Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Moses repeats and reiterates the Decalogue to the people. Secondly, at verse 22, he narrates the people's fear when the law was given at Sinai, struck by which they asked that God speak the remaining precepts not to them but to Moses: whence Moses alone went up the mountain to God.
Vulgate Text: Deuteronomy 5:1-33
1. And Moses called all Israel, and said to him: Hear, O Israel, the ceremonies and judgments which I speak in your ears today; learn them, and fulfill them in deed. 2. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3. Not with our fathers did He make this covenant, but with us who are here present and alive. 4. Face to face He spoke to us on the mountain from the midst of fire. 5. I was the mediator and intermediary between the Lord and you at that time, to announce to you His words; for you feared the fire and did not go up the mountain, and He said: 6. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 7. You shall not have strange gods before Me. 8. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or on earth below, or that moves in the waters under the earth. 9. You shall not adore them, and you shall not serve them. For I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, repaying the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, 10. and showing mercy to many thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments. 11. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain: for he shall not go unpunished who takes His name upon a vain thing. 12. Observe the day of the sabbath, to sanctify it, as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13. Six days you shall work, and do all your works. 14. The seventh day is the sabbath, that is, the rest of the Lord your God. You shall do no work in it, you, and your son, and your daughter, your servant and your handmaid, and your ox and your ass, and all your cattle, and the stranger who is within your gates: that your servant may rest, and your handmaid, as you do yourself. 15. Remember that you yourself also served in Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore He commanded you to observe the sabbath day. 16. Honor your father and mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live a long time and it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God will give you. 17. You shall not kill. 18. Neither shall you commit adultery. 19. And you shall not steal. 20. Neither shall you speak false testimony against your neighbor. 21. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife: nor his house, nor his field, nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his. 22. These words the Lord spoke to your whole multitude on the mountain, from the midst of fire, cloud, and darkness, with a loud voice, adding nothing more: and He wrote them on two tablets of stone, which He gave to me. 23. But after you heard the voice from the midst of darkness, and saw the mountain burning, you came to me, all the princes of your tribes, and the elders, and said: 24. Behold, the Lord our God has shown us His majesty and His greatness; we heard His voice from the midst of fire, and we have proved today that God speaking with man, man has lived. 25. Why then shall we die, and this most great fire devour us? For if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we shall die. 26. What is all flesh, that it should hear the voice of the living God, who speaks from the midst of fire, as we have heard, and be able to live? 27. Rather you go near, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say to you: and you shall speak to us, and we, hearing, will do them. 28. When the Lord had heard this, He said to me: I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they spoke to you; they have spoken all things well. 29. Who shall give them to have such a mind, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments at all times, that it may be well with them and with their children forever? 30. Go and say to them: Return to your tents. 31. But you stand here with Me, and I will speak to you all My commandments, and ceremonies, and judgments: which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I will give them for a possession. 32. Keep therefore and do the things which the Lord God has commanded you: you shall not turn aside, neither to the right nor to the left; 33. but walk in the way which the Lord your God has commanded, that you may live, and it may be well with you, and your days may be prolonged in the land of your possession.
Verse 3: Not with Our Fathers Did He Make the Covenant
Verse 3. NOT WITH OUR FATHERS DID HE MAKE THE COVENANT -- supply "only," as if to say: God did not make the covenant at Sinai only with our fathers, but also with us. A similar expression is Genesis XXXII, 28, and elsewhere. Second and more simply, as if to say: God at Sinai did not make a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the other fathers who had died in Egypt or before; but with us ourselves who are alive. For, as Saint Augustine notes, many who were present and there had heard the law at Horeb as children -- those who had not yet reached their twentieth year, and were therefore neither counted in the census nor caught by the punishment of the murmurers, of which Numbers chapter XIV, 29, says they should perish in the desert -- these Moses calls "all." For he means "all" in an adapted sense, namely all who had heard the law at Sinai and were still surviving.
The Hebrew has greater emphasis; for it reads: "Not with our fathers did Jehovah make this covenant, but with us -- us, these ones here today, all of us living."
Verse 4: Face to Face He Spoke to Us
Verse 4. FACE TO FACE HE SPOKE TO US. -- Not as though you saw His form or appearance: for this He denied in chapter IV, 12; but "face to face," that is, in person, without an intermediary. For the Decalogue, from verse 6 to 22, the angel proclaimed in God's place from Sinai, before the whole people; but the remaining judicial and ceremonial precepts the Hebrews received through Moses as intermediary, as follows, who went up the mountain alone, when the people, terrified by the fire and the angelic voice and fleeing from the mountain, by God's command returned to their camp and tents, as is said in verses 30 and 31.
Verse 5: I Was the Mediator and Intermediary
Verse 5. I WAS THE MEDIATOR AND INTERMEDIARY. -- Moses was therefore a mediator between God and the people, as the Apostle says in Galatians III, 19: why then should the Saints not be called mediators?
