Moses Intercedes for the People
The LORD speaks the commandments to the whole assembly and writes them on stone, but the people shrink back in fear before the blazing mountain. They ask Moses to hear God's words for them and promise that they will obey what he brings back.
T22he LORD spoke these commandments in a loud voice to your whole assembly out of the fire, the cloud, and the deep darkness on the mountain; He added nothing more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. 23And when you heard the voice out of the darkness while the mountain was blazing with fire, all the heads of your tribes and your elders approached me, 24and you said, “Behold, the LORD our God has shown us His glory and greatness, and we have heard His voice out of the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him. 25But now, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us, and we will die, if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer. 26For who of all flesh has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the fire, as we have, and survived? 27Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then you can tell us everything the LORD our God tells you; we will listen and obey.”
The LORD says the people have spoken well, yet He longs for a heart in them that would truly fear Him and keep His commands תמיד. The people are dismissed to their tents, while Moses remains to receive the statutes he must teach them for the land.
28And the LORD heard the words you spoke to me, and He said to me, “I have heard the words that these people have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken. 29If only they had such a heart to fear Me and keep all My commandments always, so that it might be well with them and with their children forever. 30Go and tell them: ‘Return to your tents.’ 31But you stand here with Me, that I may speak to you all the commandments and statutes and ordinances you are to teach them to follow in the land that I am giving them to possess.”
Moses ends with a charge to keep the LORD's command without swerving. Life, prosperity, and long days in the land lie along the path God has set before them.
32So be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you are not to turn aside to the right or to the left. 33You must walk in all the ways that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.