The Ten Commandments^(A)

5 Moses summoned all Israel and said:

Hear, Israel, the decrees and laws^(B) I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them. ² The Lord our God made a covenant^(C) with us at Horeb.^{(D) 3} It was not with our ancestors^[a] that the Lord made this covenant, but with us,^(E) with all of us who are alive here today.^{(F) 4} The Lord spoke^(G) to you face to face^(H) out of the fire^(I) on the mountain. ⁵ (At that time I stood between^(J) the Lord and you to declare to you the word of the Lord, because you were afraid^(K) of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And he said:

²² These are the commandments the Lord proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire, the cloud and the deep darkness;^(AJ) and he added nothing more. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets^(AK) and gave them to me.

²³ When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leaders of your tribes and your elders^(AL) came to me. ²⁴ And you said, “The Lord our God has shown us^(AM) his glory and his majesty,^(AN) and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks with them.^{(AO) 25} But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer.^{(AP) 26} For what mortal has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived?^{(AQ) 27} Go near and listen to all that the Lord our God says.^(AR) Then tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you. We will listen and obey.”^(AS)

²⁸ The Lord heard you when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me, “I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good.^{(AT) 29} Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me^(AU) and keep all my commands^(AV) always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!^(AW)

³⁰ “Go, tell them to return to their tents. ³¹ But you stay here^(AX) with me so that I may give you all the commands, decrees and laws you are to teach them to follow in the land I am giving them to possess.”

³² So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you;^(AY) do not turn aside to the right or to the left.^{(AZ) 33} Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you,^(BA) so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days^(BB) in the land that you will possess.

The Golden Calf

⁷ Remember this and never forget how you aroused the anger^(A) of the Lord your God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious^(B) against the Lord.^{(C) 8} At Horeb you aroused the Lord’s wrath^(D) so that he was angry enough to destroy you.^{(E) 9} When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant^(F) that the Lord had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days^(G) and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water.^{(H) 10} The Lord gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God.^(I) On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.^(J)

¹¹ At the end of the forty days and forty nights,^(K) the Lord gave me the two stone tablets,^(L) the tablets of the covenant. ¹² Then the Lord told me, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt.^(M) They have turned away quickly^(N) from what I commanded them and have made an idol for themselves.”

¹³ And the Lord said to me, “I have seen this people^(O), and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! ¹⁴ Let me alone,^(P) so that I may destroy them and blot out^(Q) their name from under heaven.^(R) And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.”

¹⁵ So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.^{(S) 16} When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf.^(T) You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.

¹⁸ Then once again I fell^(U) prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water,^(V) because of all the sin you had committed,^(W) doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and so arousing his anger. ¹⁹ I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you.^(X) But again the Lord listened to me.^{(Y) 20} And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too. ²¹ Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust^(Z) and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.^(AA)

²² You also made the Lord angry^(AB) at Taberah,^(AC) at Massah^(AD) and at Kibroth Hattaavah.^(AE)

²³ And when the Lord sent you out from Kadesh Barnea,^(AF) he said, “Go up and take possession^(AG) of the land I have given you.” But you rebelled^(AH) against the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust^(AI) him or obey him. ²⁴ You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you.^(AJ)

²⁵ I lay prostrate before the Lord those forty days and forty nights^(AK) because the Lord had said he would destroy you.^{(AL) 26} I prayed to the Lord and said, “Sovereign Lord, do not destroy your people,^(AM) your own inheritance^(AN) that you redeemed^(AO) by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.^{(AP) 27} Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness^(AQ) of this people, their wickedness and their sin. ²⁸ Otherwise, the country^(AR) from which you brought us will say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to take them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them,^(AS) he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’^{(AT) 29} But they are your people,^(AU) your inheritance^(AV) that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.^(AW)”

Tablets Like the First Ones

10 At that time the Lord said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets^(AX) like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark.^{[a] 2} I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the ark.”^(AY)

³ So I made the ark out of acacia wood^(AZ) and chiseled^(BA) out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. ⁴ The Lord wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments^(BB) he had proclaimed^(BC) to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.^(BD) And the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I came back down the mountain^(BE) and put the tablets in the ark^(BF) I had made,^(BG) as the Lord commanded me, and they are there now.^(BH)