The Ten Words

5 Moses called to all Israel and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances that I am speaking in your hearing today, learn them and make sure to do them. ² Adonai our God cut a covenant with us in Horeb. ³ Not with our fathers has Adonai cut this covenant but with us—all of us alive here today. ⁴ Adonai spoke with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. ⁵ (I was standing between Adonai and you at that time, to tell you the word of Adonai, because you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain.)

‘He said:

⁶ ‘I am Adonai your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

⁷ ‘You shall not have other gods beside Me.

⁸ ‘Do not make for yourself a graven image—no image of what is in the heavens above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. ⁹ Do not bow down to them or worship them. For I, Adonai your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, ¹⁰ but showing lovingkindness to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My mitzvot.

¹¹ ‘You must not take the Name of Adonai your God in vain, for Adonai will not leave unpunished anyone who takes His Name in vain.

¹² ‘Observe Yom Shabbat to keep it holy, as Adonai your God commanded you. ¹³ Six days you are to labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ but the seventh day is a Shabbat to Adonai your God. In it you are not to do any work—not you or your son or your daughter, or your slave or your maid, or your ox, your donkey or any of your livestock or the outsider within your gates, so that your slave and your maid may rest as you do. ¹⁵ You must remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Adonai your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore Adonai your God commanded you to keep Yom Shabbat.

¹⁶ ‘Honor your father and your mother just as Adonai your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and it may go well with you in the land Adonai your God is giving you.^[a]

¹⁷ ‘Do not murder.

‘Do not commit adultery.

‘Do not steal.

‘Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.^[b][c]

¹⁸ ‘Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’

¹⁹ “These words Adonai spoke to all your assembly on the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud and the fog, with a great voice. He added no more. He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

Live and Prolong Your Days

²⁰ “As soon as you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was blazing with fire, you came near to me—all the heads of your tribes and your elders. ²¹ Then you said, ‘Adonai our God has just shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. This day we have seen that God speaks with man, and yet he keeps on living. ²² Now then, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us! If we hear the voice of Adonai our God any more, then we will die. ²³ For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? ²⁴ You go near and hear all that Adonai our God says. Then you tell us all what Adonai our God tells you, and we will hear it and do it.’

²⁵ “Adonai heard the tone of your words when you spoke to me, and Adonai said to me, ‘I have heard the tone of the words that this people has spoken to you—they have done well in all they have spoken. ²⁶ If only there were such a heart in them to fear Me and keep all My mitzvot always, so that it might go well with them and with their children forever! ²⁷ Go say to them, “Return to your tents.” ²⁸ But as for you, stand here by Me, and I will tell you the whole commandment—both the statutes and the ordinances that you are to teach them. And they will do them in the land I am giving them to possess.’

²⁹ “So you must take care to do as Adonai your God has commanded you—do not turn aside to the right or to the left. ³⁰ You are to walk in all the way that Adonai your God has commanded you, so that you may live and it may be well with you and you may prolong your days in the land that you will possess.