5:22 The Lord said these things to your entire assembly at the mountain from the middle of the fire, the cloud, and the darkness with a loud voice, and that was all he said. 5 Then he inscribed the words 6 on two stone tablets and gave them to me.
1 tn The translation assumes the reference is to Israel’s God in which case the point is this: God’s intervention in Israel’s experience is unique in the sense that he has never intervened in such power for any other people on earth. The focus is on the uniqueness of Israel’s experience. Some understand the divine name here in a generic sense, “a god,” or “any god.” In this case God’s incomparability is the focus (cf. v. 35, where this theme is expressed).
2 tn Heb “tried to go to take for himself.”
3 tn Heb “by testings.” The reference here is the judgments upon Pharaoh in the form of plagues. See Deut 7:19 (cf. v. 18) and 29:3 (cf. v. 2).
4 tn Heb “by strong hand and by outstretched arm.”
5 tn Heb “and he added no more” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NLT “This was all he said at that time.”
6 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the words spoken by the