the fact that no work was performed upon it. The command not to do any work applied to both man and beast without exception. Those who were to rest are divided into two classes: viz., first, free Israelites (“thou”) and their children (“thy son and thy daughter”); and secondly, their slaves (man-servant and maid-servant), and cattle (beasts of draught and burden), and their strangers, i.e., foreign laborers who had settled among the Israelites.

On the Sabbath (and also on the day of atonement, Lev_23:28, Lev_23:31) every occupation was to rest; on the other feast-days only laborious occupations (Lev_23:7.), i.e., such occupations as came under the denomination of labor, business, or industrial employment. Consequently, not only were ploughing and reaping (Exo_34:21), pressing wine and carrying goods (Neh_13:15), bearing burdens (Jer_17:21), carrying on trade (Amo_8:5), and holding markets (Neh_13:15.) prohibited, but collecting manna (Exo_16:26.), gathering wood (Num_15:32.), and kindling fire for the purpose of boiling or baking (Exo_35:3). The intention of this resting from every occupation on the Sabbath is evident from the foundation upon which the commandment is based in Exo_20:11, viz., that at the creation of the heaven and the earth Jehovah rested on the seventh day, and therefore blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it. This does not imply, however, that “Israel was to follow the Lord by keeping the Sabbath, and, in imitation of His example, to be active where the Lord was active, and rest where the Lord rested; to copy the Lord in accordance with the lofty aim of man, who was created in His likeness, and make the pulsation of the divine life in a certain sense his own” (Schultz). For although a parallel is drawn, between the creation of the world by God in six days and His resting upon the seventh day on the one hand, and the labor of man for six days and his resting upon the seventh on the other; the reason for the keeping of the Sabbath is not to be found in this parallel, but in the fact that God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because He rested upon it. The significance of the Sabbath, therefore, is to be found in God's blessing and sanctifying the seventh day of the week at the creation, i.e., in the fact, that after the work of creation was finished on the seventh day, God blessed and hallowed the created world, filling it with the powers of peace and good belonging to His own blessed rest, and raising it to a participation in the pure light of His holy nature (see Gen_2:3). For this reason His people Israel were to keep the Sabbath now, not for the purpose of imitating what God had done, and enjoying the blessing of God by thus following God Himself, but that on this day they also might rest from their work; and that all the more, because their work was no longer the work appointed to man at the first, when he was created in the likeness of God, work which did not interrupt his blessedness in God (Gen_2:15), but that hard labor in the sweat of his brow to which he had been condemned in consequence of the fall. In order therefore that His people might rest from toil so oppressive to both body and soul, and be refreshed, God prescribed the keeping of the Sabbath, that they might thus possess a day for the repose and elevation of their spirits, and a foretaste of the blessedness into which the people of God are at last to enter, the blessedness of the eternal.

It also served to keep the Israelites constantly in mind of the rest which Jehovah had procured for them from the slave labour of Egypt . For resting from every work is the basis of the observance of the Sabbath; but this observance is an institution peculiar to the Old Testament, and not to be met with in any other nation, though there are many among whom the division of weeks occurs. The observance of the Sabbath, by being adopted into the decalogue, was made the foundation of all the festal times and observances of the Israelites, as they all culminated in the Sabbath rest.

Exo 20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

Six days shalt thou labor - Therefore he who idles away time on any of the six days, is as guilty before God as he who works on the Sabbath. No work should be done on the Sabbath that can be done on the preceding days, or can be deferred to the succeeding ones. Works of absolute necessity and mercy are alone excepted. He who works by his servants or cattle is equally guilty as if he worked himself. Hiring out horses, etc., for pleasure or business, going on journeys, paying worldly visits, or taking jaunts on the Lord’s day, are breaches of this law. The whole of it should be devoted to the rest of the body and the improvement of the mind. God says he has hallowed it - he has made it sacred and set it apart for the above purposes. It is therefore the most proper day for public religious worship.

Six days shalt thou labor - This is a permission; not as a command enjoining men to work and labor with their hands, to provide for themselves and families things useful and necessary, and honest in the sight of God; but as a grant and allowance of so many days to employ themselves in, for their own profit and advantage, and that of their families; the Lord only reserving one day out of seven for his service, which ought to be looked upon as a singular favor, that he required no more of their time for his use, and the rest they might spend as they pleased, so that they did not indulge themselves in sin.

and do all thy work - which is incumbent on a man, he is called unto 2 Thess 3:10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this, that if anyone would not work, neither should he eat, and is necessary to be done for the good of him and his family 1 Timothy 5:8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially his family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel; particularly care should be taken, that all should be done on the six days that could possibly be done, and nothing left to be done on the seventh.

