Yahweh spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the middle of the fire,
Parallel Translations
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Yahweh spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the middle of the fire,
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The LORD talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire,
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The LORD spoke with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire —
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (2)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Deuteronomy 5:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Exodus 19:18-19 All of Mount Sinai smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.
- Deuteronomy 34:10 Since then, there has not arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom Yahweh knew face to face,
- Exodus 19:9 Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, I come to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.” Moses told the words of the people to Yahweh.
- Deuteronomy 4:33 Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live?
- Deuteronomy 4:36 Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you. On earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the middle of the fire.
- Exodus 20:18-22 All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance. They said to Moses, “Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don’t let God speak with us, lest we die.” Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won’t sin.” The people stayed at a distance, and Moses came near to the thick darkness where God was. Yahweh said to Moses, “This is what you shall tell the children of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
- Exodus 33:11 Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. He turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, didn’t depart from the Tent.
- Numbers 12:8 With him, I will speak mouth to mouth, even plainly, and not in riddles; and he shall see Yahweh’s form. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?”
- Numbers 14:14 They will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you Yahweh are among this people; for you Yahweh are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.
- Deuteronomy 5:24-26 and you said, “Behold, Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the middle of the fire. We have seen today that God does speak with man, and he lives. Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear Yahweh our God’s voice any more, then we shall die. For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as we have, and lived?
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain So plainly that ye need not to doubt thereof.
So plainly that ye need not to doubt thereof.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Deu 5:4 The LORD talked with you face to…
Deu 5:4 The LORD talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire,
Ver. 4. Face to face,] i.e., Openly, and immediately, by himself, and not by a messenger or mediator. Prosper’s conceit was, that the Israelites were called Iudaei, because they received ius Dei.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Not in a visible shape, which was utterly denied,…
Not in a visible shape, which was utterly denied, Deu 4:12,15; but personally and immediately, not by the mouth or ministry of Moses; plainly and certainly, as when two men talk face to face; freely and familiarly, so as not to overwhelm and confound you. Compare Exo 33:11; Num 12:8.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain I stood between the Lord and you at that…
I stood between the Lord and you at that time,.... Between the Word of the Lord and you, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; that is, about that time, not at the exact precise time the ten commandments were delivered, for these were spoken immediately to the people; but when the ceremonial law was given, which was ordained by angels, in the hand of a mediator, Gal 3:19, and which was at the request of the people as follows, terrified by the appearance of the fire out of which the moral law was delivered:
to show you the word of the Lord; not the decalogue, that they heard with their own ears, but the other laws which were afterwards given, that were of the ceremonial and judicial kind:
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for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount; lest they should be consumed by it: and indeed bounds were set about the mount, and they were charged not to break through:
saying; this word is in connection with the preceding verse, the Lord's talking out of the midst of the fire, when he said what follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Face to face - Personally and immediately, not by…
Face to face - Personally and immediately, not by the mouth or ministry of Moses; plainly and certainly, as when two men talk face to face; freely and familiarly, so as not to overwhelm and confound you.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Deu 5:4. The Lord talked with you face to…
Deu 5:4. The Lord talked with you face to face — Personally and immediately, and not by the mouth or ministry of Moses; plainly and certainly, as when two men speak face to face; freely and familiarly, so as not to overwhelm and confound you. It may also signify that they beheld a conspicuous symbol of the divine presence, and heard a divine voice speaking from thence clearly and distinctly.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain To us. Hebrew and Septuagint, "to you." --- Face…
To us. Hebrew and Septuagint, "to you." --- Face to face, in such a manner that no doubt could be entertained of his presence. (St. Augustine) --- God addressed the decalogue to all the people, who saw no similitude. But to Moses he delivered the rest of his ordinances, with as much familiarity and condescension as one friend would use in speaking to another, Exodus xxxiii. 2. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain The Lord talked with you face to face in…
The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount--not in a visible and corporeal form, of which there was no trace (Deu 4:12, Deu 4:15), but freely, familiarly, and in such a manner that no doubt could be entertained of His presence.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 4. The Lord talked — Jehovah, in person, addressed…
4. The Lord talked — Jehovah, in person, addressed the “ten words,” or commandments, to the people. Other precepts were given through Moses.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 4. face to face] i.e. person with person, without…
4. face to face] i.e. person with person, without the intervention of another. The metaphor is hardly an instance of the tendency of D’s style to hyperbole2[120]. For although all that the people perceived was a voice, or sound, of words (Deu_4:12), this came at first directly to the whole people, and it was because they feared the effect of its directness that they begged Moses to mediate (Deu_5:22-27). But if not a hyperbole the phrase face to face needs qualification—it was only with Moses that God talked (morally speaking) face to face (Deu_34:10, Exo_33:11); and so a qualification is given immediately in parenthesis in the next verse.
[120] It is, however, an interesting illustration of how an O.T. writer (like so many of the prophets), while forbidding strenuously the representation of the Deity in any material form, does not hesitate to use anthropomorphisms in describing His appearances to men. Ch. Deu_4:12; Deu_4:15 emphasise that Israel saw no manner of form in the Mount; while Deu_5:4 now asserts that God spake face to face with the people. What is denied in fact, so as to exclude every excuse for plastic representations of the Deity, is allowed in metaphor.
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out of the midst of the fire] So in Deu_4:12 (but without the phrase preceding in the mount), 15, 33, 36; and Deu_5:22; Deu_5:24, Deu_9:10, Deu_10:4.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (4) The Lord talked with you face to face.—Yet…
(4) The Lord talked with you face to face.—Yet they saw no manner of similitude (Deu_4:12), i.e., no visible form: but the very words of God reached their ears. So in Exo_20:22, “Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 4, 5. The Lord talked with you face…
Vers. 4, 5. The Lord talked with you face to face. God spoke to them immediately, in their presence and to their face, from the mount, as one person might to another. There is a slight difference in form between the phrase here and that in Exo_33:11 and Deu_34:10, where it is used in reference to Moses, but it is so slight ( instead of that no difference of meaning can be elicited. God spake directly to the people, as he did to Moses, only Moses was admitted to closer communion with him than the people were. This difference is sufficiently indicated in ver. 5, where the mediatory function of Moses, in the promulgation of the Law and the making of the covenant, is described as necessitated by the fear of the people, and their not going up into the mount (cf. Exo_19:19, etc.) This is referred to more fully afterwards (ver. 23, etc.). I stood between the Lord and you; i.e. acted as mediator; LXX, eiJsthkein ajnason. (cf. Gal_3:19)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Moses continues speaking to the people of Israel.
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face to face
Use your language's idiom for two people who are close to each other and looking at each other when they are speaking to each other. (See: Idiom)
on the mount
"on the mountain"
at that time
Moses is referring to an event that happened about 40 years earlier.
out of the house of slavery
Here the metonym "house of slavery" refers to Egypt where the people of Israel had been slaves. AT: "out of the place where you were slaves" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
Yahweh
face
fire
reveal
word
fear
Egypt
house
servant
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.