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| Exodus 20:1-21 (Decalogue)
20:1 Then God spoke all these words: 20:2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; |
Deut. 5:1-33 (Decalogue)*
5:1 Moses convened all Israel, and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I am addressing to you today; you shall learn them and observe them diligently. 5:2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 5:3 Not with our ancestors did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. 5:4 The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the fire. 5:5 (At that time I was standing between the Lord and you to declare to you the wordsF11of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And he said: 5:6 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; |
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| (1)20:3 you shall have no other gods beforeF43me. | (1) 5:7 you shall have no other gods beforeF12me. | ||||||||||
| (2)20:4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 20:5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 20:6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generationF44of those who love me and keep my commandments. | (2)5:8 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5:9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, 5:10 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generationF13of those who love me and keep my commandments. | ||||||||||
| (3)20:7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. | (3)5:11 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. | ||||||||||
| (4)20:8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.20:9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 20:10 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work — you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 20:11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it. | (4)5:12 Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 5:13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 5:14 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work — you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. 5:15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day. | ||||||||||
| (5)20:12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. | (5)5:16 Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. | ||||||||||
| (6)20:13 You shall not murder.F45 | (6)5:17 You shall not murder.F14 | ||||||||||
| (7)20:14 You shall not commit adultery. | (7)5:18 Neither shall you commit adultery. | ||||||||||
| (8)20:15 You shall not steal. | (8)5:19 Neither shall you steal. | ||||||||||
| (9)20:16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. | (9)5:20 Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor. | ||||||||||
| (10)20:17 You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. | (10)5:21 Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor's house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. | ||||||||||
| 20:18 When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraidF46and trembled and stood at a distance, 20:19 and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die." 20:20 Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin." | 5:22 These words
the Lord spoke with a loud voice to your whole assembly at the mountain,
out of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, and he added no more.
He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me. 5:23 When you
heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with
fire, you approached me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders;
5:24 and you said, "Look, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness,
and we have heard his voice out of the fire. Today we have seen that God
may speak to someone and the person may still live. 5:25 So now why should
we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the
Lord our God any longer, we shall die. 5:26 For who is there of all flesh
that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we
have, and remained alive? 5:27 Go near, you yourself, and hear all that
the Lord our God will say. Then tell us everything that the Lord our God
tells you, and we will listen and do it."
5:28 The Lord heard your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me: "I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you; they are right in all that they have spoken. 5:29 If only they had such a mind as this, to fear me and to keep all my commandments always, so that it might go well with them and with their children forever! 5:30 Go say to them, "Return to your tents.' 5:31 But you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandments, the statutes and the ordinances, that you shall teach them, so that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess." 5:32You must therefore be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn to the right or to the left. 5:33 You must follow exactly the path that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you are to possess. |
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The Meaning of the First Commantment (6:1-25): 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.F15 6:5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.6:6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 6:7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 6:8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem F16on your forehead, 6:9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 6:10 When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you — a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, 6:11 houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant — and when you have eaten your fill, 6:12 take care that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 6:13 The Lord your God you shall fear; him you shall serve, and by his name alone you shall swear. 6:14 Do not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who are all around you, 6:15 because the Lord your God, who is present with you, is a jealous God. The anger of the Lord your God would be kindled against you and he would destroy you from the face of the earth. 6:16 Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. 6:17 You must diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his decrees, and his statutes that he has commanded you. 6:18 Do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may go in and occupy the good land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give you, 6:19 thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised. 6:20 When your children ask you in time to come, "What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?" 6:21 then you shall say to your children, "We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 6:22 The Lord displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household. 