Exo 20:10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

The sabbath - The proper meaning of “sabbath” is, “rest after labor.”

Thy stranger that is within thy gates - Not a “stranger,” as is an unknown person, but a “lodger,” or “sojourner.” In this place it denotes one who had come from another people to take up his permanent abode among the Israelites, and who might have been well known to his neighbors. That the word did not primarily refer to foreign domestic servants (though all such were included under it) is to be inferred from the term used for “gates,” signifying not the doors of a private dwelling, but the gates of a town or camp.

the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord - Not which he rested on, and ceased from the works of creation in, though he did rest on the seventh day of the creation, and so on every other day since; nor does it appear, nor proved, that this day appointed to the Jews as a sabbath was the seventh day of the week from the creation of the world; but was either the seventh day of the week from their coming out of Egypt, or from the raining of the manna: but this is called the Lord's sabbath, or rest, because enjoined by him to the people of Israel, and not to them until they were separated from other people, and were a distinct body of men under a certain meridian;

thou shall not do any work - of a servile nature, exercise any trade or any hand labor, or any kind of work for pleasure or profit, only works of mercy and necessity. No labor or handicraft was to be exercised, according to the Jewish canons.

thy manservant, nor thy maidservant - this is to be understood, according to the Jews, not of hired servants, concerning whose rest from labor a man was not bound, but of such as were born in their house, and bought with their money; and of such menservants as were circumcised, and in all things professed to be proselytes to the Jewish religion, and to conform to it; for as for one that only received the commands of the sons of Noah, and was not circumcised, he might do work for himself on the sabbath day, but not for his master; and no Israelite might bid him work on the sabbath day for the necessity of an Israelite, though he was not his master. If a servant does work without the knowledge of his master, and it is known to all that he does it without his knowledge, there is no need to separate him from it, or take him off of it: so maidservants, when they did things without the knowledge of their masters and mistresses, and without being bid to do it, they were free to do it: thus.

nor thy cattle - if the cattle did not rest, servants could not, who are concerned in the care and use of them: in Deu_5:14, the ox and the ass are particularly mentioned.

Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

resteth the seventh day - which does not suppose labor, attended with weariness and fatigue; for the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not, neither is weary, Isa_40:28 Have you not known? Have you not heard, that the everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not grow weak nor weary? There is no searching of His understanding, but only a cessation from the works of creation, they being finished and completed, there is an analogy between the command and the observation of it, that as God worked six days, and, having done his work completely, ceased from it and rested, so it was fit and proper, that as the Israelites had six days allowed them to labor in, and do all their work, they should rest on the seventh, they and all that belonged to them, or had any connection with them:

Exo 20:12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Honor thy father and thy mother - According to our usage, the fifth commandment is placed as the first in the second table; and this is necessarily involved in the common division of the commandments into our duty toward God and our duty toward men. Another division allots five commandments to each table (compare Rom_13:9), proceeding on the distinction that the First table relates to the duties which arise from our filial relations, the second to those which arise from our fraternal relations. The connection between the first four commandments and the fifth exists in the truth that all faith in God centers in the filial feeling. Our parents stand between us and God in a way in which no other beings can.

That thy days may be long upon the land - Filial respect is the ground of national permanence Jer_35:18-19; Mat_15:4-6; Mar_7:10-11. The divine words were addressed emphatically to Israel , but they set forth a universal principle of national life Eph_6:2.

Honor thy father and thy mother - For a considerable time parents stand as it were in the place of God to their children, and therefore rebellion against their lawful commands has been considered as rebellion against God. This precept therefore prohibits, not only all injurious acts, irreverent and unkind speeches to parents, but enjoins all necessary acts of kindness, filial respect, and obedience.

