Exodus 24:12 – And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.
Deuteronomy 4:13-14 – 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. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.
I here intend to demonstrate that Moses, in fulfilling his responsibility to teach the children of Israel, uttered explanatory statements to them, after reciting the fourth commandment (Exodus 20:11; 31:17; Deuteronomy 5:15).
In two of those statements (Exodus 20:11 and 31:17b), Moses spoke of “days” and may have intended for them to be understood as “God’s days” or “divine days” (grand in scale) within which the Lord God created heaven and earth:
Exodus 20:11 – For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Exodus 31:17b – …for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
Another example of an explanatory statement by Moses while reciting the fourth commandment can be found in Deuteronomy 5:15.
Deuteronomy 5:4–25 consists of the re-telling of the Ten Commandments to the younger generation who were to enter the Promised Land. Deuteronomy chapter five and Exodus chapter twenty are virtually identical, with Moses reciting the Ten Commandments in each. But the phrases which follow the fourth commandment in each book differ in content. Interestingly, the phrase “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is…” is absent in the Deuteronomy account of the fourth Commandment – which goes on to say that nothing more was added:
Deuteronomy 5:22 – These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me. According to this verse, Moses’ explanatory statement found twice in the book of Exodus, “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is…” was not spoken by the Lord or written in the two tables of stone.
