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These have a special place as having been written on the tables of stone by 'the finger of God.' Ex. 31: 18. Deut. 10: 4 margin reads 'the ten words,' and they are often referred to as the DECALOGUE. They are also called 'the words of the covenant,' in Ex. 34: 28. It was after hearing these ten commandments rehearsed by Moses that the Israelites said to him, "Go thou near, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say; and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it and do it." Deut. 5: 27. The two stones are also called the 'tables of the testimony,' Ex. 34: 29, and they were laid up in the ark of the covenant, Ex. 40: 20; 1 Kings 8: 9; Heb. 9: 4; over which were the two cherubim as guardians of God's rights together with the mercy-seat.
The giving of the two stones to Israel by God (who, though gracious and merciful, would by no means clear the guilty,) amid a measure of glory is referred to by Paul, when he describes the commandments written in letters thereon as 'the ministration of death;' in contrast to which he speaks of the glory of the ministration of the Spirit (that is, of Christ, for the Lord is that Spirit), and of the
ministration of righteousness: it is the story of man's failure, and of God's righteousness available to the believer through Christ. 2 Cor. 3: 7-11.