Exodus 20
20
The Ten Commandments
(Deuteronomy 5.1-21)
1God said to the people of Israel:
2I am the Lord your God, the one who brought you out of Egypt where you were slaves.
3Do not worship any god except me.
4 #
Ex 34.17; Lv 19.4; 26.1; Dt 4.15-18; 27.14-26. Do not make idols that look like anything in the sky or on earth or in the ocean under the earth. 5#Ex 34.6,7; Nu 14.18; Dt 7.9,10. 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. 6But if you love me and obey my laws, I will be kind to your families for thousands of generations.
7 #
Lv 19.12. Do not misuse my name.#20.7 misuse my name: Probably includes breaking promises, telling lies after swearing to tell the truth, using the Lord's name as a curse word or a magic formula, and trying to control the Lord by using his name. I am the Lord your God, and I will punish anyone who misuses my name.
8 #
Ex 16.23-30; 31.12-15. Remember that the Sabbath Day belongs to me. 9#Ex 23.12; 31.14,15; 34.21; 35.2; Lv 23.3. You have six days when you can do your work, 10but 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#Gn 2.1-3; Ex 31.17. 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 #
Dt 27.14-26; Mt 15.4; 19.19; Mk 7.10; 10.19; Lk 18.20; Eph 6.2;
Eph 6.3. Respect your father and your mother, and you will live a long time in the land I am giving you.
13 #
Gn 9.5,6; Lv 24.17; Mt 5.21; 19.18; Mk 10.19; Lk 18.20; Ro 13.9; Jas 2.11. Do not murder.
14 #
Lv 20.10; Mt 5.27; 19.18; Mk 10.19; Lk 18.20; Ro 13.9; Jas 2.11. Be faithful in marriage.
15 #
Lv 19.11; Mt 19.18; Mk 10.19; Lk 18.20; Ro 13.9. Do not steal.
16 #
Ex 23.1; Mt 19.18; Mk 10.19; Lk 18.20. Do not tell lies about others.
17 #
Ro 7.7; 13.9. 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 #
He 12.18,19. 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 19and 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.” 21But when Moses went near the thick cloud where God was, the people stayed a long way off.
Idols and Altars
22The Lord told Moses to say to the people of Israel:
With your own eyes you saw me speak to you from heaven. 23So you must never make idols of silver or gold to worship in place of me.#20.23 in place of me: Or “together with me.”
24Build an altar out of earth, and offer on it your sacrifices#20.24 sacrifices: The Hebrew text mentions two types of sacrifices: Sacrifices to please the Lord (traditionally called “whole burnt offerings”) and sacrifices to ask the Lord's blessing (traditionally called “peace offerings”). of sheep, goats, and cattle. Wherever I choose to be worshiped, I will come down to bless you. 25#Dt 27.5-7; Js 8.30-32. 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. 26And don't build an altar that requires steps; you might expose yourself when you climb up.
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Exodus 20: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Exodus 20
20
1‘And God speaketh all these words, saying,
2I [am] Jehovah thy God, who hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of a house of servants.
3‘Thou hast no other Gods before Me.
4‘Thou dost not make to thyself a graven image, or any likeness which [is] in the heavens above, or which [is] in the earth beneath, or which [is] in the waters under the earth.
5Thou dost not bow thyself to them, nor serve them: for I, Jehovah thy God, [am] a zealous God, charging iniquity of fathers on sons, on the third [generation], and on the fourth, of those hating Me,
6and doing kindness to thousands, of those loving Me and keeping My commands.
7‘Thou dost not take up the name of Jehovah thy God for a vain thing, for Jehovah acquitteth not him who taketh up His name for a vain thing.
8‘Remember the Sabbath-day to sanctify it;
9six days thou dost labour, and hast done all thy work,
10and the seventh day [is] a Sabbath to Jehovah thy God; thou dost not do any work, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-servant, and thy handmaid, and thy cattle, and thy sojourner who is within thy gates, —
11for six days hath Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that [is] in them, and resteth in the seventh day; therefore hath Jehovah blessed the Sabbath-day, and doth sanctify it.
12‘Honour thy father and thy mother, so that thy days are prolonged on the ground which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee.
13‘Thou dost not murder.
14‘Thou dost not commit adultery.
15‘Thou dost not steal.
16‘Thou dost not answer against thy neighbour a false testimony.
17‘Thou dost not desire the house of thy neighbour, thou dost not desire the wife of thy neighbour, or his man-servant, or his handmaid, or his ox, or his ass, or anything which [is] thy neighbour's.’
18And all the people are seeing the voices, and the flames, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mount smoking; and the people see, and move, and stand afar off,
19and say unto Moses, ‘Speak thou with us, and we hear, and let not God speak with us, lest we die.’
20And Moses saith unto the people, ‘Fear not, for to try you hath God come, and in order that His fear may be before your faces — that ye sin not.’
21And the people stand afar off, and Moses hath drawn nigh unto the thick darkness where God [is].
22And Jehovah saith unto Moses, ‘Thus dost thou say unto the sons of Israel: Ye — ye have seen that from the heavens I have spoken with you;
23ye do not make with Me gods of silver, even gods of gold ye do not make to yourselves.
24‘An altar of earth thou dost make for Me, and thou hast sacrificed on it thy burntofferings and thy peace-offerings, thy flock and thy herd; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered I come in unto thee, and have blessed thee.
25‘And if an altar of stones thou dost make to Me, thou dost not build them of hewn work; when thy tool thou hast waved over it, then thou dost pollute it;
26neither dost thou go up by steps on Mine altar, that thy nakedness be not revealed upon it.
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