Verse 6: I Am the Lord Your God
Verse 6. I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD, WHO BROUGHT YOU OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, OUT OF THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE. -- In Hebrew, "from the house of slaves," that is, from a prison-house, that is, from Egypt, where you served the harshest servitude. Note: for "Lord," in Hebrew there is the tetragrammaton name Jehovah, which is proper to the divine essence, which is the source of all creation, and to which therefore, as to the first and highest principle of all things, man and every creature ought to render service with the highest devotion. Again, for "God," in Hebrew there is Elohim, which signifies God as judge and governor of all things; Elohim therefore impresses upon the Hebrews the majesty, wisdom, dominion, and supreme authority of God the lawgiver.
Verse 7: You Shall Not Have Strange Gods Before Me
Verse 7. YOU SHALL NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME. -- No strange gods truly exist, but there is one true God, who, since He is common to all, cannot be foreign to anyone. They are called "strange gods," therefore, not because they are truly such, but because foreigners, that is, nations estranged from the true God, hold and worship them as gods; hence in Hebrew it reads: "There shall not be to you elohim, that is, gods, other." It therefore forbids anyone else to be considered God, even if he is one; but commands that they acknowledge and worship Him alone as the one God, both with the internal sense and affection of the mind, and with external adoration and sacrifice.
BEFORE ME -- in My sight; the Septuagint and the Chaldean translate "besides Me," as if to say: Do not worship idols in My sight, who sees even your most hidden thoughts; do not think you can escape My eyes, nor wish to inflict so grave an injury upon My majesty, who beholds all things. Secondly, "before Me" could be taken as "in opposition to Me," as if to say: Do not set other gods against Me, just as in verse 23 in the Hebrew it says, "you shall not have strange gods with Me"; and "besides Me," as the Septuagint translates, agrees well with this.
Whether the "graven image" belongs to the first or second commandment? The Jews here establish and complete the first commandment of the Decalogue, so that the second would be: "You shall not make a graven image for yourself;" and the last two, namely: "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife," and: "You shall not covet your neighbor's goods," would be one, namely the tenth commandment. So Josephus, Philo in his book On the Decalogue, the Commentaries ascribed to Ambrose and Jerome on the Epistle to the Ephesians chapter 6, and Athanasius in the Synopsis; Calvin most eagerly follows these, so as to hurl a stronger weapon against images from this. On the contrary, that "you shall not make a graven image" is not the second commandment, but pertains to the first, teach Clement of Alexandria, book 6 of the Stromata; Saint Augustine, Question 71 on Exodus, and Epistle 119, chapter 11; Saint Jerome on Psalm 32, and commonly the Scholastics in Book 3, distinction 37. And this is by far more true and fitting. First, because these two, namely: "You shall not have strange gods," and "you shall not make a graven image," point to the same thing, namely, that they command one God alone to be worshipped. This will be more evident in the following section.
Secondly, because otherwise there would not be ten, but eleven commandments of the Decalogue; for the last two, which the Jews combine, must be separated. For "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife" and "You shall not covet your neighbor's goods" differ as much as "You shall not commit adultery" and "You shall not steal" differ. For the latter forbid the external act, while the former forbid the internal act, namely the desire for adultery and theft. And yet these two are distinguished, as is evident; therefore so are those. For in both cases there is one and the same object, from which the species and distinction of acts and commandments must be drawn. Hence in the Hebrew, "you shall not covet" is repeated in both places, both in Exodus XX, 16 and here in verse 21, where they are placed in correct order, as also in Exodus XX, 16 in the Septuagint: although there in the Hebrew and in our version their order is mixed and confused; for the coveting of the house is placed before the coveting of the wife.
You will object: In Romans VII, 8, these two commandments are cited as one, namely: "You shall not covet."
I reply: The Apostle did not care to describe them distinctly, because he only intended to prove that not only the external act, but also the internal desire, is forbidden by the law of God, as is evident from the preceding and following context.
Verse 8: You Shall Not Make a Graven Image
Verse 8. YOU SHALL NOT MAKE A GRAVEN IMAGE FOR YOURSELF. -- In the previous verse He forbade other gods in general; here specifically He forbids images of gods; for it was chiefly through these that the nations worshipped their gods, and indeed they held the images themselves as gods: although Calvin denies this, yet Isaiah clearly teaches it, chapter XLIV, 17, Baruch in all of chapter VI, Jeremiah chapter X, and Wisdom XIII, 10. God therefore here forbids images of gods, both to be made and to be worshipped: for both are wicked.
Note first: The Hebrew word pesel means a graven image, from the root pasal, that is, to carve, to hew. For most images were customarily carved or hewn into statues: under "graven image," however, understand also cast, molten, turned images, etc.
Note second: For "graven image," the Septuagint, at Exodus chapter XX, 4, translates "idol"; for throughout Scripture, "graven images" are understood as idols. Moreover, although Origen and Theodoret take "idol" here in a stricter sense, as being the effigy of a non-existent thing, as the Gentiles fashioned sphinxes, Tritons, Centaurs, and other chimeras -- while the "likeness" that is subsequently prohibited would be the representation of an existing thing, for example the image of the sun, moon, men, beasts, reptiles -- nevertheless, according to its most common and widespread meaning, we better take "idol" as a false god's image and fiction, whether the god it represents is some real and existing thing, or not.
