Deuteronomy 5 Summary and Study Guide

Forty years after Sinai, Moses stands in front of a crowd who were mostly too young at the time to remember the day, and tells them the covenant was made with them. This Deuteronomy 5 summary and study guide covers the chapter where he says the Ten Commandments over again, with a few words changed.

Setting the Stage

Israel once stood at the foot of a burning mountain called Horeb, which the Bible also calls Sinai. God came down in fire and spoke ten commandments aloud to the whole nation, and the people agreed to everything He said (Exodus 24:3). That agreement was sealed with blood sprinkled on the people (Exodus 24:8), and it bound Israel to God as His own.

Then that whole generation died in the desert. Every fighting man among them was gone before Israel crossed the brook Zered (Deuteronomy 2:14). The next generation is now standing east of the Jordan, holding an agreement made before most of them could answer for themselves. Deuteronomy 5 opens by answering the question their situation raises: yes, this covenant is theirs.

Comprehensive Deuteronomy 5 Summary

Moses calls the whole nation together and tells them to listen, learn, and act on what he is about to say. He takes them straight back to Horeb. God made a covenant there, Moses says, and He made it with the people standing here today rather than with their forefathers. God spoke to them out of the fire on that mountain, and Moses himself stood in between, because the people were too frightened of the flames to climb it.

Then Moses quotes God directly. God names Himself as the One who brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt, and only after that does He give commands. No other gods. No carved images. No misuse of His name.

Keep the sabbath, and let the servants and the animals and the foreigner rest on it too, because Israel was once a nation of slaves. Honour your father and mother. Do not kill, commit adultery, steal, lie about your neighbour, or want what belongs to him.

God stopped after those ten and wrote what He had said on two stone tablets for Moses. It was God’s voice the people could not face hearing again.

The tribal leaders and elders came to Moses. They had heard God speak and lived, and they said another word would kill them. They asked Moses to go and listen for them and bring back whatever God said, promising to obey it. God approved.

He told Moses the people had spoken well, and then said He wished they had a heart to match their words. He sent the people back to their tents and kept Moses behind to receive the rest of the law. Moses ends by charging them to walk in God’s ways without turning aside.

One Word Summary

• Again: God’s own words are said a second time, to a second generation.
• Ours: Moses insists the covenant belongs to the people in front of him.
• Heart: what God asks for, and what law cannot give.

In One Sentence

Moses tells a new generation on the plains of Moab that the Horeb covenant is theirs, repeats the ten commandments God spoke there out of the fire, and reports that God granted their plea for a mediator while wishing aloud for a heart to match their promise.

Theme of Deuteronomy 5

Deuteronomy 5 is about a covenant that has to be received rather than inherited. Moses presses that on a generation that never agreed to it for themselves, and the words he says over again carry small additions that fit the settled life they are about to begin.

God opens those words by naming the rescue standing behind them, and every command in the chapter comes after that. Running alongside is what God says at the close, where He grants the request the people make and then names what He actually wants, which is a heart rather than a pledge.

Deuteronomy 5 Outline

• Deuteronomy 5:1: Moses summons all Israel and tells them to hear, learn, and do the laws he is about to give them.
• Deuteronomy 5:2-3: He names the covenant God made at Horeb and insists it was made with the generation standing in front of him.
• Deuteronomy 5:4-5: He recalls God speaking out of the fire on the mountain, with Moses standing between because the people were afraid to go up.
• Deuteronomy 5:6: God introduces Himself as the One who brought Israel out of Egypt and out of slavery.
• Deuteronomy 5:7-11: The first three commandments forbid other gods, carved images, and misuse of God’s name.
• Deuteronomy 5:12-15: The fourth commandment sets the sabbath apart, extends its rest to servants, animals, and foreigners, and grounds it in Israel’s rescue from Egypt.
• Deuteronomy 5:16: The fifth commandment tells Israel to honour father and mother, with a promise of long life and of things going well.
• Deuteronomy 5:17-21: The sixth through tenth commandments forbid killing, adultery, stealing, false witness, and coveting.
• Deuteronomy 5:22: God finishes speaking, adds nothing further, and writes the commandments on two stone tablets for Moses.
• Deuteronomy 5:23-27: The tribal heads and elders come to Moses, say another word from God will kill them, and ask him to listen on their behalf.
• Deuteronomy 5:28-29: God approves what the people said and wishes aloud that they had a heart to fear Him and keep His commandments.
• Deuteronomy 5:30-31: God sends the people back to their tents and keeps Moses with Him to receive the rest of the law.
• Deuteronomy 5:32-33: Moses charges Israel to walk in all God’s ways, turning neither right nor left, so that it may go well with them in the land.

