The Lord did not make this covenant with our ancestors, but with all of us who are alive today.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh didn’t make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive today.
- KJV The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.
- BSB He did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with all of us who are alive here today.
- NKJV The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive.
- NASB The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, all of us who are alive here today.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Moses stresses the covenant is binding on the present generation, not just the fathers. God's covenant claims each generation personally.
Overview
Though made at Horeb, the covenant is presented as living and present, addressed to those alive now. Moses guards against treating God's word as merely ancestral history. Each generation must personally embrace God's covenant, just as the gospel calls every individual to personal faith in Christ today.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Deut 29:10–15All of you stand today in the presence of Yahweh your God; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel,
- Heb 8:8–9For finding fault with them, he said, “Behold, the days come”, says the Lord, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;
- Gen 17:21But my covenant I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year.”
- Jer 32:38–40and they shall be my people, and I will be their God:
- Gal 3:17–21Now I say this. A covenant confirmed beforehand by God in Christ, the law, which came four hundred thirty years after, does not annul, so as to make the promise of no effect.
- Ps 105:8–10He has remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations,
- Matt 13:17For most certainly I tell you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, and didn’t see them; and to hear the things which you hear, and didn’t hear them.
- Gen 17:7I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your offspring after you.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 5:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.