Note third: Among the Greeks, an idol was any image that was empty and false, such as, for example, vain phantasms, apparitions, and shades of the dead, as is evident from Plato in the Theaetetus, Lucian in the Dialogue of the Dead, and Homer, Odyssey 11; whence Virgil calls them: "Thin lives without a body," and: "Beneath a hollow image of form." For eidolon is a diminutive of eidos, as if you were to say: a little form, a small image, a shadowy appearance. Hence Sacred Scripture and ecclesiastical writers narrowed the name "idol" to the image of a god who is held to be God but truly is not, whether the God represented by the image, or even the image itself, is held to be God. This is clear from 1 Corinthians VIII, 4: "We know that an idol is nothing in the world," as if to say: The god represented by the idol is not God, and therefore the idol is nothing; and Esther XIV, 11: "Do not hand over your scepter to those who are not," that is, to idols. Hence the Hebrew Scripture commonly calls idols tohu, that is, emptiness; elilim, that is, vain things, or petty gods; scheker, that is, falsehood; lo ioilu, that is, those who will not profit: see Saint Jerome on Hosea 7.
Therefore Henry Stephanus and Joannes Scapula are mistaken and mislead others in their lexicons, when they assert that among ecclesiastical writers "idol" is the name for every image representing some divinity, which we honor with respect and worship. For not just any image, or the image of any divinity whatsoever, is an idol, but only the image of a false divinity, as Saint Cyprian teaches from Tertullian in his Exhortation to Martyrdom, chapter 2, and Athanasius in his Oration Against the Idols, near the end.
Verse 9: You Shall Not Worship Them
Verse 9. YOU SHALL NOT WORSHIP THEM (by kneeling and prostrating yourself before them, and by invoking them), AND YOU SHALL NOT SERVE THEM -- through offerings, feasts, and especially through sacrifices. In Hebrew it reads, "you shall not serve them," namely with latria, as the Septuagint explains, as if to say: You shall not testify by sacrifice that you are by origin the slave of some idol, as though it, through creation, held the supreme right of dominion over you.
FOR I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD, A JEALOUS GOD -- or "zealot," as the Septuagint translates. This zeal of God, says Saint Augustine in Against Adimantus, chapter 11, does not signify anguish of soul, but the most tranquil and sincere justice, by which He does not allow the soul to fornicate with impunity. Secondly, this zeal declares God's charity, says Theodoret, by which He does not permit the soul, as His bride and wife, to be taken from Him. For the Old Law was as a husband, the people were as a wife: if the people fell away from the Law, they were said to fornicate, as the Prophets often reproach them. On this love and jealous zeal of God, see Saint Dionysius, On the Divine Names, chapter 4, page 1, near the end, where he says: "God is called Zealot because He loves His creatures;" for he who loves is drawn to the thing loved, and because often certain things impede the possession of the beloved thing, there arises in the will an effort to repel them, which is called zeal, says Saint Thomas.
VISITING THE INIQUITY (the punishment of iniquity) OF THE FATHERS UPON THE CHILDREN, TO THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION, OF THOSE WHO HATE ME. -- Some take this as referring solely to the iniquity of the parents, in that God sometimes punishes it in their children, even innocent ones, as an example to others, with temporal and bodily punishment. So Saint Thomas, I-II, Question 87, article 8, Hugh of Saint Victor, Abulensis, and Vasquez, I-II, Question 83, article 4, disputation 135, chapter 1; indeed Tertullian, book 2 Against Marcion, chapter 15, where he says God established this punishment because of the people's hardness, so that they might obey the divine law out of love, if not for themselves, at least for their children and sons. But this is rare and as it were extraordinary: hence the Fathers commonly understand this passage as referring to children who imitate the sins of their parents. So Saint Jerome on Ezekiel 18, Saint Augustine in Against Adimantus, chapter 7, Saint Gregory, book 15 of the Morals, chapter 22, Chrysostom, Homily on the text of Psalm 84: "You will not be angry with us forever"; Theodoret, Acacius, Severus, Diodorus in the Catena of the Greeks, on Exodus XX, 5, and Rabanus in the same place; and the Chaldean clearly expresses this both here and in Exodus XX, when he translates: "Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the transgressing children, etc., when the children follow the sins of the fathers"; and our translator, when he renders here and in Exodus XX, "to the third and fourth generation of those" or "of those who hate Me"; hence Moses, in Exodus XXXIV, 7, after he had said: "No one is innocent before You in himself," added this same statement. And so "of those who hate Me" must be referred both to the children and to the parents.
The meaning therefore is, as if to say: I, God, am so severely just, that I avenge the sins of parents upon children who imitate them, so that both children and parents may be punished in their children. For although I may seem to be silent for a time, yet if I see children or grandchildren following in the same footsteps and filling up the measure of their fathers, a heavier punishment from Me will fall upon them than if no sins of the parents had preceded.
For God is accustomed not to leap immediately to avenging sins, but to wait until men have filled up, by their multitude and enormity, the measure of sins determined by Him. Hence those words: "The iniquities of the Amorites are not yet complete," Genesis XV, 16. "And you, fill up the measure of your fathers, that all the just blood may come upon you," Matthew XXIII, 32 and 35. But when this measure has been filled, then God, as in one flood, pours out His wrath and punishes the descendants more heavily, not more than they deserve, but more than He would have punished if they alone had sinned. Examples are found in the descendants of Solomon, Jeroboam, Manasseh, etc.