The Ten Commandments, Said a Second Time

This is the only place in the Bible where the Ten Commandments are given a second full hearing. They were first spoken at Sinai and recorded in Exodus 20. Here Moses says them again to people who mostly were not old enough to remember the first time.

They are the same ten, in the same order, with the same weight. Nothing is added to the list, nothing is dropped from it, and nothing is made easier. What does change is the wording around a handful of them, and the changes point in one direction: toward a nation about to own fields, run households, and keep servants.

What Changes Between Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5

Why the Sabbath Reason Changes

Exodus grounds the sabbath in the six days of creation and God’s rest on the seventh. Deuteronomy grounds Israel’s keeping of it in Egypt: “And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm” (Deuteronomy 5:15). Remember that you were once a slave, and that God took you out of it by force.

The two reasons sit together rather than compete. The sabbath itself goes back to creation (Genesis 2:3), and Deuteronomy supplies the reason this nation in particular owes God that day. People who were slaves themselves are told to hand rest to everyone under their roof, including the servant and the foreigner. Moses makes the same appeal elsewhere in the book when he asks Israel for mercy toward the people with the least power (Deuteronomy 15:15; 16:12; 24:18).

Observations from Deuteronomy 5

Fire and Voice Each Come Seven Times, and Heart Comes Once (5:4-26 with 5:29)

Voice comes twice over in verse 28 alone. What frightens Israel is what they hear, and they say so plainly in verse 25. Against those fourteen mentions, the word heart appears once in the whole chapter, in verse 29, and God is the one who says it. The chapter is loud from beginning to end, and the thing God actually asks for is named only in a whisper at the close.

Two Commandments Point Backward and Eight Do Not (5:12, 5:16)

“As the LORD thy God hath commanded thee” appears twice in this chapter, on the sabbath and on honouring parents, and nowhere else. God had already commanded Israel about the sabbath before Sinai, at the giving of the manna (Exodus 16:23). Neither phrase is in Exodus 20. Moses may be reminding a young crowd that these two duties were not invented for them; they are older than the day they are hearing about.

The Last Four Commandments Are Joined Together (5:18-21)

In Exodus 20 each of the last commandments begins “Thou shalt not.” Here the sixth stands alone and then four in a row begin with “Neither.” Adultery, theft, false witness, and coveting are strung into one sentence rather than listed as separate items. James makes the same point about the law directly: break it at one point and you are guilty of all of it (James 2:10-11).

Third and Fourth Generations Set Against Thousands (5:9-10)

God says He visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children “unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,” and then shows mercy “unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.” He punishes wrongdoing to three or four generations of those who hate Him, and He shows kindness to thousands who love Him. The mercy runs vastly further than the judgment.

God Says Three Times That Obedience Is for Their Good (5:16, 5:29, 5:33)

It is attached to honouring parents in verse 16, to God’s own wish in verse 29, and to the closing charge in verse 33. Each time the reason for obeying is stated as Israel’s benefit rather than as a threat. God gives the command and then tells them what He is after in giving it.

Difficult Verses Explained

Why Does Deuteronomy 5:3 Say the Covenant Was Not Made With Their Fathers?

Most Bible teachers understand “our fathers” here to mean the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with whom God made a different and earlier covenant (Genesis 15:18). The law at Horeb was not given to them. Others read the Hebrew phrase as “not only with our fathers, but with us also,” which is a common way of drawing a contrast in Hebrew.

A real tension sits here. Deuteronomy 2:14 says every fighting man of the generation that stood at Horeb had already died. Either reading resolves it the same way: God made the covenant with Israel as a nation, so it holds for every generation of that nation. Moses is not correcting the record. He is pressing on his hearers that the covenant is theirs now.

What Does It Mean That God Talked With Israel “Face to Face”?