That thy days may be long - This, as the apostle observes, Eph_6:2 Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), is the first commandment to which God has annexed a promise; and therefore we may learn in some measure how important the duty is in the sight of God. Deu_5:16 Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that your days may be made longer, and that it may go well with you in the land which the LORD your God gives you.

that thy days may be long upon the land - disobedience to parents often brings the judgments of God on persons; so that they sometimes die an untimely or an uncommon death, as in the case of the rebellious son, for whom a law was provided in Israel, and Absalom and others, Lev_20:9 And any man who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be on him.

That thy days may be long - There is a double promise here. So long as the nation rejoiced in the possession of obedient children, it was assured of a long life or existence in the land of Canaan ; but there is also included the promise of a long life, to.

Exo 20:13 Thou shalt not kill.

Thou shalt not kill - This commandment, which is general, prohibits murder of every kind.

1. All actions by which the lives of our fellow creatures may be abridged.

2. All wars for extending empire, commerce, etc.

3. All sanguinary laws, by the operation of which the lives of men may be taken away for offenses of comparatively trifling demerit.

4. All bad dispositions which lead men to wish evil to, or meditate mischief against, one another; for, says the Scripture, He that hateth his brother in his heart is a murderer.

5. All want of charity to the helpless and distressed; for he who has it in his power to save the life of another by a timely application of succor, food, raiment, etc., and does not do it, and the life of the person either falls or is abridged on this account, is in the sight of God a murderer. He who neglects to save life is, according to an incontrovertible maxim in law, the same as he who takes it away.

6. All riot and excess, all drunkenness and gluttony, all inactivity and slothfulness, and all superstitious mortifications and self-denials, by which life may be destroyed or shortened; all these are point-blank sins against the sixth commandment.

Thou shalt not kill - Not meaning any sort of creatures, for there are some to be killed for the food and nourishment of men, and others for their safety and preservation; but rational creatures, men, women, and children, any of the human species, of every age, sex, condition, or nation; no man has a right to take away his own life, or the life of another; by this law is forbidden suicide, or self-murder, parricide or murder of parents, homicide or the murder of man; yet killing of men in lawful war, or in defense of a man's self, when his own life is in danger, or the execution of malefactors by the hands or order of the civil magistrate, and killing a man at unawares, without any design, are not to be reckoned breaches of this law; but taking away the life of another through private malice and revenge, and even stabbing of a man's character, and so all things tending to or designed for the taking away of life, and all plots, conspiracies, and contrivances for that purpose, even all sinful anger, undue wrath and envy, rancor of all mind, all malice in thought, word, or deed, are contrary to this precept, see Mat_5:21

This is the sixth command, but the order is inverted in Mar_10:19 You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and your mother.

Thou shalt not kill - Thou shalt not do any thing hurtful to the health, or life of thy own body, or any other's. This doth not forbid our own necessary defense, or the magistrates putting offenders to death; but it forbids all malice and hatred to any, for he that hateth his brother is a murderer, and all revenge arising therefrom; likewise anger and hurt said or done, or aimed to be done in a passion; of this our Savior expounds this commandment, Mat_5:22 But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be liable to the judgment. And whoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be liable to the sanhedrin; but whoever shall say, Fool! shall be liable to be thrown into the fire of hell.

The other Five Words or commandments, which determine the duties to one's neighbor, are summed up in Lev_19:18 You shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD, in the one word, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” The order in which they follow one another is the following: they first of all secure life, marriage, and property against active invasion or attack, and then, proceeding from deed to word and thought, they forbid false witness and coveting.

Exo 20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not commit adultery - Adultery, as defined by our laws, is of two kinds; double, when between two married persons; single, when one of the parties is married, the other single. One principal part of the criminality of adultery consists in its injustice.

1. It robs a man of his right by taking from him the affection of his wife.

2. It does him a wrong by fathering on him and obliging him to maintain as his own a spurious offspring - a child which is not his. The act itself, and every thing leading to the act, is prohibited by this commandment; for our Lord says, Even he who looks on a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And not only adultery (the unlawful commerce between two married persons) is forbidden here, but also fornication and all kinds of mental and sensual uncleanness. All impure books, songs, paintings, etc., which tend to inflame and debauch the mind, are against this law, as well as another species of impurity. That fornication was included under this command we may gather from Matthew, Mat_15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, where our Savior expresses the sense of the different commandments by a word for each, and mentions them in the order in which they stand; but when he comes to the seventh he uses two words to express its meaning, and then goes on to the eighth; thus evidently showing that fornication was understood to be comprehended under the command, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” As to the word adultery, adulterium, it has probably been derived from the words ad alterius torum, to another’s bed; for it is going to the bed of another man that constitutes the act and the crime. Adultery often means idolatry in the worship of God.