6:23 He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors. 6:24 Then the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case. 6:25 If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the right." 7:7 It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you — for you were the fewest of all peoples. 7:8 It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 7:9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 7:10 and who repays in their own person those who reject him. He does not delay but repays in their own person those who reject him. 7:11 Therefore, observe diligently the commandment — the statutes and the ordinances — that I am commanding you today. 7:12 If you heed these ordinances, by diligently observing them, the Lord your God will maintain with you the covenant loyalty that he swore to your ancestors; 7:13 he will love you, bless you, and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock, in the land that he swore to your ancestors to give you. 7:14 You shall be the most blessed of peoples, with neither sterility nor barrenness among you or your livestock. 7:15 The Lord will turn away from you every illness; all the dread diseases of Egypt that you experienced, he will not inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. 7:16 You shall devour all the peoples that the Lord your God is giving over to you, showing them no pity; you shall not serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you. 7:17 If you say to yourself, "These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them?" 7:18 do not be afraid of them. Just remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, 7:19 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 7:20 Moreover, the Lord your God will send the pestilence F18against them, until even the survivors and the fugitives are destroyed. 7:21 Have no dread of them, for the Lord your God, who is present with you, is a great and awesome God. 7:22 The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to make a quick end of them, otherwise the wild animals would become too numerous for you. 7:23 But the Lord your God will give them over to you, and throw them into great panic, until they are destroyed. 7:24 He will hand their kings over to you and you shall blot out their name from under heaven; no one will be able to stand against you, until you have destroyed them. 7:25 The images of their gods you shall burn with fire. Do not covet the silver or the gold that is on them and take it for yourself, because you could be ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent to the Lord your God. 7:26 Do not bring an abhorrent thing into your house, or you will be set apart for destruction like it. You must utterly detest and abhor it, for it is set apart for destruction. (8:1-20): 8:11 Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. 8:12 When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, 8:13 and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 8:14 then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 8:15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous F20snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, 8:16 and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. 8:17 Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth." 8:18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. 8:19 If you do forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 8:20 Like the nations that the Lord is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. (9:1-10:11): 9:6 Know, then, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to occupy because of your righteousness; for you are a stubborn people. 9:7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness; you have been rebellious against the Lord from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place. 9:8 Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. 9:9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. 9:10And the Lord gave me the two stone tablets written with the finger of God; on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken to you at the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. 9:11 At the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. 9:12 Then the Lord said to me, "Get up, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have been quick to turn from the way that I commanded them; they have cast an image for themselves." 9:13 Furthermore the Lord said to me, "I have seen that this people is indeed a stubborn people. 9:14 Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and more numerous than they." 9:15 So I turned and went down from the mountain, while the mountain was ablaze; the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 9:16 Then I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God, by casting for yourselves an image of a calf; you had been quick to turn from the way that the Lord had commanded you. 9:17So I took hold of the two tablets and flung them from my two hands, smashing them before your eyes. 9:18 Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin you had committed, provoking the Lord by doing what was evil in his sight. 9:19 For I was afraid that the anger that the Lord bore against you was so fierce that he would destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also. 9:20 The Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him, but I interceded also on behalf of Aaron at that same time. 9:21 Then I took the sinful thing you had made, the calf, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly, until it was reduced to dust; and I threw the dust of it into the stream that runs down the mountain. 9:22 At Taberah also, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, you provoked the Lord to wrath. 9:23 And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, "Go up and occupy the land that I have given you," you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, neither trusting him nor obeying him. 9:24 You have been rebellious against the Lord as long as he has F21 known you. 9:25 Throughout the forty days and forty nights that I lay prostrate before the Lord when the Lord intended to destroy you, 9:26 I prayed to the Lord and said, "Lord God, do not destroy the people who are your very own possession, whom you redeemed in your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 9:27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; pay no attention to the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin, 9:28 otherwise the land from which you have brought us might say, "Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to let them die in the wilderness.' 