You will object: In Ezekiel XVIII, 3, the Lord retracts this complaining proverb of the Jews: "The fathers have eaten sour grapes (that is, they sinned), and the teeth of the children are set on edge," and He says that He will bring it about that this proverb is no longer used among them: therefore He does not avenge the sins of fathers upon the children.
I reply: The Lord speaks there about innocent children. For the Jews, boasting this proverb, were complaining that they, being innocent and guiltless, were being punished solely for the sins of their parents. So the cited Fathers.
TO THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION -- as far as the life and memory of the fathers' crimes typically extend. Saint Athanasius notes, in his treatise On the Common Essence of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, near the end, that this signifies God's mercy is greater than His justice, in that He punishes the sins of fathers only to the third and fourth generation; but rewards the good deeds of parents for thousands, that is, for a thousand generations.
Plutarch relates in his Roman Apophthegms that Artaxerxes, son of Xerxes, had a right hand longer than his left, and was therefore called "Longimanus" (Long-hand); and when this was held against him as a defect, he turned it into every good and royal virtue, saying that God had granted him, as the best prince, to have a hand most ample and longest for giving, but the other, namely the left, for receiving and taking, to be very short and contracted: for indeed it is more worthy of a king, and "it is more blessed to give than to receive," Acts XX, 33. Much more so, God is Long-handed for doing good, Short-handed for punishing, and No-handed for receiving. For He can receive nothing from creatures; but rather all the things they have, He Himself bestows on them. And in this consists His blessedness, wealth, and immense goodness, by which, like an overflowing sea, He shares and pours out His good things upon angels and men.
It could, however, secondly be taken that this definite number stands for an indefinite one: "To the third and fourth generation," that is, to many generations, and then the antithesis between the punishment of impious parents and the reward of the good will be perfect and as it were proportionate. For three and four, just like a thousand, among the Hebrews denote a great multitude.
For Scripture willingly uses the number three, on account of the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, and by it signifies abundance. Hence that text of Isaiah XL, 12: "Who has weighed the mass of the earth with three fingers;" Genesis XVIII, 6 and Matthew XIII, 33, three measures of flour; Ecclesiastes IV, 12: "A triple cord is not easily broken;" thus we commonly say "thrice happy," that is, most happy; "thrice greatest," etc. So Saint Chrysostom, Homily 47 on Matthew. See Ribera on Amos I, 3.
Tropologically, says Saint Jerome on chapter 18 of Ezekiel, the father is the incentive to vice, the son is the sin, the grandson is the deed committed, and the great-grandson is the boasting about the sin; and God is accustomed to punish most severely the latter two.
Whether All Images or Only Idols Are Forbidden
From what has been said, the ignorance of our heretics is evident, when they assert that absolutely all images are here forbidden by the law of nature. Hence Calvin, seeing how absurd this claim is, although he tacitly criticizes all images, nevertheless asserts that not all, but only the image of God, is here forbidden: in which opinion Abulensis among the Catholics agrees with him, holding that every image of God is here forbidden by the law of nature. Durandus asserts the same in Book 3, distinction 9, Question 2; but he himself thinks it is forbidden here not by the law of nature, but by positive divine law.
But this is refuted in the same way: for first, an image of the true God is not an idol.
Secondly, here only the worship of other gods is forbidden, as is evident from what precedes and follows; for before this it said: "You shall not have strange gods;" and what follows is: "You shall not worship them, nor serve them;" therefore the graven image which is here forbidden to be made is the graven image or representation of strange gods; otherwise not one, but two, indeed three different commandments would have to be placed here. Hence Moses, explaining the graven image in verse 23, says: "You shall not make gods of silver, nor gods of gold." Likewise in Leviticus chapter XIX, 4, he calls idols "molten gods," as he does frequently elsewhere. But an image of God is not another God distinct from Him, nor is the worship of an image the worship of another God. For the worship of an image, according to the well-known axiom of Saint Basil and Damascene, is referred to the prototype.
Thirdly, it is certain that God did not forbid every graven image, or the art of sculpture, since He Himself adorned Oholiab and Bezalel with it, and commanded them to use it for fashioning the Cherubim, and likewise willed that Moses use it in forming the bronze serpent, Numbers chapter XXI, 8. If therefore He forbade only a certain determined kind of graven image, from where is that determination better drawn than from the words immediately preceding? Namely, so that we understand it thus: "You shall not make a graven image for yourself," that is, graven images of strange gods.
Fourthly, God presented a bodily and visible image of Himself to the eyes of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Moses, and many others, when He appeared to them: therefore He did not forbid it as unlawful by the law of nature.
Calvin responds that this was only a temporary symbol of God, which should not be extended to a perpetual law. But this escape is empty: for the law of the Decalogue is eternal and everlasting, and the graven image that is here forbidden must be taken in every sense, both temporary and permanent.
I reply, and from this I form a fifth argument: an image of God is not an injury, nor dishonorable to God; therefore it is not forbidden by the law of nature. I prove the antecedent. First, because no injury is done to the angels, even though they are the purest spirits, if they are painted; therefore neither is injury done to God, if He is painted; and the reason is that bodily humans cannot conceive of God and the angels except through bodily signs.
