Deuteronomy 5:5

5:5 (I was standing between the Lord and you at that time to reveal to you the message ¹  of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain.) He said:

Deuteronomy 9:9-10

9:9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained there ²  forty days and nights, eating and drinking nothing. 9:10 The Lord gave me the two stone tablets, written by the very finger ³  of God, and on them was everything ⁴  he ⁵  said to you at the mountain from the midst of the fire at the time of that assembly.

Deuteronomy 9:21

9:21 As for your sinful thing ⁶  that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down, ⁷  ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.

Deuteronomy 10:1

The Opportunity to Begin Again

10:1 At that same time the Lord said to me, “Carve out for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones and come up the mountain to me; also make for yourself a wooden ark. ⁸ 

Deuteronomy 10:3-4

10:3 So I made an ark of acacia ⁹  wood and carved out two stone tablets just like the first ones. Then I went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. 10:4 The Lord ¹⁰  then wrote on the tablets the same words, ¹¹  the ten commandments, ¹²  which he ¹³  had spoken to you at the mountain from the middle of the fire at the time of that assembly, and he ¹⁴  gave them to me.

Deuteronomy 10:10

10:10 As for me, I stayed at the mountain as I did the first time, forty days and nights. The Lord listened to me that time as well and decided not to destroy you.

Deuteronomy 33:19

33:19 They will summon peoples to the mountain,

there they will sacrifice proper ¹⁵  sacrifices;

for they will enjoy ¹⁶  the abundance of the seas,

and the hidden treasures of the shores. ¹⁷ 

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¹ tn Or “word” (so KJV, NASB, NIV); NRSV “words.”

² tn Heb “in the mountain.” The demonstrative pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

³ sn The very finger of God. This is a double figure of speech (1) in which God is ascribed human features (anthropomorphism) and (2) in which a part stands for the whole (synecdoche). That is, God, as Spirit, has no literal finger nor, if he had, would he write with his finger. Rather, the sense is that God himself – not Moses in any way – was responsible for the composition of the Ten Commandments (cf. Exod 31:18; 32:16; 34:1).

⁴ tn Heb “according to all the words.”

⁵ tn Heb “the Lord” (likewise at the beginning of vv. 12, 13). See note on “he” in 9:3.

⁶ tn Heb “your sin.” This is a metonymy in which the effect (sin) stands for the cause (the metal calf).

⁷ tn Heb “burned it with fire.”

⁸ tn Or “chest” (so NIV, CEV); NLT “sacred chest”; TEV “wooden box.” This chest was made of acacia wood; it is later known as the ark of the covenant.

⁹ sn Acacia wood (Heb “shittim wood”). This is wood from the acacia, the most common timber tree of the Sinai region. Most likely it is the species Acacia raddiana because this has the largest trunk. See F. N. Hepper, Illustrated Encyclopedia of Bible Plants, 63.

¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ tn Heb “according to the former writing.” See note on the phrase “the same words” in v. 2.

¹² tn Heb “ten words.” The “Ten Commandments” are known in Hebrew as the “Ten Words,” which in Greek became the “Decalogue.”

¹³ tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

¹⁴ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” earlier in this verse.

¹⁵ tn Or “acceptable”; Heb “righteous” (so NASB).

¹⁶ tn Heb “suck.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “of the sand” (so NRSV, NLT); CEV “the sandy beach.”