Thou shalt not commit adultery - This commandment forbids all acts of uncleanness, with all those desires, which produce those acts and war against the soul.

Exo 20:15 Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not steal - The right of property is sanctioned in the eighth commandment by an external rule: its deeper meaning is involved in the tenth commandment.

Thou shalt not steal - All rapine and theft are forbidden by this precept; as well national and commercial wrongs as petty larceny, highway robberies, and private stealing: even the taking advantage of a seller’s or buyer’s ignorance, to give the one less and make the other pay more for a commodity than its worth, is a breach of this sacred law. All withholding of rights and doing of wrongs are against the spirit of it. But the word is principally applicable to clandestine stealing, though it may undoubtedly include all political injustice and private wrongs. And consequently all kidnapping, crimping, and slave-dealing are prohibited here, whether practiced by individuals or by the state. Crimes are not lessened in their demerit by the number, or political importance of those who commit them. A state that enacts bad laws is as criminal before God as the individual who breaks good ones.

Thou shalt not steal - It has been supposed that under the eighth commandment, injuries done to character, the depriving a man of his reputation or good name, are included.

Thou shalt not steal - Which is to take away another man's property by force or fraud, without the knowledge, and against the will of the owner thereof. Thefts are of various kinds; there is private theft, picking of pockets, shoplifting, burglary, or breaking into houses in the night, and carrying off goods; public theft, or robbing upon the highways; domestic theft, as when wives take away their husbands' money or goods, and conceal them, or dispose of them without their knowledge and will, children rob their parents, and servants purloin their masters' effects; ecclesiastical theft or sacrilege, and personal theft, as stealing of men and making slaves of them, selling them against their wills; the case of the Israelites borrowing of the Egyptians and spoiling them is not to be objected to this law, since that was by the command of God, and was only taking what was due to them for service; however, by this command God let the Israelites know that that was a peculiar case, and not to be drawn into an example, and that they were in other cases not to take away another man's property; and so the case of an hungry man's stealing to satisfy nature is not observed as lawful and laudable, but as what is connived at and indulged, Pro_6:30, this law obliges to preserve and secure every man's property to himself, as much as in men lies: this is the eighth commandment.

Thou shalt not steal - This command forbids us to rob ourselves of what we have, by sinful spending, or of the use and comfort of it by sinful sparing; and to rob others by invading our neighbor's rights, taking his goods, or house, or field, forcibly or clandestinely, over - reaching in bargains, not restoring what is borrowed or found, with - holding just debts, rents or wages; and, which is worst of all, to rob the public in the coin or revenue, or that which is dedicated to the service of religion.

Exo 20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Thou shalt not bear false witness - Not only false oaths, to deprive a man of his life or of his right, are here prohibited, but all whispering, tale-bearing, slander, and calumny; in a word, whatever is deposed as a truth, which is false in fact, and tends to injure another in his goods, person, or character, is against the spirit and letter of this law. Suppressing the truth when known, by which a person may be defrauded of his property or his good name, or lie under injuries or disabilities which a discovery of the truth would have prevented, is also a crime against this law. By the term neighbor any human being is intended, whether he rank among our enemies or friends.

Thou shalt not bear false witness - Neither publicly in a court of judicature, by laying things to his charge that are false, and swearing to them, to his hurt and damage; nor privately, by whispering, tale bearing, backbiting, slandering, by telling lies of him, traducing his character by innuendos, sly insinuations, and evil suggestions, whereby he may suffer in his character, credit, and reputation, and in his trade and business;

Thou shalt not bear false witness - This forbids, Speaking falsely in any matter, lying, equivocating, and any way devising and designing to deceive our neighbor. Speaking unjustly against our neighbor, to the prejudice of his reputation; And (which is the highest offence of both these kinds put together) Bearing false witness against him, laying to his charge things that he knows not, either upon oath, by which the third commandment, the sixth or eighth, as well as this, are broken, or in common converse, slandering, backbiting, tale - bearing, aggravating what is done amiss, and any way endeavoring to raise our own reputation upon the ruin of our neighbor's.

