Exodus 20
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Ten Commandments
20 Then God spoke all these words,(A)
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;(B) 3 you shall have no other gods before[a] me.(C)
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.(D) 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve 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(E) 6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation[b] of those who love me and keep my commandments.(F)
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.(G)
8 “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.(H) 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.(I) 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. 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.(J)
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.(K)
13 “You shall not murder.[c](L)
14 “You shall not commit adultery.(M)
15 “You shall not steal.(N)
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.(O)
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female slave, ox, donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”(P)
18 When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid[d] and trembled and stood at a distance(Q) 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”(R) 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.”(S) 21 Then the people stood at a distance, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.(T)
The Law concerning the Altar
22 The Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites: You have seen for yourselves how I spoke with you from heaven.(U) 23 You shall not make gods of silver alongside me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.(V) 24 You need make for me only an altar of earth and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your offerings of well-being, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.(W) 25 But if you make for me an altar of stone, do not build it of hewn stones, for if you use a chisel upon it you profane it.(X) 26 You shall not go up by steps to my altar, so that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.
Exodus 14
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Crossing the Red Sea
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites to turn back and camp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall camp opposite it, by the sea.(A) 3 Pharaoh will say of the Israelites, ‘They are wandering aimlessly in the land; the wilderness has closed in on them.’ 4 I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, so that I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.(B)
5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the minds of Pharaoh and his officials were changed toward the people, and they said, “What have we done, letting Israel leave our service?” 6 So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him; 7 he took six hundred elite chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. 8 The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the Israelites, who were going out boldly.(C) 9 The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, his chariot drivers and his army; they overtook them camped by the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.(D)
10 As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them. In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord.(E) 11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt?(F) 12 Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, ‘Let us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13 But Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today, for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again.(G) 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”(H)
15 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. 16 But you lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the Israelites may go into the sea on dry ground.(I) 17 Then I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them, and so I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots, and his chariot drivers.(J) 18 Then the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gained glory for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his chariot drivers.”(K)
19 The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them.(L) 20 It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night.
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided.(M) 22 The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.(N) 23 The Egyptians pursued and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. 24 At the morning watch the Lord, in the pillar of fire and cloud, looked down on the Egyptian army and threw the Egyptian army into a panic.(O) 25 He clogged[a] their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”(P)
The Pursuers Drowned
26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.” 27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea.(Q) 28 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained.(R) 29 But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.(S)
30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.(T) 31 Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.(U)
Footnotes
- 14.25 Sam Gk Syr: MT removed
Leviticus 18
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Sexual Relations
18 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: I am the Lord your God.(A) 3 You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not follow their statutes.(B) 4 My ordinances you shall observe, and my statutes you shall keep, following them: I am the Lord your God. 5 You shall keep my statutes and my ordinances; by doing so one shall live: I am the Lord.(C)
6 “None of you shall approach anyone near of kin to uncover nakedness: I am the Lord. 7 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness.(D) 8 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is the nakedness of your father. 9 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born at home or born abroad.(E) 10 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son’s daughter or of your daughter’s daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness. 11 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, born in your father’s house, since she is your sister. 12 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s flesh.(F) 13 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s flesh. 14 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother; that is, you shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt.(G) 15 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law: she is your son’s wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness.(H) 16 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.(I) 17 You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, and you shall not take[a] her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are your[b] flesh; it is depravity.(J) 18 And you shall not take[c] a woman as a rival to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.
19 “You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness.(K) 20 You shall not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her.(L) 21 You shall not give any of your offspring to sacrifice them[d] to Molech and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.(M) 22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.(N) 23 You shall not have sexual relations with any animal and defile yourself with it, nor shall any woman give herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; it is perversion.(O)
24 “Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for by all these practices the nations I am casting out before you have defiled themselves.(P) 25 Thus the land became defiled, and I punished it for its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.(Q) 26 But you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances and commit none of these abominations, either the native-born or the alien who resides among you 27 (for the inhabitants of the land, who were before you, committed all of these abominations, and the land became defiled); 28 otherwise the land will vomit you out for defiling it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. 29 For whoever commits any of these abominations shall be cut off from their people. 30 So keep my charge not to commit any of these abominations that were done before you and not to defile yourselves by them: I am the Lord your God.”(R)
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