Not with Our Fathers, but with Us
44 This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. 45 These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances which Moses spoke to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt, 46 beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck when they came out of Egypt. 47 They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise; 48 from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, even to Mount Siyon (also called Hermon), 49 and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah. Deuteronomy 5 1 Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, “Hear, Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears today, that you may learn them, and observe to do them.” 2 Yahweh our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 Yahweh didn’t make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive today. 4 Yahweh spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the middle of the fire, 5 (I stood between Yahweh and you at that time, to show you Yahweh’s word; for you were afraid because of the fire, and didn’t go up onto the mountain) saying,
A second heading opens the law, and it is pressed on a generation that was not at the mountain as though they had been there.
The book restarts. This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel Deuteronomy 4:44 is a second title, and the place is given again in detail — east of the Jordan, in the territory taken from the two kings Deuteronomy 4:46–49.
The first address was history. What begins here is the law itself, and it runs to the end of chapter 26.
The opening summons is a chain of four verbs: hear... learn them, and observe to do them Deuteronomy 5:1. Hearing is where it starts and doing is where it ends, and learning stands in between as the thing that connects them.
Then the sentence that governs the whole book, and it is stranger than it looks.
2 Yahweh our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 Yahweh didn’t make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive today.
Most of the people listening were children at the mountain or had not been born. Their fathers are buried in the wilderness — the whole first address was an account of how that happened. And Moses tells them the covenant was not made with those fathers but with them.
Read as history that is plainly not the case, and Moses knows it better than anyone present. Read as a claim about what a covenant is, it is the point of the book. This is not an heirloom handed down, where each generation holds something that was really transacted by somebody else. Every generation stands at the mountain in its own person, and the words are addressed to whoever is listening.
That is why the second person runs through the retelling. It is why Egypt is remembered by people who never saw it. And it is why the book can be read aloud every seventh year Deuteronomy 31:10–13 to an audience that keeps changing without the address ever needing to be rewritten.
The next verse describes the encounter: Yahweh spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the middle of the fire Deuteronomy 5:4.
And then a parenthesis, which is where Moses puts the most important thing about himself. (I stood between Yahweh and you at that time, to show you Yahweh's word; for you were afraid because of the fire, and didn't go up onto the mountain) Deuteronomy 5:5.
He was in the middle. The people could not bear the direct address and someone had to stand between the fire and them — and he mentions it in brackets, as a piece of background, before getting on with the words themselves.
settled What this mark means