CHAPTER 20
The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments
(Deut. 5:1–22 )
1 And God spoke all these words, saying:
2 “I
am the L
ORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness
of anything that
is in heaven above, or that
is in the earth beneath, or that
is in the water under the earth;
5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the L
ORD your God,
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth
generations of those who hate Me,
6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the L
ORD your God in vain, for the L
ORD will not hold
him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day
is the Sabbath of the L
ORD your God.
In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who
is within your gates.
11 For
in six days the L
ORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that
is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the L
ORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the L
ORD your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that
is your neighbor’s.”
The People Afraid of God’s Presence
18 Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw
it, they trembled and stood afar off.
19 Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”
20 And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.”
21 So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God
was.
The Law of the Altar
22 Then the L
ORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
23 You shall not make
anything to be with Me—gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves.
24 An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you.
25 And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it.
26 Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.’
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