It describes how directly God spoke, not what the people saw. Deuteronomy 4:12 settles it in the same book: “ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.” They heard God say the words and saw no shape or figure at all. The phrase is used the same way of Moses in Exodus 33:11, and the same chapter states plainly that no one can see God’s face and live (Exodus 33:20).

Does God Punish Children for Their Parents’ Sins?

The verse itself supplies the limit. It says God carries the fathers’ sin forward onto children “of them that hate me” (Deuteronomy 5:9), which places the punishment where the children keep up their parents’ hatred of God rather than on children for something they never did.

Deuteronomy is clear elsewhere that no one is put to death for a parent’s sin (Deuteronomy 24:16), and Ezekiel states the principle at length: the soul that sins is the one that dies (Ezekiel 18:20). The verse describes how rebellion against God can carry on through a family or a nation, and it sets a limit on how far the punishment goes. A child who turns to God stands on their own ground, as Ezekiel says plainly.

What Does “He Added No More” Mean in Deuteronomy 5:22?

It means God stopped after ten. He said nothing further in that voice out of the fire, and everything else He had to give came through Moses. Many older commentators read it as a statement about the ten commandments themselves, that God gave them complete and closed, and the Geneva notes draw out the lesson that we are to be content with His word and add nothing to it.

Common Misunderstandings

• That the changed wording means the law itself was revised. The differences sit around the commandments rather than inside the list of them, which is why the New Testament cites these commandments as one law without distinguishing between the two accounts (Matthew 19:18-19; Romans 13:9).
• That Exodus and Deuteronomy give competing reasons for the sabbath. Both reasons are God’s. Exodus points to the pattern set at creation, Deuteronomy to Israel’s rescue from Egypt, and the chapter never sets one against the other.
• That Horeb and Sinai are two different mountains. They are two names for one place. Deuteronomy almost always calls it Horeb, and Exodus usually calls it Sinai.

Christ Connection

The clearest line from this chapter to Christ runs through a request. Israel begged Moses to stand between them and God’s voice, and God answered that they had spoken well (Deuteronomy 5:27-28). Thirteen chapters later God returns to that exact day and quotes the request back: “According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly” (Deuteronomy 18:16).

He repeats the verdict He gave that day, “They have well spoken that which they have spoken,” and then answers the request itself: “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth” (Deuteronomy 18:18).

God would raise up a prophet like Moses from among the people themselves and give him God’s own words to speak. Peter names that Prophet as Jesus (Acts 3:22-23), and Stephen sets the same promise at the centre of his defence (Acts 7:37). The mediator Israel asked for at the mountain was finally given in Christ.

The chapter reaches Christ in three more places.

• Moses standing in the middle. He stood between God and the people because they could not bear to come close (Deuteronomy 5:5). Paul names the one who fills that place: “there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). There is one God, and one person who stands between God and people, and He is Jesus.
• The heart God wished for. God said He wished Israel had a heart to fear Him and keep His commandments (Deuteronomy 5:29). Later God promised to supply it Himself, and many read that promise as the direct answer to this verse: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33), and “I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes” (Ezekiel 36:27). God would write His law inside people and put His Spirit in them so they could actually keep it. Hebrews quotes that promise and names Christ as the one who brings it about (Hebrews 8:6-10).
• The mountain and the city. Hebrews describes this scene directly, the fire and the darkness and the voice that made the hearers beg for it to stop (Hebrews 12:18-19), and then sets another place beside it. Believers have come instead to Mount Zion and “to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant” (Hebrews 12:24), to Jesus who stands between God and them under a new agreement. Horeb said stay back. Zion says come.

When, Where, and Why

• When: The fortieth year after Israel left Egypt, on the first day of the eleventh month (Deuteronomy 1:3). Israel crossed the Jordan about seventy days later (Joshua 4:19), with thirty days of mourning for Moses in between (Deuteronomy 34:8), which leaves roughly forty days for these speeches. The exact year is debated; it is usually placed in the fifteenth century before Christ.
• Where: East of the Jordan, on the plains of Moab (Deuteronomy 1:5; Numbers 22:1). The events Moses recalls happened at Horeb, roughly forty years and a long desert crossing behind them, which is why he has to take them back to a mountain their parents stood at.
• Why: Moses is opening the second of his three addresses, and it is the one that carries the law. Chapters 1 to 4 recount where Israel has been; from here to chapter 26 he lays out the terms Israel will live under in the land. He begins with the ten commandments because they are the foundation everything after them rests on, and because this generation needed to hear them for themselves. God later commanded that the law be read aloud to the whole nation, children and foreigners included, every seventh year, so that no generation would receive it secondhand (Deuteronomy 31:9-13). The chapter that follows takes up what God wishes for here, telling Israel to love the LORD with all their heart (Deuteronomy 6:5).

