Great question! You could add Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc. There was no
lack of righteous people before Moses, so why didn't one of them get that great
set of moral and ethical guidelines ? Why the delay ?
Here's one answer. I hope other contributors will come along with more.
In order to understand my answer, you have to first go back and skim that part of
Exodus again, closely enough to notice that the Ten Commandments were not given
to Moses alone. All of the "children of Israel" ... as many as a few million people ...
stood assembled at the mountain, and heard or felt some kind of something
communicating the Ten Commandments to all of them at the same time. It was
such a traumatic experience that as soon as it passed, they begged Moses that
if there was going to be any more to hear, that he should please go and get it
on his own and then come tell them about it. They didn't want to go through
anything like that again.
And that's my answwer to the question. The Ten Commandments, plus a lot
more of what constitutes the Torah, is not a set of rules for individuals. It was
given to a nation because it's a set of rules for a nation, comprised of tribes and
communities. Back in Exodus again, what was the crowd's reaction when Moses
soon brought a section of the Law and taught it to them ? They exclaimed "in one
voice" . . . etc. The Law was given to a nation, and the nation responded as if it
were an individual: "We'll do it, and we'll listen." That's where the unity of the
nation was born, without which it could never survive.
God gave Moses ten commandments.
Please, please read the Bible! Jesus did not give the Ten Commandments to Moses. Moses received the Ten Commandments from God.
God gave Moses ten commandments according to the Bible.
God gave the ten commandments to Moses to be given to the Hebrew people.
God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.
God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.
The Ten Commandments were given to guide Moses and his people.
No, HaShem (The Creator) gave Moses the Ten Statements.
No, they were given to Moses after the Exodus. God sent down the 10 commandments to give Moses and his people something to live by in the New World, a world that God had promised to never destroy again in water.
In answering this, understand I am going from the perspective that Adam was not born in the year 1, but that he turned 1 when 1 full year was complete. So from creation, the covenant was made at Sinai in the year 2430. We know that, because it is pretty clear that Moses died in 2470 and they were in the wilderness 40 years after Sinai with Moses dying before they entered the land promised.
Moses (Exodus ch.19-20).
The two Stone Tablets, inscribed with the Ten Commandments (Exodus 31:18).