The Ten Commandments
(Deuteronomy 5.1-21)1 God said to the people of Israel:
2 I am the Lord your God, the one who brought you out of Egypt where you were slaves.
3 Do not worship any god except me.
4 Do not make idols that look like anything in the sky or on earth or in the ocean under the earth. 5 Don't bow down and worship idols. I am the Lord your God, and I demand all your love. If you reject me, I will punish your families for three or four generations. 6 But if you love me and obey my laws, I will be kind to your families for thousands of generations.
7 Do not misuse my name. I am the Lord your God, and I will punish anyone who misuses my name.
8 Remember that the Sabbath Day belongs to me. 9 You have six days when you can do your work, 10 but the seventh day of each week belongs to me, your God. No one is to work on that day—not you, your children, your slaves, your animals, or the foreigners who live in your towns. 11 In six days I made the sky, the earth, the oceans, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested. That's why I made the Sabbath a special day that belongs to me.
12 Respect your father and your mother, and you will live a long time in the land I am giving you.
13 Do not murder.
14 Be faithful in marriage.
15 Do not steal.
16 Do not tell lies about others.
17 Do not desire to possess anything that belongs to another person—not a house, a wife, a husband, a slave, an ox, a donkey, or anything else.
The People Are Afraid
(Deuteronomy 5.23-33)18 The people trembled with fear when they heard the thunder and the trumpet and saw the lightning and the smoke coming from the mountain. They stood a long way off 19 and said to Moses, “If you speak to us, we will listen. But don't let God speak to us, or we will die!”
20 “Don't be afraid!” Moses replied. “God has come only to test you, so that by obeying him you won't sin.” 21 But when Moses went near the thick cloud where God was, the people stayed a long way off.
Idols and Altars
22 The Lord told Moses to say to the people of Israel:
With your own eyes you saw me speak to you from heaven. 23 So you must never make idols of silver or gold to worship in place of me.
24 Build an altar out of earth, and offer on it your sacrifices of sheep, goats, and cattle. Wherever I choose to be worshiped, I will come down to bless you. 25 If you ever build an altar for me out of stones, do not use any tools to chisel the stones, because that would make the altar unfit for use in worship. 26 And don't build an altar that requires steps; you might expose yourself when you climb up.
1 Then God spake all these wordes, saying, 2 I am the Lord thy God, which haue brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt haue none other Gods before me. 4 Thou shalt make thee no grauen image, neither any similitude of things that are in heauen aboue, neither that are in the earth beneath, nor that are in the waters vnder the earth. 5 Thou shalt not bowe downe to them, neither serue them: for I am the Lord thy God, a ielous God, visiting the iniquitie of the fathers vpon the children, vpon the third generation and vpon the fourth of them that hate me: 6 And shewing mercie vnto thousandes to them that loue me, and keepe my commandemets. 7 Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vaine: for the Lord will not hold him guiltles that taketh his Name in vayne. 8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keepe it holy. 9 Sixe dayes shalt thou labour, and doe all thy worke, 10 But the seuenth day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any worke, thou, nor thy sonne, nor thy daughter, thy man seruant, nor thy mayde, nor thy beast, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. 11 For in sixe dayes the Lord made the heauen and the earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seuenth day: therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. 12 Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy dayes may be prolonged vpon the land, which the Lord thy God giueth thee. 13 Thou shalt not kill. 14 Thou shalt not commit adulterie. 15 Thou shalt not steale. 16 Thou shalt not beare false witnes against thy neighbour. 17 Thou shalt not couet thy neighbours house, neither shalt thou couet thy neighbours wife, nor his man seruant, nor his mayde, nor his oxe, nor his asse, neyther any thing that is thy neighbours. 18 And all the people sawe the thunders, and the lightnings, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mountaine smoking and when the people saw it they fled and stoode afare off, 19 And sayde vnto Moses, Talke thou with vs, and we will heare: but let not God talke with vs, lest we die. 20 Then Moses sayde vnto the people, Feare not: for God is come to proue you, and that his feare may be before you, that ye sinne not. 21 So the people stoode afarre off, but Moses drew neere vnto the darkenes where God was. 22 And the Lord sayde vnto Moses, Thus thou shalt say vnto the children of Israel, Ye haue seene that I haue talked with you from heauen. 23 Ye shall not make therefore with me gods of siluer, nor gods of golde: you shall make you none. 24 An altar of earth thou shalt make vnto me, and thereon shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheepe, and thine oxen: in all places, where I shall put the remembrance of my Name, I will come vnto thee, and blesse thee. 25 But if thou wilt make mee an altar of stone, thou shalt not buylde it of hewen stones: for if thou lift vp thy toole vpon them, thou hast polluted them. 26 Neither shalt thou goe vp by steppes vnto mine altar, that thy filthines be not discouered thereon.