(4) According to the first writing, the ten commandments.--The words written on the second tables were the same which had been written on the first.

In the day of the assembly.--Or, in New Testament language, "the day of the Church." The Pentecost of the Old Testament was the day when "the letter" was given; the Pentecost of the New Testament was the day of the "Spirit that giveth life." Each of these aspects of God's covenant produced a Church after its kind.

10:1-11 Moses reminded the Israelites of God's great mercy to them, notwithstanding their provocations. There were four things in and by which the Lord showed himself reconciled to Israel. God gave them his law. Thus God has intrusted us with Bibles, sabbaths, and sacraments, as tokens of his presence and favour. God led them forward toward Canaan. He appointed a standing ministry among them for holy things. And now, under the gospel, when the pouring forth of the Spirit is more plentiful and powerful, the succession is kept up by the Spirit's work on men's hearts, qualifying and making some willing for that work in every age. God accepted Moses as an advocate or intercessor for them, and therefore appointed him to be their prince and leader. Moses was a type of Christ, who ever lives, pleading for us, and has all power in heaven and in earth.And he wrote on the tables according to the first writing,.... The same laws, in the same letters:

the ten commandments which the Lord spake unto you in the mount; in Mount Sinai, on which he descended, and from whence he delivered the decalogue by word of mouth in an audible manner, that all the people could hear it:

out of the midst of the fire; in which he descended, and where he continued, and from whence he spake, so that it was indeed a fiery law:

in the day of the assembly; when all the people of Israel were assembled together at the bottom of the mount to hear it:

and the Lord gave them unto me; the two tables, when he had wrote upon them the ten commands.