Teks -- Deuteronomy 5:4 (NET)

5:4 The Lord spoke face to face with you at the mountain, from the middle of the fire.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Deu 5:4 - 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.

JFB: Deu 5:4 - 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.

Calvin: Deu 5:4 - Face to face

4.Face to face Again he commends the Law by mentioning their certainty about it; for, when God openly manifested Himself, there could be no doubt of the author from whom it proceeded. To speak “face to face,” is equivalent to discoursing openly and familiarly; and in point of fact God had spoken with them, as mortals and friends communicate with each other in their mutual dealings. Moreover, lest any doubt should still remain, God set before their eyes a visible manifestation of His glory, by appearing in the fire; for no other voice but that of God Himself could proceed out of fire. In the next verse a kind of explanation is added, when he says that he was the interpreter, who laid before them the commands he received from God. And thus he reconciles two things which seem at first sight to be contradictory, viz., that God spoke in person, and yet by a mediator; since they themselves having heard God’s voice petitioned in their fear that He should not continue to speak in the same way. Hence it follows that they were convinced, by a sense of the divine glory and majesty, that it was not allowable for them to doubt the authority of the law. But I only slightly glance at this, because it has been more fully treated of before.

Deu 4:20. But the Lord hath taken you. He argues that, from the period of their deliverance, they have been wholly devoted to God, since He has purchased them for His own peculiar possession. Hence it follows that they are under His jurisdiction and dominion; because it would be foul and wicked ingratitude in them to shake off the yoke of their redeemer. And, in order to strengthen the obligation, he extols the greatness of the favor, because nothing could be more wretched than they were, when God stretched forth His hand to deliver them. Their bondage is therefore called metaphorically, a “furnace,” nay, an “iron” one; and, then, their present far different condition is compared with it; for this was solid and most desirable happiness, that they should be translated into God’s peculiar inheritance.

TSK: Deu 5:4

Deu 5:24-26, Deu 4:33, Deu 4:36, Deu 34:10; Exo 19:9, Exo 19:18, Exo 19:19, Exo 20:18-22, Exo 33:11; Num 12:8

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Deu 5:4

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 .

Haydock: Deu 5:4 - To us // Face to 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)

Gill: Deu 5:4 - The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount // out of the midst of the fire

The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount,.... Meaning, not in that free, friendly, and familiar manner, in which he sometimes talked with Moses, of whom this phrase is used, Exo 33:11, but publicly, audibly, clearly, and distinctly, or without the interposition of another; he did not speak to them by Moses, but to them themselves; he talked to them without a middle person between them, as Aben Ezra expresses it: without making use of one to relate to them what he said; but he talked to them directly, personally:

out of the midst of the fire; in which he descended, and with which the mountain was burning all the time he was speaking; which made it very awful and terrible, and pointed at the terrors of the legal dispensation.