Exo 20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

As the sixth, seventh, and eighth commandments forbid us to injure our neighbor in deed, the ninth forbids us to injure him in word, and the tenth, in thought. No human eye can see the coveting heart; it is witnessed only by him who possesses it and by Him to whom all things are naked and open Luk_12:15-21. And He said to them, Watch and keep yourselves from covetousness. For a man's life is not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. And He spoke a parable to them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room in which to store my fruits? And he said, I will do this. I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and I will store all my fruits and my goods there. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat drink and be merry. But God said to him, Fool! This night your soul shall be required of you, then whose shall be those things which you have prepared? So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. But it is the root of all sins of word or deed against our neighbor Jam_1:14-15 But each one is tempted by his lusts, being drawn away and seduced by them . Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin. And sin, when it is fully formed, brings forth death.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s - Covet signifies to desire or long after, in order to enjoy as a property the person or thing coveted. He breaks this command who by any means endeavors to deprive a man of his house or farm by taking them over his head, as it is expressed in some countries; who lusts after his neighbor’s wife, and endeavors to ingratiate himself into her affections, and to lessen her husband in her esteem; and who endeavors to possess himself of the servants, cattle, etc., of another in any clandestine or unjustifiable manner.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s - This is the tenth and last commandment, and is an explanation of several of the past; showing that the law of God not only forbids external acts of sin, but the inward and first motions of the mind to it. This would not be thought to be sinful, were it not for this law; nor are they known by this law until the Spirit of God by it convinces men of them. The apostle has reference to it, Rom_7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Let it not be said! But I did not know sin except through the law. For also I did not know lust except the law said, You shall not lust. Several particulars are here mentioned not to be coveted, as instances and examples instead of others. Thus, for instance, "a neighbor's house" is not to be coveted; "nor his field", as the Septuagint version here adds, agreeably to Deu_5:21, a man is not secretly to wish and desire that such a man's house or land were his, since this arises from a discontent of mind with respect to his own habitation and possessions; and a man should be content with such things as he has, and not covet another's: Hebrews 13:5 Let your way of life be without the love of money, and be content with such things as you have, for He has said, "Not at all will I leave you, not at all will I forsake you, never!"

thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife - this is a breach of the seventh command, and serves to explain and illustrate that. This clause stands first in the Septuagint version, as it does in Deu_5:21,

nor any thing that is thy neighbors' - which, with the first clause, serve to explain the eighth command, showing that we are not only forbid to take away what is another man's property, any of the goods here mentioned, or any other, but we are not secretly to desire them, and wish they were in our possession; since it discovers uneasiness and dissatisfaction with our own lot and portion, and is coveting another man's property, which is coveting an evil covetousness.

Exo 20:18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.

And all the people saw the thunderings - They had witnessed all these awful things before, (see Exo_19:16), but here they seem to have been repeated; probably at the end of each command, there was a peal of thunder, a blast of the trumpet, and a gleam of lightning, to impress their hearts the more deeply with a due sense of the Divine Majesty, of the holiness of the law which was now delivered, and of the fearful consequences of disobedience. This had the desired effect; the people were impressed with a deep religious fear and a terror of God’s judgments; acknowledged themselves perfectly satisfied with the discoveries God had made of himself; and requested that Moses might be constituted the mediator between God and them, as they were not able to bear these tremendous discoveries of the Divine Majesty. “Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die;” Exo_20:19. This teaches us the absolute necessity of that great Mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus, as no man can come unto the Father but by him.

And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings - That is, they heard the one, and saw the other; they heard the dreadful volleys of thunder, and saw the amazing flashes of lightning, which were like lamps and torches, as the word used signifies.

when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off - their minds were not only terrified and distressed, and their bodies shook with fear; but they could not stand their ground, but were obliged to retreat, who but just before were curious to draw near, and gaze and see what they could, to prevent which bounds were set; but now these were needless, what they saw and heard were sufficient to keep them at a distance, nay, obliged them to quit their places; they were at the lower part of the mount before, and now they removed a good way from it, even to their camp, and to their tents in it, Deu_5:30.

They removed and stood afar off - Before God began to speak, they were thrusting forward to gaze, but now they were effectually cured of their presumption, and taught to keep their distance.

