Deuteronomy 5:1-6

So I thought with my first translation I am posting on here I could give you a little bit of the layout. If anyone out there wants to learn how to translate or where they can get their own Hebrew Tanakh to start translating let me know and I can focus posts around that. Also if I decide I am absolutely insane, we may have some Greek in the future to finish out the second half of the Bible translating. But let's start with one language at a time shall we?
First off, a few words that I find utterly fascinating in this chapter. In Hebrew the word to learn also means to teach. (The people who put into effect the BYUI learning model would love that they have ancient script to back them up. I hate the learning model but I love this concept.) When we learn we are to teach, and when we teach we are learning. Covenants were never "made" they are to be "cut". This is how it is always referred to is cutting a covenant with the Lord. Which as we go a little more in depth I will talk a little more about this.
When talking about covenants the word keep is not used, instead it is the word shamar, which means to watch, guard, protect or revere. From an LDS perspective this is beautiful. Don't just keep the covenants you cut with the Lord, protect them. Guard them. Revere them. 
Okay so starting in the beginning of Deuteronomy 5, if you want I am using my Tanakh and I have my translation and my King James Version Bible sitting here if you want to follow along. Oh also I just have a few months left of this class so when it is over I am going to try to start from the beginning and work my way through. It will be slow going because its not for a class but if you are patient we may just get through it. 
Moses is speaking to Israel about the covenants they are cutting. He is telling them that they will be required to learn them (other side of that coin would be to teach them. We could apply this as teaching our children what we believe and how they can make and keep covenants).He tells them they will be required to protect them, and they will be required to do them. Often the Lord calls on us to go to action when we cut a covenant with Him. We can't just say that we agree and be on our merry way. In the next vs., vs 2, Adonai cuts the covenant in the mountain of Hereb. Most of the time covenants are made in the Old Testament it is done in the mountains. The mountain top would be the closest to the heavens that you could be and it was symbolic. If you look at our modern day temples this is also a symbolism that is present. In vs. 3 it is stated that the covenants being cut on this particular occasion are ones that were not made between the Lord and the older generations. These are covenants for the generation that is gathered together at mount Hereb at the time this is written. This is important to point out because the people are now ready for these new covenants and the previous generations were not. The previous generations came out of Egypt and that was what they were called to do. The new generation is to go on and do a little bit more. The next verse the Lord talks to the people face to face. This scares them and in the very next verse Moses stands between them and the Lord. The KJV says that the people were afraid. But in the Hebrew text, (oh my I forgot to tell you I am using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttsgartensia, there are different Hebrew texts just as there are different English texts.) it says they were terrified to the sinew of themselves with the word of G-d. And they were afraid because of the fire and they didn't go up to the mountain. This is  interesting. We sometimes let fear get in our way too. The fear that these people were experiencing kept them from directly making the covenants with the Lord. They needed Moses to stand as an in between for them. They were physically and spiritually taking a step back from the Lord. We know that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all had the Gospel. But it is at this point that they people stepped back, they were not ready for it. So G-d gave to them instead the law of Moses. The people were to live by this until they were ready for the higher law, the law of Christ. Which was given at His coming.
During this translation we discussed how covenants that are cut with the Lord are like a two-edged sword. You have probably heard that before. But what we decided that mean was that if we keep our covenants then that "sword" can cut for us. But if we don't live up to those covenants then that "sword" will cut against us. It can be to our benefit or to our detriment. 
We discussed how the word "cut" being used goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. Before they were cast out of the garden Satan gave to Adam and Eve a fake covering. A covering of fig leaves. But then Christ  gave them a true covering. He gave to them the coats of skins. Innocent blood had to be shed for this to be a real covering. Blood is symbolic of life. Life was given that life might be attained. This was the first lesson the Father gave to them in the garden. This lesson was of the Atonement. A cut is symbolic of a covenant for the covenant people. This is just my own opinion here, but I believe that is why Christ will still have the wounds of the crucifixion when He returns. They are symbolic of the covenant that He made with the Father in order to fulfill the Atonement. He covenanted with the Lord to take upon Himself our sins and the Father covenanted that if Christ would do that then He would be able to cleanse us of our sins. The Jews did not recognize Jesus Christ as the Messiah. In Zechariah 13:6 it says they will ask what those wounds are. This is when Christ will teach them. They will be allowed, just as the people in 3 Nephi 11:15, were allowed to "thrust their hands into His sides". They are symbolically, going through the cut. When you make a covenant you must then go through the cut. You must do the action required, whether that be a symbolic action or a physical action. Which the physical ones typically are symbolic, you just have to look for it. G-d teaches through symbolism so that we can learn on different levels. We can take things at their face value. We can learn what the symbolism means and delve deeper. When we do this we have greater light and knowledge that we are then accountable for. He doesn't do this to confuse us, He does it because He knows that we are held responsible for higher things if we understand them and come to a knowledge of them.
Wow, that was only six verses. I'm going to let you process that for a little bit and I am going to take a break. We will pick up the next post at vs 7. I hope that this is informative or interesting to you, I know that it fascinates me. But then again so does tying flies and learning about different soil orders, so not everyone is going to be like me. Have a great night. Laila tov!

