Deuteronomy 5 · a question people ask
Why does Moses say the covenant wasn't made "with our fathers"?
Moses says, "The LORD didn’t make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive today" (5:3). The verse doesn't say who "our fathers" are. Deuteronomy names Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as "your fathers" (1:8); it also says that "all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people" (2:16). Christians read 5:3 in two main ways, each resting on verses. All agree that Moses is pressing the covenant on the people standing in front of him, "here alive today" (5:3), and that it is the covenant made "in Horeb" (5:2).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Not the covenant with the patriarchs
Those who hold this view take "our fathers" to be Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as in "the land which the LORD swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob" (1:8) and "Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their offspring after them" (4:37). On this reading, 5:3 says the covenant of Horeb, with the ten words, was not the one made with them; it came later, as Paul says of "the law, which came four hundred thirty years after" (Galatians 3:17).
Deuteronomy 1:8 · Deuteronomy 4:37 · Galatians 3:17
Theirs, not only their parents'
Those who hold this view take "our fathers" to be the generation that stood at Horeb and died on the way, since "all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people" (2:16). Many of those listening had been children then (1:39), yet Moses tells them, "The LORD spoke with you face to face on the mountain" (5:4). On this reading, 5:3 tells the children the covenant is their own, not a thing of the past. They point to a later covenant day: "Neither do I make this covenant and this oath with you only, but with those who stand here with us today before the LORD our God, and also with those who are not here with us today" (29:14-15).
Deuteronomy 2:16 · Deuteronomy 1:39 · Deuteronomy 5:4 · Deuteronomy 29:14-15
The verses
“The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The LORD didn’t make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive today.”
“Behold, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob—to give to them and to their offspring after them.’””
“So, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people,”