They removed and stood afar off - The terrible phenomena, amidst which the Lord displayed His majesty, made the intended impression upon the people who were stationed by the mountain below, so that they desired that God would not speak to them any more, and entreated Moses through their elders to act as mediator between them, promising at the same time that they would hear him (cf. Exo_19:9, Exo_19:16-19).

Exo 20:19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

And they said unto Moses - Who was now come down from the mountain, and to whom the heads of the tribes and elders of the people came from the camp, and out of their tents, by whom the people said to him, as follows, see Deu_5:23 And it happened when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, for the mountain burned with fire, you came near me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders,

speak thou with us, and we will hear - their request is, that whatsoever it was the will and pleasure of God to declare to them, that he would communicate it to Moses, and he deliver it to them, promising that they would hearken to it, and obey it, as if they had heard it from the mouth of God himself:

let not God speak with us, lest we die - pray to him, that he would not speak immediately, but by a mediator, which they now saw the need of; Ever since Adam fled upon hearing God's voice in the garden, sinful man could not bear either to speak to God, or hear from him immediately.

let not God speak with us, lest we die - Heb_12:18-21 For you have not come to the mountain that might be touched and that burned with fire, nor to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words (which voice they who heard begged that a word should not be spoken to them any more, for they could not endure the thing commanded, "And if so much as a beast should touch the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart," and so fearful was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake).

let not God speak with us, lest we die - The phenomena of thunder and lightning had been one of the plagues so fatal to Egypt , and as they heard God speaking to them now, they were apprehensive of instant death also. Even Moses himself, the mediator of the old covenant, did "exceedingly quake and fear" (Heb_12:21). But doubtless God spake what gave him relief--restored him to a frame of mind fit for the ministrations committed to him; and hence immediately after he was enabled to relieve and comfort them with the relief and comfort which he himself had received from God (2Co_1:4).

Exo 20:20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.

And Moses said Fear not - The maxim contained in this verse is, Fear not, that he may fear - do not fear with such a fear as brings consternation into the soul, and produces nothing but terror and confusion; but fear with that fear which reverence and filial affection inspire.

that ye sin not - that, through the love and reverence ye feel to your Maker and Sovereign, ye may abstain from every appearance of evil, lest you should forfeit that love which is to you better than life. He who fears in the first sense (terror) can neither love nor obey; he who fears not in the second sense (reverence) is sure to fall under the first temptation that may occur. Blessed is the man who thus feareth always.

Moses said unto the people - By representatives and messengers, the heads of the tribes and elders:

fear not - be not afraid of God with a slavish fear; be not afraid of the thunders and lightnings, as if they were like one of the plagues of Egypt, which terrified Pharaoh and his people; be not afraid of being consumed by them, they will do you no hurt; be not afraid of dying by the hand of God, at his presence, and through the voice of his words spoken to you; be of good courage, for the design of God is not to destroy you, but to instruct you, and do you good:

for God is come to prove you - whether, being now freed by him from Egyptian bondage, they would take and own him for their King, and be subject to his laws and government; whether they would abide by what they had said, all that the Lord hath spoken will we do, Exo_19:8 And all the people answered together and said, All that the LORD has spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people to the LORD, whether they thought they had purity and righteousness enough to answer to the divine law, and whether they imagined they had strength enough to fulfill it, and whether they needed a mediator between God and them or not.

for God is come to prove you - To direct the sinner's holy awe in the presence of the holy God, which was expressed in these words of the people, into the proper course of healthy and enduring penitence, Moses first of all took away the false fear of death by the encouraging answer, “Fear not,” and then immediately added, “for God is come to prove you.” The word referred to the testing of the state of the heart in relation to God, as it is explained in the exegetical clause which follows: “that His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.” By this terrible display of His glory, God desired to inspire them with the true fear of Himself, that they might not sin through distrust, disobedience, or resistance to His guidance and commands.

Exo 20:21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.

the people stood afar off - Still kept their distance in their camp and tents; or the heads and elders of the people having had this conversation with Moses, returned to their tents as they were bid, Deu_5:30 and to the people in the camp, and there they continued while Moses went up to God with their request:

While the people continued to stand afar off - Afraid of God's wrath, Moses drew near unto the thick darkness; he was made to draw near, so the word is: Moses of himself durst not have ventured into the thick darkness if God had not called him, and encouraged him, and, as some of the Rabbins suppose, sent an angel to take him by the hand, and lead him up.

the thick darkness where God was - the thick cloud, Exo_19:9 And the LORD said to Moses, Lo, I come to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever. And Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.