Introduction

Shalom,
I'm Katie. I am a student at BYU-Idaho. I am studying Hebrew just for fun, it has nothing to do with my major, I just really enjoy it. Now I know that everyone does not love studying languages and that is okay. I just thought that I learn so many interesting and neat things in this class and from translating that others might find it fascinating too. There is so much lost in translation on the Old Testament that I have just been astounded and thought you might like to learn a bit too. So no matter what religion you are, I hope that this can help you with your Bible study. Or I suppose if you didn't go to Hebrew school and you are Jewish then maybe it can help you with your study of the Tanakh (this is what the Jews call the Old Testament. And it turns out that old testament is a mis-translation anyways its supposed to be everlasting covenant.)
In this post I would like to tell you a little bit about me and then from there we can get into some translations. I am a junior this year studying horticulture. I love being outdoors and indoors. I like being in the mountains, camping, floating down the river, and just enjoying lovely little nature walks. Indoors I enjoy baking, reading, movies, writing, crafts of all sorts, and having dinner parties. I am currently single and despite what my grandma would lead you to believe, no, I am not a lesbian. I just haven't found the right guy yet. (I am twenty-six, and at BYU-I that means I am an old spinster. Don't worry though, I already have my first cat so I am well on my way to becoming the crazy old cat lady. He has to live with my parents though because we aren't allowed pets in our apartments.)
I started studying Biblical Hebrew about 7 months ago, so I would be the first to tell you I am not fluent or anything. So if there are any mistakes you see please feel free to point them out to me. I would hate to be adding to all the falsehoods on the internet these days. And there are differences in Biblical and Modern Hebrew so I couldn't have a normal conversation either. But the most important part, I can do. I can translate the Old Testament. :) I have studied a few languages before but Hebrew has by far captured my heart as far as I love doing it everyday. In my class we are kind of jumping all over to different stories because the narratives are a little easier to translate than things like Isaiah. The guy was sarcastic and funny and a beautiful writer, but man was he confusing at times. Oy Vey! Oh that reminds me, I should also warn you that as I have been studying a little Yiddish has been slipping into my vernacular. I will try to keep it to a minimum.
If you are any religion other than Latter Day Saint I suppose a few other phrases may slip into my posts but if they do I will try to explain them as far as my own personal beliefs. It is a part of who I am and at times I don't even realize that it may not sound normal if you are not LDS. I have been impressed that in my studies I have also been comparing the Jewish culture to the LDS culture and there have been a lot of similarities so I may mirror these at times too. Also I will be giving some cross references and these may often go along with the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price or Doctrine and Covenants.  If you have any questions about these sources let me know.
If you are Jewish I will apoligize right now, I will try to use G-d or Adonai as much as possible but I know I will probably slip up at least once  because I was not raised to say the Lord's name this way. I don't mean any disrespect to Him or to offend you in any way.
 If anyone has any questions or comments please feel free to post them on here or you can email me at ste05004@byui.edu . I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. Let's get on to some translating shall we?