Hence, secondly, I prove the same from a similar case: for Sacred Scripture is not an injury to God when it attributes ears, nostrils, eyes, hands, feet, and other members to Him. Indeed, God has not only deigned to descend to human words and to the image of human imagination, but even to the human form itself, when the Word made flesh assumed His figure. Why then should it not be permitted to preserve and venerate in an image the memory of God made man, and why may our mind, slow to reach heavenly things, not be permitted to ascend from a visible image to invisible realities? For we do not attempt to directly and perfectly portray the divinity and its attributes in an image, but only to shadow them forth to some extent, so that we may present God to the mind and memory, and form some concept of Him: for otherwise we could in no way conceive of God. For, as Aristotle says, there is nothing in the intellect which was not first in the senses and in the imagination. For the intellect can conceive nothing without a phantasm; but a phantasm is the image of a thing seen or perceived by another sense.
Calvin objects secondly from Isaiah XL, 25, where God, speaking of images or idols, says: "To whom have you made Me like?" Therefore God forbade any image of Himself to be made.
I reply: The meaning is, as if to say: Why have you made idols, why false images as your God? Why have you equated them with Me? Why have you given them My incommunicable name? Why have you attributed My power and riches to them? See Jeremiah X, 6 and Wisdom XIV, 21. For from the fact that the Gentiles and Jews made images similar to, indeed equal to, the true God, by this very act they also made God similar and equal to the images. For what is similar, since it is a relative term of equality, is similar to its like, and vice versa. But this was a great injury and contempt of God, namely to make Him equal to statues of stone and bronze, or even to the demons who were worshipped in them.
But the truer view is that here not all images are forbidden, but only superstitious and idolatrous ones, and therefore this commandment is in every respect natural, not positive, nor ceremonial, as are also all the remaining commandments of the Decalogue, except the one fourth commandment about keeping the Sabbath: so teach Damascene, Bede, Saint Thomas, Burgensis, Cajetan, whom Vasquez cites in chapter 1, and generally the more recent authors with Francis Suarez, Part 3, Question 54, section 2.
The substance of the commandment, therefore, is: "You shall not make a graven image, that is, an idol;" and the purpose, indeed the purpose of the first commandment, is "that you not worship or adore it." For to make or have an idol, as an idol, is a sin, even if you do not worship or adore it. Two things therefore are forbidden by this commandment: first, not to make or have a graven image or idol, as an idol; second, not to worship or serve it.
NOR ANY LIKENESS OF ANYTHING THAT IS IN THE HEAVENS ABOVE. -- Here He explains the graven image, as is clear from the Hebrew, namely that it is an idol, or a likeness of a divinity, which is in heaven, earth, or the waters.
AND THAT ARE IN THE WATERS UNDER THE EARTH. -- For the sea is not higher than the earth, as some mathematicians hold, but lower and deeper: hence in Psalm XXIII, 2 it is said: "For He founded it upon the seas," namely the globe of the earth; therefore the earth is higher than the sea.
Verse 10: Showing Mercy to Many Thousands
Verse 10. AND SHOWING MERCY TO MANY THOUSANDS, TO THOSE WHO LOVE ME. -- In Hebrew and Chaldean, "to a thousand," that is, to very many generations. See how mindful of our piety and obedience the divine goodness is, and how much He here urges and impels us to the keeping of His law by love, just as before by fear and dread of punishment.
Symbolically, note here that the number one thousand is a symbol of God and of His infinity, and of His infinite mercy. For a thousand is the cube of ten (ten times ten make a hundred, ten times a hundred make a thousand), and the end of all numbers. Thus God is the cube and end of all things, and through mercy He endeavors to bring all back to Himself, as to their ultimate end, namely to eternal happiness.
Verse 11: You Shall Not Take the Name of the Lord in Vain
Verse 11. YOU SHALL NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD YOUR GOD IN VAIN -- that is, to no purpose; as if to say: You shall not apply the awful name of God to graven images, says Saint Cyril, book 4 on John 2, and Clement, book 6 of the Stromata, near the end; Tertullian also, in his book On Idolatry, chapter 20: "You shall not take," he says, "the name of God in vain," that is, in an idol. But we have already heard that this was forbidden by the first commandment, which forbids idolatry: the same thing is nevertheless also forbidden by this second commandment, insofar as it is a profanation of the divine name; but this is not the full meaning of this commandment, for many other things are also forbidden by it.
Secondly, Saint Thomas, II-II, Question 122, article 3, holds that by this second commandment only perjury is properly and directly forbidden. Hence the Chaldean also translates: "you shall not swear by the name of the Lord your God in vain." Indeed, the Hebrew could also be rendered: "you shall not take the name of your God for a lie." For the Hebrew word shav signifies both "vain" and "falsehood."
Thirdly and best, Theodoret on Exodus XX, and generally the Doctors, hold that here not only perjury is forbidden, but every irreverence and abuse of the divine name, so that the divine name, says Theodoret, is not spoken except for the sake of teaching, or of prayer, or of some necessity.
Note: By the "name of God," here is understood not only the tetragrammaton Jehovah, as the Hebrews hold, but also all other names of God, in whatever language they may be; indeed Abulensis, Question 7 on chapter XX of Exodus, proves that this commandment should most especially be applied to the name of Jesus, from the fact that the name Jesus is more venerable than the name God. For "God" signifies the Creator; but "Jesus" signifies God as Redeemer and Savior. Hence the name Jesus adds to God, or the Creator, a new and greater title, namely that of Savior.