So the people stood afar off - not “went far away,” although, according to Deu_5:30, Moses was directed by God to tell the people to return to their tents. This is passed over here, and it is merely observed, for the purpose of closing the first act in the giving the law, and preparing the way for the second, that the people remained afar off, whereas Moses (and Aaron, cf. Exo_19:24) drew near to the darkness where God was, to receive the further commands of the Lord.

Exo 20:22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.

And the Lord said unto Moses - Nothing could be more appropriate as the commencement of the book of the covenant than these regulations for public worship. The rules for the building of altars must have been old and accepted, and are not inconsistent with the directions for the construction of the altar of the court of the tabernacle, Exo_27:1-8 (compare Jos_22:26-28).

I have talked with you from heaven - Though God manifested himself by the fire, the lightning, the earthquake, the thick darkness, etc., yet the ten words, or commandments were probably uttered from the higher regions of the air, which would be an additional proof to the people that there was no imposture in this case; for though strange appearances and voices might be counterfeited on earth, as was often, no doubt, done by the magicians of Egypt; yet it would be utterly impossible to represent a voice, in a long continued series of instruction, as proceeding from heaven itself, or the higher regions of the atmosphere. This, with the earthquake and repeated thunders, (see on Exo_20:18 (note)), would put the reality of this whole procedure beyond all doubt; and this enabled Moses, Deu_5:26, to make such an appeal to the people on a fact incontrovertible and of infinite importance, that God had indeed talked with them face to face.

thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel - at his return unto them, and which he was to deliver in the name of God.

ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven - descending from heaven on Mount Sinai in a cloud and fire, he talked with them out of the cloud and fire, and delivered to them with an audible voice the above ten commands; the cloud and fire they saw with their eyes, and the words expressed from thence they heard with their ears; or heaven may mean the air on the top of Sinai, from whence Jehovah spoke.

And the Lord said unto Moses - Moses being gone into the thick darkness where God was, God there spoke in his hearing only, all that follows from hence to the end of chap. 23, which is mostly an exposition of the ten commandments; and he was to transmit it to the people. The laws in these verses relate to God's worship.

Exo 20:23 Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.

Ye shall not make with me gods of silver - Before it was said, Ye shall have no other gods Before me, Exo_20:3. Here they are commanded, ye shall not make gods of silver or gold with me, as emblems or representatives of God, in order, as might be pretended, to keep these displays of his magnificence in memory; on the contrary, he would have only an altar of earth - of plain turf, on which they should offer those sacrifices by which they should commemorate their own guilt and the necessity of an atonement to reconcile themselves to God.

ye shall not make gods of silver - This repetition of the second commandment comes in here, because they were more addicted to idolatry than to any other sin.

ye shall not make gods of silver - that is to say, idols primarily intended to represent the nature of God, and therefore meant as symbols of Jehovah, but which became false gods from the very fact that they were intended as representations of the purely spiritual God.

Exo 20:24 An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.

Thy burnt-offerings, and thy peace-offerings - The law concerning which was shortly to be given, though sacrifices of this kind were in use from the days of Abel.

In all places where I record my name - Wherever I am worshipped, whether in the open wilderness, at the tabernacle, in the temple, the synagogues, or elsewhere.

I will come unto thee and bless thee - These words are precisely the same in signification with those of our Lord, Mat_18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst. And as it was Jesus who was the angel that spoke to them in the wilderness, Act_7:38, from the same mouth this promise in the law and that in the Gospel proceeded. Act_7:38 This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him in Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received the living words to give to us,

An altar of earth thou shall make unto me - This was a temporary precept, and only in force until the tabernacle was built, and respects occasional altars, erected while on their travels, and were to be made of turfs of earth, and so easily and quickly thrown up, as their case and circumstances required, and as easily thrown down, as it was proper they should, after they had no more use for them, lest they should be abused to superstitious uses; for afterwards the altar for burnt offerings was made of Shittim wood covered with brass, and that in the temple was wholly a brazen one, Exo_27:1 this precept seems to suggest the plainness and simplicity in which God would be worshipped, in opposition to the pomp and gaudy show of idolaters.

