Deuteronomy 5
Share
12. Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee--that is, keep it in mind as a sacred institution of former enactment and perpetual obligation.
14. that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou--This is a different reason for the observance of the Sabbath from what is assigned in Exodus 20:8-11 , where that day is stated to be an appointed memorial of the creation. But the addition of another motive for the observance does not imply any necessary contrariety to the other; and it has been thought probable that, the commemorative design of the institution being well known, the other reason was specially mentioned on this repetition of the law, to secure the privilege of sabbatic rest to servants, of which, in some Hebrew families, they had been deprived. In this view, the allusion to the period of Egyptian bondage ( Deuteronomy 5:15 ), when they themselves were not permitted to observe the Sabbath either as a day of rest or of public devotion, was peculiarly seasonable and significant, well fitted to come home to their business and bosoms.
16. that it may go well with thee--This clause is not in Exodus, but admitted into Ephesians 6:3 .
21. Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, . . . house, his field--An alteration is here made in the words (see Exodus 20:17 ), but it is so slight ("wife" being put in the first clause and "house" in the second) that it would not have been worth while noticing it, except that the interchange proves, contrary to the opinion of some eminent critics, that these two objects are included in one and the same commandment.
22. he added no more--( Exodus 20:1 ). The pre-eminence of these ten commandments was shown in God's announcing them directly: other laws and institutions were communicated to the people through the instrumentality of Moses.
23-28. And . . . ye came near unto
29. Oh, that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me--God can bestow such a heart, and has promised to give it, wherever it is asked ( Jeremiah 32:40 ). But the wish which is here expressed on the part of God for the piety and steadfast obedience of the Israelites did not relate to them as individuals, so much as a nation, whose religious character and progress would have a mighty influence on the world at large.