Read Deuteronomy 5 here (text coming …) or at Bible Gateway.
The Hebrew paragraphs:
5:1-5 {s} These statutes and judgments are the terms of Israel’s covenant with YHVH
5:6-10 {s} YHVH alone is God/ do not make idols to worship
5:11 {s} Do not take the name of YHVH in vain
5:12-15 {s} Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy
5:16 {s} Honor your father and mother
5:17 {s} Do not murder
5:18 {s} Do not commit adultery
5:19 {s} Do not steal
5:20 {s} Do not bear false witness
5:21a {s} Do not covet your neighbor’s wife
5:21b {s} Do not covet anything that is your neighbor’s
5:22-6:3 {p} YHVH’s voice spoke these commandments, so hear, pay heed, and observe them
Deu 5:1-6:3 {sx11+p} Strong Theme: The statutes and judgments which Israel heard, which Moses is to teach, and which Israel is to pay heed to and observe. It forms a single Chiastic Structure.
Keeping the commandments is central to YHVH’s covenant with Israel. Moses out and out says this:
So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. Deu 4:13
In the chaistic structure above, though, God brings out something interesting about what it means to keep the covenant. YHVH’s covenant (1B) is paired with Israel’s heart toward YHVH (2B). The kind of covenant God made with Israel can only be kept when Israel has the right heart toward YHVH, a heart of fear, reverence, and devotion toward Him.
The relationship YHVH has with Israel and Israel with YHVH, is not like the other nations with their gods. They perform a religious duty, but Israel’s relationship with YHVH proceeds from the heart. The sign of the covenant, the circumcision of the flesh, is merely a picture of the circumcision (cutting away of the flesh) of the heart that is the true characteristic of the relationship between Israel and YHVH, and us, by extension.
If there are questions, this is a good resource:
Ten Commandments Index – Christine Miller
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