An altar of earth thou shall make unto me - This altar of earth might be a figure of the earthly or human nature of Christ, who is the altar, whereof believers in him have a right to eat, Heb_13:10 We have an altar of which they have no right to eat, those who serve the tabernacle.

An altar of earth - It is meant of occasional altars, such as they reared in the wilderness before the tabernacle was erected, and afterwards upon special emergencies, for present use. They are appointed to make these very plain, either of earth or of unhewn stones. That they might not be tempted to think of a graven image, they must not so much as hew the stones into shape, that they made their altars of, but pile them up as they were in the rough.

Exo 20:25 And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.

Thou shalt not build it of hewn stone - they must not lavish skill or expense on the construction of an altar; the altar of itself, whether costly or mean, was nothing in the worship; it was only the place on which the victim should be laid, and their mind must be attentively fixed on that God to whom the sacrifice was offered, and on the sacrifice itself, as that appointed by the Lord to make an atonement for their sins.

And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone - If they chose instead of an earthen one to make one of stone, as they might in rocky places, where they came, and in such an one where they now were, Mount Sinai, under which hill an altar was built, Exo_24:4,

Thou shalt not build it of hewn stone - the reason of this law, as given by Jewish scholars. is because the idolaters of that time built their altars of hewn stones, therefore God forbad it, lest we should be like them, and that we might shun it in all things, he commanded the altar to be made of earth, as it is said, an altar of earth shalt thou make unto me; and if it could not be made without stones, that the stones should remain in their own natural form, and be neither hewn nor polished; as he after forbad a painted stone, and a plantation of trees by an altar; for in each of these there is one and the same intention and design, namely, that we might not worship him in the same manner in which idolaters used to worship their fictitious deities.

thou hast polluted it - and so made it unfit for use: how this should be done hereby is not easy to say, no good reason seems to be assignable for it but the will and pleasure of God. One scholar says this was to prevent persons making images in stones, which image making is the thing guarded against and forbidden in the context; another says that the hands of the artificer were to abstain from the stones of the altar, lest that good which men obtain of God at the altar should be attributed to any work of theirs: though, after all, it does not belong to us to search after the reasons of the commands, at least not in too curious and bold a manner, where God is silent and has not thought fit to give any.

Exo 20:26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.

Neither shalt thou go up by steps - That is, you priests, the sons of Aaron; the altar of burnt offering built when the tabernacle was seemed not to require any, being but three cubits high, Exo_27:1 And you shall make an altar of acacia-wood, five cubits long and five cubits broad. The altar shall be square. And the height of it shall be three cubits but that in Solomon's temple did, being ten cubits high, 2Ch_4:1 And he made an altar of bronze. Twenty cubits was the length of it, and twenty cubits its breadth, and ten cubits its height and therefore some method must be used to ascend it, and do the business that was to be done on it: the Jews say, there was what they call "Kibbesh", a sort of a causeway made of earth thrown up, which rose gradually and led to the top of the altar, and was about thirty two cubits long and sixteen broad: and so the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases the words,"thou shalt not go up by steps to mine altar, but by bridges;''express mention is made of stairs to the altar in Ezekiel's vision, Eze_43:17 And the ledge shall be fourteen long and fourteen wide in its four sides. And the border around it shall be half a cubit, and its base a cubit around. And its steps shall face eastward.

that thy nakedness be not discovered - that parts of the body which ought not to be seen, and which would be exposed if there were many steps, and so be in danger of being seen which would make them the object of contempt and ridicule with the people; by this is expressed God's will, that all immodesty and indecency, and whatever tends to create impure thoughts and stir up unclean lusts, should be carefully avoided in his worship. 1 Timothy 2:9-10 In the same way also, I desire that women adorn themselves in decent clothing, with modesty and sensibleness, not adorned with braiding, or gold, or pearls, or costly clothing, but with good works, which becomes women professing godliness.

Neither shalt thou go up by steps - a precaution taken for the sake of decency, in consequence of the loose, wide, flowing garments of the priests.

that thy nakedness be not discovered - It was in the feeling of shame that the consciousness of sin first manifested itself, and it was in the shame that the sin was chiefly apparent Gen_3:7 And the eyes of both of them were opened. And they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made girdles for themselves; hence the nakedness was a disclosure of sin, through which the altar of God would be desecrated, and for this reason it was forbidden to ascend to the altar by steps.