FOR HE WHO TAKES HIS NAME UPON A VAIN THING SHALL NOT GO UNPUNISHED. -- For "unpunished," Exodus XX, 7 has "innocent"; but "innocent" there is taken as "unpunished," by metonymy. Now the meaning is, as if to say: God will severely punish, either in this life or in the next, the one who takes the name of God in vain; it is litotes, which is frequent among the Hebrews.
Note: God attaches a punishment to this second commandment, just as to the first, either because of the gravity of the matter commanded, or to restrain the Hebrews' inclination to violate it.
Thus God punished Israel with a three-year famine on account of Saul's perjury, by which, against the pledge given by Joshua, he slew the Gibeonites: hence the descendants of Saul were handed over to them and were crucified by them; and so the plague ceased, 2 Kings XXI. So too, on account of the perjury of King Zedekiah, Jerusalem and all Judea were overthrown, 4 Kings XXIV and XXV, and Ezekiel XVII. Moreover, God commanded the blasphemer to be stoned, Leviticus XXIV. Note also the punishment of the blasphemer Sennacherib, 4 Kings XIX. Paul too handed blasphemers over to Satan, 1 Timothy I.
Verse 12: Observe the Day of the Sabbath
Verse 12. OBSERVE THE DAY OF THE SABBATH, TO SANCTIFY IT. -- Here, as also in Exodus XX, the full commandment about keeping the Sabbath is given, whose prelude and beginning preceded in the manna, Exodus XVI, 23, indeed in the creation of the world.
Note: This commandment, insofar as it commands that a day and some time be given to the public and external worship of God, is moral and natural: for the law of nature dictates that this must be done; but insofar as it determines the seventh day, or Sabbath, for this purpose, and commands rest on it, it is ceremonial, and therefore now abolished under the new law. So Saint Thomas, II-II, Question 122, article 4, reply to 1.
Note secondly: The Sabbath, that is, the rest of God, on which God ceased from the work of creation on the seventh day of the world, was a sacrament and the legal and ceremonial cause of this Sabbath feast. This feast was again allegorically a type of the Sabbath, that is, of the rest in which Christ rested in the sepulchre on that same day. Tropologically, it was a type of our sabbath, in which we must cease from sins. Anagogically, the Sabbath was a type and cause of the Sabbath and eternal rest in heaven, as Saint Paul teaches, Hebrews IV, 3, for, as Saint John says, Revelation XIV, 13: "From now on, the Spirit says, let them rest from their labors; for their works follow them."
TO SANCTIFY IT -- as if to say: Observe and celebrate the Sabbath as something holy and set apart from other days, dedicated to rest and to recalling the work of creation and the other benefits of God. This sanctification of the Sabbath, therefore, which is here directly commanded, was nothing other than a cessation from all work, as is clear from verse 14 and Exodus XX, 10; for by keeping the Sabbath in this way, as God had commanded, the Hebrews tacitly professed that God was the Creator and Giver of all good things.
You ask, what was the origin of the Sabbath? The first origin and cause of instituting the Sabbath was that men on the Sabbath might reflect upon the work of creation and the benefit of the nature established by God and of the created universe. The second cause was that the Hebrews on the Sabbath might celebrate the memory of their laborious servitude in Egypt and of their liberation from it: this cause is given here in verse 15. The third cause was that the Sabbath dedicated to God might be a sign of the divine election, by which God adopted Israel, above other nations, as His people. The fourth cause was that on the Sabbath, rest from the labors of the whole week might be given to servants, maidservants, and animals, lest they be crushed by excessive labor.
The symbolic cause is: because the number seven is mystical, and Sacred Scripture uses it greatly; for it signifies the complete fulfillment of a thing. Hence the Sabbath was the seventh day: so the seventh year was the year of liberty and of the earth's sabbath; seven weeks of days were Pentecost, seven weeks of years were the Jubilee. Hence the number seven in Scripture signifies fullness and totality, says Saint Augustine.
Note: The Sabbath was the greatest solemnity above all other feasts: hence it was not permitted to prepare food on it, as we saw regarding the manna in Exodus XVI, 29; nor to light a fire, as is clear from Exodus XXXV, 3, which were nevertheless permitted on other feasts.
On the change of the Sabbath to Sunday, on which the world was re-created by Christ rising, and on the worship of Sunday owed by Christians, see Saint Thomas in Opuscule 7, where among other things he teaches that the faithful on feast days must abstain both from idleness and from servile work. The faithful therefore on feast days ought to be occupied: first, in sacrifices both internal and external; secondly, in spiritual joy; thirdly, in the mortification of the flesh and of concupiscence; fourthly, in acts of mercy; fifthly, in reading and hearing the word of God and other pious things.
Therefore the faithful sin who, after hearing Mass and then giving themselves to idleness, spend the whole day at cards or dice, or in indecent dances, drunkenness, feasting, and other sins and vanities.
Moreover, Isaiah chapter LVIII describes the fruits and rewards of those who keep feasts: "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your will on my holy day, and call the Sabbath delightful and the holy day of the Lord glorious, then you shall delight in the Lord," and: "I will lift you up above the heights of the earth," and: "I will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father."