Key Verses

“I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.”

Deuteronomy 5:6

God opens by naming the rescue He has already carried out, taking Israel out of a country where they had been slaves. Every command in the rest of the chapter rests on that one sentence.

“And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.”

Deuteronomy 5:15

Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and that God brought you out from there by His own strength, and keep the sabbath because of it. This is the one reason Deuteronomy gives that Exodus does not, and it turns a day of rest into a memorial of freedom.

“O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!”

Deuteronomy 5:29

God wishes His people had the kind of heart that would fear Him and keep His commands for good, so that life would go well for them and for their children.

The fear He asks for is not the terror that drove them back from the mountain; Moses told them at Sinai to stop being afraid and to let a right fear of God keep them from sin (Exodus 20:20). Everything before this verse is law said out loud; this is the one line where God says what He is actually after.

Key Lessons from Deuteronomy 5

• Faith is not handed down as an heirloom; the covenant is made with the people who are alive today (Deuteronomy 5:3).
• God tells His people who He is and what He has done for them before He tells them what to do (Deuteronomy 5:6).
• A day of rest was commanded for the servant, the foreigner, and the animal, the ones with the least power to claim it for themselves (Deuteronomy 5:14-15).
• Fear of God is a right response, and God did not despise the people who admitted they needed someone to stand between (Deuteronomy 5:28).
• God wanted a heart more than He wanted a pledge, and He said so right after Israel gave one (Deuteronomy 5:27-29).

For the whole chapter set out chapter by chapter, see The Book of Deuteronomy Summary by Chapter. To go deeper into the lessons from this chapter, read our full study: Lessons from Deuteronomy 5.

Bible Study Questions

1. Why does Moses insist in Deuteronomy 5:3 that the covenant was made with the people standing in front of him, and what would change for them if it were only their parents’ covenant?
2. Deuteronomy 5:15 gives a different reason for the sabbath than Exodus 20:11 does. What does each reason teach about God?
3. Read Deuteronomy 5:14 slowly and list everyone named as needing rest. What does that list tell you about what God cares about?
4. In Deuteronomy 5:27 the people say they will hear and do everything God says, and in verse 29 God says He wishes they had the heart for it. How would you hold both verses together without calling the people liars?
5. God approved Israel’s request for a mediator instead of rebuking them for it. What does His answer show about how God receives people who are afraid of Him?
6. Moses ends by telling Israel not to turn to the right hand or to the left (Deuteronomy 5:32). What would turning aside look like in an ordinary week for you?

Frequently Asked Questions

Deuteronomy 5, The Full Text (KJV)

Read the full chapter below for reference. You can also read Deuteronomy 5 in another translation.

1 And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them.

2 The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.

3 The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.

4 The LORD talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire,

5 (I stood between the LORD and you at that time, to shew you the word of the LORD: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount;) saying,

6 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

7 Thou shalt have none other gods before me.

8 Thou shalt not make 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 waters beneath the earth:

9 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto 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,

10 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

11 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.

12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee.

13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work:

14 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, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.

15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.

16 Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

17 Thou shalt not kill.

18 Neither shalt thou commit adultery.

19 Neither shalt thou steal.

20 Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour.

21 Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour’s wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour’s house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

22 These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.

23 And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, (for the mountain did burn with fire,) that ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders;

24 And ye said, Behold, the LORD our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth.

25 Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, then we shall die.

26 For who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?

27 Go thou near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the LORD our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it.

28 And the LORD heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto me; and the LORD said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee: they have well said all that they have spoken.

29 O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!

30 Go say to them, Get you into your tents again.

31 But as for thee, stand thou here by me, and I will speak unto thee all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it.

32 Ye shall observe to do therefore as the LORD your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

33 Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess.