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Exodus 19

At Mount Sinai

    ⁴You saw what I did in Egypt, and you know how I brought you here to me, just as a mighty eagle carries its young. ⁵Now if you will faithfully obey me, you will be my very own people. The whole world is mine, ⁶but you will be my holy nation and serve me as priests.

   Moses, that is what you must tell the Israelites.

    ⁷After Moses went back, he reported to the leaders what the LORD had said, ⁸and they promised, " We will do everything the LORD has commanded." So Moses told the LORD about this.

    ⁹The LORD said to Moses, " I will come to you in a thick cloud and let the people hear me speak to you. Then they will always trust you." Again Moses reported to the people what the LORD had told him.

    ¹⁰Once more the LORD spoke to Moses:

   Go back and tell the people that today and tomorrow they must get themselves ready to meet me. They must wash their clothes ¹¹and be ready by the day after tomorrow, when I will come down to Mount Sinai, where all of them can see me.

    ¹²Warn the people that they are forbidden to touch any part of the mountain. Anyone who does will be put to death, ¹³either with stones or arrows, and no one must touch the body of a person killed in this way. Even an animal that touches this mountain must be put to death. You may go up the mountain only after a signal is given on the trumpet.

    ¹⁴After Moses went down the mountain, he gave orders for the people to wash their clothes and make themselves acceptable to worship God. ¹⁵He told them to be ready in three days and not to have sex in the meantime.

The LORD Comes to Mount Sinai

    ¹⁸Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the LORD had come down in a flaming fire. Smoke poured out of the mountain just like a furnace, and the whole mountain shook. ¹⁹The trumpet blew louder and louder. Moses spoke, and God answered him with thunder.

    ²⁰The LORD came down to the top of Mount Sinai and told Moses to meet him there. ²¹Then he said, " Moses, go and warn the people not to cross the boundary that you set at the foot of the mountain. They must not cross it to come and look at me, because if they do, many of them will die. ²²Only the priests may come near me, and they must obey strict rules before I let them. If they don't, they will be punished."

    ²³Moses replied, " The people cannot come up the mountain. You warned us to stay away because it is holy."

    ²⁴Then the LORD told Moses, " Go down and bring Aaron back here with you. But the priests and people must not try to push their way through, or I will rush at them like a flood!"

    ²⁵After Moses had gone back down, he told the people what the LORD had said.

Exodus 20

The Ten Commandments

(Deuteronomy 5.1-21)

    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.

    ⁴Do not make idols that look like anything in the sky or on earth or in the ocean under the earth. ⁵Don'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.

    ⁷Do not misuse my name. ^[b] I am the LORD your God, and I will punish anyone who misuses my name. ⁸Remember that the Sabbath Day belongs to me. ⁹You 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. ¹¹In 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.

    ¹²Respect your father and your mother, and you will live a long time in the land I am giving you.

    ¹³Do not murder.

    ¹⁴Be faithful in marriage.

    ¹⁵Do not steal.

    ¹⁶Do not tell lies about others.

    ¹⁷Do not want anything that belongs to someone else. Don't want anyone's house, wife or husband, slaves, oxen, donkeys or anything else.

The People Are Afraid

(Deuteronomy 5.23-33)

    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

   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. ^{[c] 24}Build an altar out of earth, and offer on it your sacrifices ^[d] of sheep, goats, and cattle. Wherever I choose to be worshiped, I will come down to bless you. ²⁵If 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. ²⁶And don't build an altar that requires steps; you might expose yourself when you climb up.

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An Official Who Refused To Forgive

   Not just seven times, but seventy-seven times! ^{[b] 23}This story will show you what the kingdom of heaven is like: One day a king decided to call in his officials and ask them to give an account of what they owed him. ²⁴As he was doing this, one official was brought in who owed him fifty million silver coins. ²⁵But he didn't have any money to pay what he owed. The king ordered him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all he owned, in order to pay the debt.

    ²⁶The official got down on his knees and began begging, "Have pity on me, and I will pay you every cent I owe!" ²⁷The king felt sorry for him and let him go free. He even told the official that he did not have to pay back the money.

    ²⁸As the official was leaving, he happened to meet another official, who owed him a hundred silver coins. So he grabbed the man by the throat. He started choking him and said, "Pay me what you owe!"

    ²⁹The man got down on his knees and began begging, "Have pity on me, and I will pay you back." ³⁰But the first official refused to have pity. Instead, he went and had the other official put in jail until he could pay what he owed.

    ³¹When some other officials found out what had happened, they felt sorry for the man who had been put in jail. Then they told the king what had happened. ³²The king called the first official back in and said, "You're an evil man! When you begged for mercy, I said you did not have to pay back a cent. ³³Don't you think you should show pity to someone else, as I did to you?" ³⁴The king was so angry that he ordered the official to be tortured until he could pay back everything he owed. ³⁵That is how my Father in heaven will treat you, if you don't forgive each of my followers with all your heart.