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27,299 commentary entries
The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:7
The first commandment. God the sole object of worship. "Thou shalt have none other gods before me." So runs the first of the Ten Commandments. (For the specific direction of each, see enumeration in Homily on Deuteronom…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:8-10
Here the spirituality of God is asserted, and, in the prohibition of the use of images in the worship of the Deity, all idolatry is denounced, and all deification of the powers of nature in any sense is prohibited. By t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:8
The iniquity of the fathers visited on the children. I. A FACT AMPLY ATTESTED. Borne out— 1. By Scripture instances (Joshua 7:24; 2 Samuel 12:14; 1 Kings 21:21, 1 Kings 21:29, etc.). 2. By observation and experience. Th…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:8-10
The second commandment. The spirituality of Divine worship. It is sometimes said that there is a reason attached to this second commandment. It is scarcely accurate to affirm that. There is a double sanction attached to…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:11
The third commandment. Reverent regard for the Divine Name. The "Name" of God is the form of speech for God himself. "To take" the Name of God means "to take it up"—to use it in any way, which may be done either by spea…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:11
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; literally, Thou shalt not take [or lift] up the Name of Jehovah thy God to vanity. This commandment forbids not only all false swearing by the Name of God, but a…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:12-15
The Sabbath. I. WHAT? The essential point in the institution is the sanctification to God of a seventh part of our time, of one day in seven. Which day of the seven is observed is indifferent, not in the sense of being…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:12-14
Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. This phraseology implies that the Sabbath institute was already well known to the people of Israel; so that this commandment was intended, no…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:12-15
The Sabbath, or a rest-day for man. (For a notice of the variations between the wording of this command in Exodus 20:1-26. and in this chapter, see Exposition.) No Christian preacher could wisely deal homiletically with…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:16
The germ of society is the family, and the family is sustained only as the authority and rule of the heads of the house are upheld and respected. The command, then, to honor parents may be justly regarded as asserting t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:16
The fifth commandment. Honor due to parents; or, the religion of home life. Many are the passages in the Word of God which speak of or refer to the duty of children to their parents; e.g. Exodus 21:15, Exodus 21:17; Le…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:16
Honor to parents. We prefer the arrangement which regards the fifth commandment as the last of the first table—honor to parents being viewed as honor to God in his human representatives. I. PARENTS STAND TO THEIR CHILDR…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:17
The sixth commandment. The religion of the temper. If a preacher were to announce this as a text in one of our Christian congregations, some of his hearers might be disposed to say, "Such a text might be appropriate eno…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:17-21
SECOND TABLE OF THE LAW: praecepta probitatis. In the enactments of the second table there is a progression from the outward to the inward. First, sins of deed are prohibited, such as murder, adultery, and theft; then s…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:18
The seventh commandment. The religion of the body. In the second part of the Decalogue there are stern prohibitions against sin, without any positive indication of the opposite virtue. Nor is there a hint of how to atta…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:19
The eighth commandment. The religion of the land. There is much to be said in favor of the proposition that utility is the foundation of virtue; and provided that the sentence be well cleared up and guarded from abuse,…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:20
The ninth commandment. The religion of the tongue. This command gives us a precept touching our words. Inasmuch, however, as it is here given to us in barest, briefest, most elementary form, it would not be well if in t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:21-33
Character determines environment. I. THE STORMY ELEMENTS OF NATURE SERVE AT TIMES AS THE FITTING ROBES OF DEITY. All natural objects are the projections in space of his creative voice. He spake and they appeared. He is…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:21
The tenth commandment. The religion of the heart. This commandment is in some respects the most manifestly sweeping and searching of all. It even more fully than the others illustrates Hebrews 4:12. If any reader has th…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:22-27
Here is an expanded citation of Exodus 20:15-18, addressed by Moses to prepare the way for the solemn admonition to observe and do all that the Lord had commanded them, with which he passes on to the enunciation of the…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:22
Moral Law. I. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS A DISTINCT PART OF GOD'S REVELATION. 1. They were spoken by God's own voice from the midst of the fire (Deuteronomy 5:24). 2. They only were thus promulgated; "he added no more." 3. Th…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:22-33
How Moses became mediator. The Ten Commandments were a direct communication from God to Israel. But it was too much for their sinful, terrified souls to stand, and so Moses is entreated to stand between God and them, an…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:22-33
The Law as a whole, and its effect upon the people. In the account of the reception of the Law which we have in the Book of the Exodus, it would seem probable that we have a record which was penned at or near the time o…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 5:22
And he added no more. "Only these ten words did God speak immediately to you; all the rest he spoke afterwards by me" (Herxheimer); cf. Numbers 11:25, where the same formula occurs, "and they added not," i.e. they proph…