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The Ten Commandments

¹ And God spoke all these words:

² “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

³ “You shall have no other gods before¹ me.

⁴ “You shall not make for your­self an idol in the form of any­thing in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or wor­ship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jeal­ous God, pun­ish­ing the chil­dren for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth gen­er­a­tion of those who hate me, ⁶ but show­ing love to a thou­sand {gen­er­a­tions} of those who love me and keep my commandments.

⁷ “You shall not mis­use the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold any­one guilt­less who mis­uses his name.

⁸ “Remem­ber the Sab­bath day by keep­ing it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the sev­enth day is a Sab­bath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, nei­ther you, nor your son or daugh­ter, nor your manser­vant or maid­ser­vant, nor your ani­mals, nor the alien within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the LORD made the heav­ens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the sev­enth day. There­fore the LORD blessed the Sab­bath day and made it holy.

¹² “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD 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 give false tes­ti­mony against your neighbor.

¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manser­vant or maid­ser­vant, his ox or don­key, or any­thing that belongs to your neighbor.”

¹⁸ When the peo­ple saw the thun­der and light­ning and heard the trum­pet and saw the moun­tain in smoke, they trem­bled with fear. They stayed at a dis­tance ¹⁹ and said to Moses, “Speak to us your­self and we will lis­ten. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”

²⁰ Moses said to the peo­ple, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”

²¹ The peo­ple remained at a dis­tance, while Moses approached the thick dark­ness where God was.

Idols and Altars

²² Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites this: ‘You have seen for your­selves that I have spo­ken to you from heaven: ²³ Do not make any gods to be along­side me; do not make for your­selves gods of sil­ver or gods of gold.

²⁴ ” ‘Make an altar of earth for me and sac­ri­fice on it your burnt offer­ings and fel­low­ship offer­ings², your sheep and goats and your cat­tle. Wher­ever I cause my name to be hon­ored, I will come to you and bless you. ²⁵ If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it. ²⁶ And do not go up to my altar on steps, lest your naked­ness be exposed on it.’

Exo­dus 20:1–26