Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 4:13
He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to follow—the Ten Commandments that He wrote on two tablets of stone.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites in the plains of Moab, recalling the Sinai encounter where the LORD spoke directly to the assembly out of fire without revealing a physical form. This declaration occurs at the threshold of entering the Promised Land, framing the covenant as the foundational instruction for their new life.
The words — וַ/יַּגֵּ֨ד (va.ya.ged) translates literally as "and he declared," while עֲשֶׂ֖רֶת ('a.se.ret) means "[the] ten," anchoring the verse's claim that God explicitly announced and numbered the core stipulations.
The thread — The provision of stone tablets appears earlier at Exodus 24:12 and Exodus 31:18, and Exodus 34:28 records the forty-day period during which these inscriptions were completed.
Why it lands — The text states that God Himself authored the covenant and directly commanded its observance, requiring the reader to recognize the authority and permanence of the written law.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.
Cross-references
- Exodus 34:28 So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.
- Exodus 31:18 When the LORD had finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.
- Exodus 24:12 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and stay here, so that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”
- Deuteronomy 9:9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.
- Exodus 19:5 Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.
- Deuteronomy 10:1 At that time the LORD said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood.
- Exodus 24:17 And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop in the eyes of the Israelites.
- Deuteronomy 5:1 Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I declare in your hearing this day. Learn them and observe them carefully.
- Hebrews 9:19 For when Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people,
- 2 Corinthians 3:7 Now if the ministry of death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at the face of Moses because of its fleeting glory,