9:29For they are the people of your very own possession, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm." 10:1 At that time the Lord said to me, "Carve out two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood. 10:2 I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you smashed, and you shall put them in the ark." 10:3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. 10:4 Then he wrote on the tablets the same words as before, the ten commandments F22that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. 10:5 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark that I had made; and there they are, as the Lord commanded me. 10:6 (The Israelites journeyed from Beeroth-bene-jaakan F23to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; his son Eleazar succeeded him as priest. 10:7 From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with flowing streams. 10:8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day. 10:9 Therefore Levi has no allotment or inheritance with his kindred; the Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God promised him.) 10:10 I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. And once again the Lord listened to me. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you. 10:11 The Lord said to me, "Get up, go on your journey at the head of the people, that they may go in and occupy the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them." 11:1 You shall love the Lord your God, therefore, and keep his charge, his decrees, his ordinances, and his commandments always. 11:2 Remember today that it was not your children (who have not known or seen the discipline of the Lord your God), but it is you who must acknowledge his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, 11:3 his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to all his land; 11:4 what he did to the Egyptian army, to their horses and chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea F25flow over them as they pursued you, so that the Lord has destroyed them to this day; 11:5 what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place; 11:6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab son of Reuben, how in the midst of all Israel the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households, their tents, and every living being in their company; 11:7 for it is your own eyes that have seen every great deed that the Lord did. 11:8 Keep, then, this entire commandment that I am commanding you today, so that you may have strength to go in and occupy the land that you are crossing over to occupy, 11:9 and so that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. 11:10 For the land that you are about to enter to occupy is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sow your seed and irrigate by foot like a vegetable garden. 11:11 But the land that you are crossing over to occupy is a land of hills and valleys, watered by rain from the sky, 11:12 a land that the Lord your God looks after. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. 11:13 If you will only heed his every commandment F26that I am commanding you today — loving the Lord your God, and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul — 11:14 then heF27will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil; 11:15 and he F28will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat your fill. 11:16 Take care, or you will be seduced into turning away, serving other gods and worshiping them, 11:17 for then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain and the land will yield no fruit; then you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you. 11:18 You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem F29on your forehead. 11:19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 11:20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 1:21 so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. 11:22 If you will diligently observe this entire commandment that I am commanding you, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, 11:23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and mightier than yourselves. 11:24 Every place on which you set foot shall be yours; your territory shall extend from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the Western Sea. 11:25 No one will be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the fear and dread of you on all the land on which you set foot, as he promised you. 11:26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 11:27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today; 11:28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn from the way that I am commanding you today, to follow other gods that you have not known. 11:29 When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that you are entering to occupy, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 11:30 As you know, they are beyond the Jordan, some distance to the west, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak F30of Moreh. 11:31 When you cross the Jordan to go in to occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and when you occupy it and live in it, 11:32 you must diligently observe all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today. |
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| Footnotes:
F43: Or [besides] F44: Or [to thousands] F45: Or [kill] F46: Sam Gk Syr Vg: MT [they saw] |
Footnotes:
F11: Q Mss Sam Gk Syr Vg Tg: MT [word] F12: Or [besides] F13: Or [to thousands] F14: Or [kill] F15: Or [The Lord our God is one Lord,] or [The Lord our God, the Lord is one,] or [The Lord is our God, the Lord is one] F16: Or [as a frontlet] F17: Heb [Asherim] F18: Or [hornets]: Meaning of Heb uncertain F19: Or [by anything that the Lord decrees] F20: Or [fiery]; Heb [seraph] F21: Sam Gk: MT [I have] F22: Heb [the ten words] F23: Or [the wells of the Bene-jaakan] F24: Q Ms Gk Syr: MT lacks [your God] F25: Or [Sea of Reeds] F26: Compare Gk: Heb [my commandments] F27: Sam Gk Vg: MT [I] F28: Sam Gk Vg: MT [I] F29: Or [as a frontlet] F30: Gk Syr: Compare Gen 12.6; Heb [oaks] or [terebinths] |
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| For a clear indication of the historical setting
for this passage see Deut. 1:1-5 (NRSV):
"1:1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan — in the wilderness, on the plain opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab. 1:2 (By the way of Mount Seir it takes eleven days to reach Kadesh-barnea from Horeb.) 1:3 In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the Israelites just as the Lord had commanded him to speak to them. 1:4 This was after he had defeated King Sihon of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth andF1 in Edrei.1:5 Beyond the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law as follows: FOOTNOTES: F1: Gk Syr Vg Compare Josh 12.4: Heb lacks [and] |
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