He made not the covenant with our fathers, but with us, who are now present and living.

Not with our fathers did Jehovah make this covenant, but with us, even us, those who are here alive all of us this day.

not with our fathers hath Jehovah made this covenant, but with us; we, these, here to-day, all of us alive.

The Lord did not make this agreement with our fathers but with us, who are all living and present here today.

He did not make the covenant with our fathers, but with us, who are alive and in the present time.

Non cum patribus nostris percussit Deus foedus hoc, sed nobiscum, qui ipsi hodie omnes vivimus.

The "fathers" are, as in Deuteronomy 4:37, the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. With them God did indeed make a covenant, but not the particular covenant now in question. The responsibilites of this later covenant, made at Sinai by the nation as a nation, attached in their day and generation to those whom Moses was addressing.

The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers (only) but with us (also).

The LORD (a) made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, [even] us, who [are] all of us here alive this day.
(a) Some read, God made not this covenant, that is, in such ample forth and with such signs and wonders.

The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers,.... That is, not with them only, as Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Abendana remark; for certain it is that this covenant was made, or law was given, to the immediate fathers of this present generation of Israelites, whose carcasses had fallen in the wilderness; unless this is to be understood of their more remote ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with whom the covenant of grace was made, or afresh made manifest, especially with the former; when the law, the covenant here spoken of, was not delivered until four hundred and thirty years after, Galatians 3:16,
but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day; many of them were then present at the giving of the law, and though under twenty years of age, could remember it, and the circumstances of it; and besides, they were the same people to whom it was given, though not consisting wholly of the same individuals.

The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us--The meaning is, "not with our fathers" only, "but with us" also, assuming it to be "a covenant" of grace. It may mean "not with our fathers" at all, if the reference is to the peculiar establishment of the covenant of Sinai; a law was not given to them as to us, nor was the covenant ratified in the same public manner and by the same solemn sanctions. Or, finally, the meaning may be "not with our fathers" who died in the wilderness, in consequence of their rebellion, and to whom God did not give the rewards promised only to the faithful; but "with us," who alone, strictly speaking, shall enjoy the benefits of this covenant by entering on the possession of the promised land.

Not with our fathers - Only: but with us, who are all alive - He saith not, that all who made the covenant at Sinai are now alive, but this covenant was made with all that are now alive; which is most true, for it was made with the elders in their persons, and with the rest in their parents, who covenanted for them.