Verse 14: You Shall Not Do Any Work in It
Verse 14. YOU SHALL NOT DO ANY WORK IN IT -- understand "servile work," as is expressed in the similar passage of Leviticus XXIII, 28, and "not necessary work": for on the Sabbath they could water their animals, pull them from ditches, etc., as Christ teaches in Matthew XII, 3 and following; likewise heal the sick, as Christ did. For, as Tertullian says, book 4 Against Marcion, chapter 12: "A work of salvation and well-being is not a work of man, but of God." Much less is spiritual work forbidden here, such as every pious and religious act. For these befit and adorn the Sabbath.
The Jews superstitiously observed and still observe the Sabbath by abstaining from absolutely all work; hence they persecuted Christ even to death, because He cured the sick on the Sabbath.
AND THE STRANGER WHO IS WITHIN YOUR GATES -- as if to say: A merchant, or any other foreigner, even uncircumcised and a Gentile, when he is with you, shall not violate the public feast of the place, but shall keep with you the rest of the Sabbath. So Cajetan and others.
Verse 16: Honor Your Father and Your Mother
Verse 16. HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER. -- "Honor," first, by loving; secondly, by showing internal and external reverence; thirdly, by obeying; fourthly, by helping and assisting: for honor embraces these four things, and these are owed to parents. Hence Scripture under the term "honor" also includes gifts and donations, as is clear from 1 Timothy V, 3 and 17; and Christ also understands this commandment in this way, Matthew XV, 6, as Saint Jerome notes there.
THAT YOU MAY LIVE A LONG TIME. -- Hence in Ephesians VI, this is called the first commandment with a promise; for it is fitting that children who are grateful to their parents for the life they received should merit its long preservation. See also Saint Thomas in Opuscule 7, where among other things he says that after God, parents are immediately commanded to be honored, because of the likeness they bear to God; for first, they give children stability of being; secondly, they give children nourishment; thirdly, instruction, especially that they may fear the Lord and abstain from all sin.
Abulensis notes that he who honors his parents, even if he dies young, nevertheless lived long, because time is the measure of deeds, not of idleness; hence Wisdom IV says: "Having been made perfect in a short time, he fulfilled long years."
Verse 17: You Shall Not Kill
Verse 17. YOU SHALL NOT KILL. -- This forbids the killing of a human being, not of a brute animal or a plant, as the Manichaeans understood it. See Saint Augustine, book 1 of the City of God, chapters 20 and 21; this is clear from the Hebrew. For the word ratsach, that is, "he killed," applies only to a human being; hence meratsechim are called "murderers."
God therefore here forbids the unjust killing of a human being (such as that which is done by private authority, unless it is done for the necessary defense of oneself or one's people), likewise beatings, quarrels, and anger, which tend toward this, and are as it were the path and beginning of homicide.
Philo notes, in his book On the Decalogue, that God in an assembly of so many thousands of Hebrews addresses each one individually, not all together; for He says: "You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal" (singular). And this for three reasons: first, to teach each person that, when obeying God and God's laws, he is honored equally with the most numerous people; secondly, so that each one might be rendered more obedient to the law, hearing that it is said to him, not to the crowd; thirdly, to show how much God valued each person, since He invites each to the banquet of His oracles.
Verse 18: Neither Shall You Commit Adultery
Verse 18. NEITHER SHALL YOU COMMIT ADULTERY. -- God here forbids all intercourse outside of marriage, and every abuse of those members destined for procreation, namely fornication, adultery, incest, and vices akin to these, such as indecent words, looks, touches, and gestures. For from the more well-known and notorious part, namely adultery, He intended every kind of lust and all its species to be understood. So Saint Augustine, Question 71. From this place, therefore, according to the common opinion of interpreters, it is clear that simple fornication, which is between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman, as well as every form of lust outside of marriage, is forbidden by both natural and divine law.
Saint Thomas notes that the adulterer and adulteress violate: first, the law of nature; secondly, the ordinance of God; thirdly, the Sacrament of marriage, and therefore commit sacrilege; fourthly, they are betrayers, because they withdraw themselves from their husbands or wives and give themselves to strangers; fifthly, they are thieves: because they cause the goods of husbands or wives to come to strangers, namely to the children of the adulterer.
Verse 19: You Shall Not Steal
Verse 19. AND YOU SHALL NOT STEAL. -- In the same way, every unlawful seizure of another's property is forbidden here, says Saint Augustine.
Verse 20: False Testimony Against Your Neighbor
Verse 20. NOR SHALL YOU SPEAK FALSE TESTIMONY AGAINST YOUR NEIGHBOR. -- From the more principal crime of false testimony, understand also the lesser offenses related to it, namely detraction, insult, mockery, whispering, and every other injury inflicted upon a neighbor by words, and in short, every abuse of the tongue. So Saint Thomas, II-II, Question 122, article 6.
