The Ten Commandments are mentioned twice in the Old Testament, the first time in Exo 20:2-17 and the second in Deut 5:6-21, with slight variations in the way they are phrased.
The Ten Commandments are mentioned in Exo in the context of the events at Mount Sinai, when the laws were revealed to Israel through Moses for the first time, as part of the process by which Israel, as a nation, entered into covenant with God.
The book of Deuteronomy recounts the last days of Moses. Israel had come a long way from Egypt; fourty long years, in fact. With the exception of a few persons such as Joshua and Caleb, the older generation of Israelites who had left Egypt had all died out, their death in the wilderness a punishment for their rebellion at Kadesh-Barnea when they refused to trust Yahweh and to enter the land to conquer it after hearing the reports of the spies. Gathered on the plains of Moab on the easter side of the River Jordan was the whole new generation of Israelites who had been born in the wilderness. They would enter and conquer the land of Canaan. Here on the plains of Moab Moses began a series of expositions of what Yahweh requires of them as His covenant people. The Ten Commandments are reiterated in the context of these expositions. Moses had had long years to reflect on all that had happened, all that God had said, and all that life in the conquered land would mean. The differences we notice in the two different iterations of the Ten Commandments arise out this reflection.
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2012