Comentario sobre Deuteronómio 5:2

ה׳ אלוקינו כרת עמנו ברית בחרב, "The Lord our G'd concluded a covenant with us at Chorev." Moses did not spell out the nature of this covenant. Was it the covenant to keep the Torah as is written in Exodus 24,8: "here is the blood of the covenant which G'd concluded with you concerning all these matters?" Or was it the covenant mentioned in Exodus 34,10: "here I am concluding a covenant in the presence of your whole nation?" In that connection our sages explained that G'd undertook not to allow His presence to rest on the nations of the world. Logic suggests that this is the covenant Moses spoke about at this time, and that he hinted at this when he said: "the Lord G'd concluded a covenant with us." This implied that He would be our G'd exclusively and that He would not conclude a covenant with any other nation. What follows in our chapter is a repetition of this covenant. The whole paragraph then was intended as a compliment to Israel from G'd. Verse 3 would confirm all this.

V. 2. ה׳ אלהינו וגו׳. Einen Bund hat Gott mit uns zu Horeb geschlossen. Die Offenbarung war kein bloß theoretisches. Mitteilen, dessen Beachten und Erfüllen etwa einer späteren Erwägung anheim gegeben wäre. Die Offenbarung war ein Akt der Verpflichtung, war ein Akt der Inpflichtnahme und der Pflichtübernahme, die Offenbarung hat das unauflösliche Band zwischen Gott und uns geknüpft.