Five-minute study · Day 131 · Deuteronomy 4
Deuteronomy 4:13
A word worth stopping on: words דְּבָרִים devarim
Moses is recounting the Sinai experience to the generation that will cross the Jordan. He describes what God gave them: '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.' Your English Bible says 'ten commandments.' The Hebrew says aseret ha-devarim: ten words. Ten things. The Hebrew word davar means both 'word' and 'thing,' and the distinction matters. God did not deliver ten rules. He delivered ten realities.
Word study: words
- Hebrew
- דְּבָרִים
- Pronounced
- devarim
- Strong's
- H1697
- Definition
- Words, things, matters, events. The plural of davar, which uniquely encompasses both spoken utterance and substantive reality.
Davar is one of the most theologically dense words in the Hebrew language. It means 'word.' It also means 'thing.' The two meanings are not separate entries in a lexicon; they are fused at the root. When God speaks a davar, the utterance and the reality are simultaneous. 'Let there be light' is a davar that creates what it names.
The 'Ten Commandments' are never called that in Hebrew. Exodus 34:28 uses aseret ha-devarim, ten words. Deuteronomy 4:13 repeats the phrase. The Greek translation, Septuagint, rendered this as deka logoi, ten words, which gave us the English term 'Decalogue.' The Latin tradition shifted to decem praecepta, ten precepts, and from there English settled on 'commandments.' Each translation step moved further from the original.
The difference between a commandment and a davar is weight. A commandment is an instruction you may or may not follow. A davar is a reality that exists whether you acknowledge it or not. Weinfeld's Anchor Bible commentary on Deuteronomy argues that the ten devarim function as covenant stipulations within the suzerainty treaty framework, the terms that define the relationship between the great King and his people. They describe the shape of life under God's reign.
When Moses calls them devarim, he is saying these ten statements participate in the same category as 'Let there be light.' They are words that constitute reality. Stealing is not merely prohibited; the davar declares that what belongs to your neighbor is genuinely not yours. Murder is not merely forbidden; the davar declares that human life genuinely belongs to God. The ten devarim describe the actual architecture of a rightly ordered world.
Historical context · Late Bronze Age, circa fifteenth or thirteenth century BC
The Ten Words on Stone
The writing of treaty terms on stone tablets was standard practice in the ancient Near East. Hittite suzerainty treaties from the second millennium BC were inscribed on stone or metal tablets and deposited in the temples of the gods who witnessed the agreement. Two copies were made: one for the suzerain, one for the vassal. Each copy was stored in the respective party's sanctuary.
The two tablets of stone at Sinai parallel this convention precisely. Meredith Kline argued in 'Treaty of the Great King' (1963) that both tablets contained the full text of the covenant, one copy for God (deposited in his sanctuary, the Ark of the Covenant) and one for Israel (also deposited in the Ark, since God dwelt among his people). The tablets were not split, commandments 1-4 on one and 5-10 on the other. They were duplicate copies of the entire covenant, following standard treaty protocol.
The Gezer Calendar, a small limestone tablet discovered in 1908 at the site of ancient Gezer, dates to approximately the tenth century BC and lists agricultural activities by month. Its significance lies in demonstrating that literacy extended beyond royal courts and scribal guilds. If a farmer or student in Gezer could inscribe a seasonal calendar on limestone, the culture possessed writing capacity at multiple social levels. The objection that Mosaic-era Israelites could not have produced or read written documents finds no support in the archaeological record.
The discovery of the Code of Hammurabi in 1901-1902, a basalt stele now in the Louvre, revealed that written law codes predated Moses by centuries. Hammurabi ruled Babylon around 1792-1750 BC. His 282 laws, carved on a seven-foot stone pillar, established that codified law inscribed on stone for public display was an ancient Near Eastern institution long before Sinai. What distinguishes the ten devarim is their source. Hammurabi's stele shows the king receiving the law from the sun god Shamash. At Sinai, God himself wrote with his own finger (Exodus 31:18). The author is the authority.
For reflection
The Hebrew calls them ten devarim, ten word-things. A davar creates what it declares. These ten statements describe the actual structure of reality under God's reign. Pick one of the ten and sit with it as a davar, a reality that exists whether anyone obeys it or not. What changes when you read it that way?
A commandment can be broken. A davar still exists after you break it. The architecture of reality does not bend to accommodate the violation.
Sources: BDB Lexicon; Weinfeld, 'Deuteronomy 1-11' (AB); Kline, 'Treaty of the Great King'