Hear how great a sin detraction is. First, from Sacred Scripture: Sirach X, 11: "If a serpent bites in silence, he who secretly detracts has nothing less." Proverbs XXIV, 9: "The detractor is an abomination to men." Romans I, 30: "Detractors hateful to God." Secondly, from the Doctors and Fathers who teach that detraction is a more grievous sin than theft and robbery: for it takes away reputation, which is more precious than gold. Saint Jerome on Psalm 100 says it is worse than fornication. Saint Peter, quoted by Clement, equates it with murder; for many prefer to lose their life rather than their reputation. Saint Chrysostom, Homily 3 to the People: "By detracting," he says, "you have eaten your brother's flesh, you have bitten your neighbor's flesh." Saint Bernard says the detracting tongue is a viper and a three-pronged lance, which with a single blow pierces three: the one speaking, the one listening, and the one being detracted.
Verse 21: You Shall Not Covet Your Neighbor's Wife
Verse 21. YOU SHALL NOT COVET YOUR NEIGHBOR'S WIFE. -- Note: Covetousness is forbidden by a special commandment, because most people thought that the sixth commandment, "You shall not commit adultery," and the seventh, "You shall not steal," forbade only the external act, and that the internal act was neither forbidden nor to be guarded against. But Christ corrects this in Matthew V, 23 and 29. Only voluntary concupiscence, or the consent of the will to illicit pleasures, is here forbidden.
The heretics, Luther and Calvin, are at the other extreme; for they think that what is forbidden here is the concupiscence that remains from original sin, namely the disordered movements of the sensitive appetite that precede reason and the free consent of the will. But this is false, and only voluntary concupiscence is here forbidden.
NOT HIS HOUSE, NOT HIS FIELD. -- After the desire for another's wife, forbidden by the ninth commandment, this tenth forbids the desire for another's property: for these must be distinguished. Here therefore the correct order of the commandments is preserved, which in Exodus XX, 16 is not preserved, except by the Septuagint.
Morally, Saint Thomas, Opuscule 7: "Covetousness," he says, "is forbidden, first, because of its infinity; for covetousness is something infinite. But every wise person must aim at some end. The miser will not be satisfied with money (Ecclesiastes V). And the reason covetousness is never satisfied is that the heart of man was made to receive God. Hence Augustine: You have made us, Lord, for Yourself; and our heart is restless until it rests in You. Secondly, because it takes away rest. For the greedy are always anxious to acquire what they do not have and to keep what they have. Thirdly, because it causes riches to be useless. Fourthly, because it removes the fairness of justice. Fifthly, because it kills the charity of God and neighbor. Sixthly, because it produces every iniquity: for it is the root of all evils."
Moreover, he continues on how covetousness is to be overcome: "It is overcome in four ways: first, by fleeing external occasions, such as bad company. Secondly, by not giving entry to thoughts. Thirdly, by persisting in prayers. Fourthly, by applying oneself to lawful occupations. Much wickedness has idleness taught (Sirach XXXIII). Saint Jerome: Always do something good, so that the devil may find you busy; but among all occupations, the study of the Scriptures is the best. Jerome to Paulinus: Love the knowledge of the Scriptures, and you will not love the vices of the flesh."
These therefore are the ten commandments, by which, says Saint Augustine, as by ten strings, ten beasts, that is, vices, are overcome; you strike the first string, that is, the first commandment, and the beast of superstition falls; you strike the second, and the beast of perjury and abominable heresies falls; you strike the third, and the beast of worldly love falls; you strike the fourth, and the beast of impiety falls; you strike the fifth, and the beast of cruelty falls; you strike the sixth, and the beast of lust falls; you strike the seventh, and the beast of rapacity falls; you strike the eighth, and the beast of falsehood falls; you strike the ninth, and the beast of adulterous thought falls; you strike the tenth, and the beast of cupidity falls.
Verse 26: What Is All Flesh, That It Should Hear the Voice of God
Verse 26. WHAT IS ALL FLESH, THAT IT SHOULD HEAR THE VOICE OF THE LIVING GOD, ETC., AND BE ABLE TO LIVE? -- As if to say: Every man is nothing and of no strength, so that he could hear and endure so terrible a presence and voice of God, without immediately falling into a swoon of soul and life, unless he were as it were miraculously strengthened and preserved by God. Thus Daniel, chapter X, says to the angel: "Lord, at Your vision my joints were dissolved, and no strength remained in me." For under that old law, which was one of fear and of servants, God, or rather the angel in God's place, showed Himself terrible as well as majestic even to the Saints, and struck them with terror. Hence the parents of Samson, from that common opinion conceived by the men of that age, thought they would die because they had seen the Lord, Judges chapter XIII, verse 22. See the discussion at Exodus XXXIII, 20.
Verse 31: Stand Here with Me
Verse 31. BUT YOU, STAND HERE WITH ME. -- For Moses, while God was proclaiming the Decalogue, stood at some distance from the people, on the ascent of Mount Sinai: from there he was commanded by God to descend to the people, to order them to return to the camp; which having been done, he again ascended to the summit and darkness of Sinai, and remaining there for forty days and nights, he heard from God the other commandments, judicial and ceremonial, which he was to teach the people, and there he received from God, that is from the angel of God, the tablets of stone inscribed with the Decalogue.
Verse 32. YOU SHALL NOT TURN ASIDE, NEITHER TO THE RIGHT NOR TO THE LEFT -- because the keeping of the laws is and is called the way to God, to heaven, and to beatitude; hence Scripture gives it a right and a left.