Exodus 20

New King James Version

The Ten Commandments^(A)

20 And God spoke ^(B)all these words, saying:

²^(C)“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, ^(D)out of the house of ^[a]bondage.

³^(E)“You shall have no other gods before Me.

⁴^(F)“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; ⁵^(G)you shall not bow down to them nor ^[b]serve them. ^(H)For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, ^(I)visiting^[c] the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, ⁶but ^(J)showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

⁷^(K)“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord ^(L)will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

⁸^(M)“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹^(N)Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰but the ^(O)seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, ^(P)nor your stranger who is within your gates. ¹¹For ^(Q)in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

¹²^(R)“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be ^(S)long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

¹³^(T)“You shall not murder.

¹⁴^(U)“You shall not commit ^(V)adultery.

¹⁵^(W)“You shall not steal.

¹⁶^(X)“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

¹⁷^(Y)“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; ^(Z)you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

The People Afraid of God’s Presence

¹⁸Now ^(AA)all the people ^(AB)witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain ^(AC)smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. ¹⁹Then they said to Moses, ^(AD)“You speak with us, and we will hear; but ^(AE)let not God speak with us, lest we die.”

²⁰And Moses said to the people, ^(AF)“Do not fear; ^(AG)for God has come to test you, and ^(AH)that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.” ²¹So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near ^(AI)the thick darkness where God was.

The Law of the Altar

²²Then the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘You have seen that I have talked with you ^(AJ)from heaven. ²³You shall not make anything to be ^(AK)with Me—gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves. ²⁴An altar of ^(AL)earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, ^(AM)your sheep and your oxen. In every ^(AN)place where I ^[d]record My name I will come to you, and I will ^(AO)bless you. ²⁵And ^(AP)if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you ^(AQ)use your tool on it, you have profaned it. ²⁶Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your ^(AR)nakedness may not be exposed on it.’

Footnotes

Exodus 20:2 slaves
Exodus 20:5 worship
Exodus 20:5 punishing
Exodus 20:24 cause My name to be remembered

Exodus 13

New King James Version

The Firstborn Consecrated

13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²^(A)“Consecrate^[a] to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast; it is Mine.”

The Feast of Unleavened Bread^(B)

³And Moses said to the people: ^(C)“Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of ^[b]bondage; for ^(D)by strength of hand the Lord brought you out of this place. ^(E)No leavened bread shall be eaten. ⁴^(F)On this day you are going out, in the month Abib. ⁵And it shall be, when the Lord ^(G)brings you into the ^(H)land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He ^(I)swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, ^(J)that you shall keep this service in this month. ⁶^(K)Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. ⁷Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. And ^(L)no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters. ⁸And you shall ^(M)tell your son in that day, saying, ‘This is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt.’ ⁹It shall be as ^(N)a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the Lord’s law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. ¹⁰^(O)You shall therefore keep this ^[c]ordinance in its season from year to year.

The Law of the Firstborn

¹¹“And it shall be, when the Lord ^(P)brings you into the land of the ^(Q)Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you, ¹²^(R)that you shall ^[d]set apart to the Lord all that open the womb, that is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have; the males shall be the Lord’s. ¹³But ^(S)every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. And all the firstborn of man among your sons ^(T)you shall redeem. ¹⁴^(U)So it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you shall say to him, ^(V)‘By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ¹⁵And it came to pass, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that ^(W)the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all males that open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ ¹⁶It shall be as ^(X)a sign on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes, for by strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”

The Wilderness Way^(Y)

¹⁷Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people ^(Z)change their minds when they see war, and ^(AA)return to Egypt.” ¹⁸So God ^(AB)led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁹And Moses took the ^(AC)bones of ^(AD)Joseph with him, for he had placed the children of Israel under solemn oath, saying, ^(AE)“God will surely ^[e]visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here with you.”

²⁰So ^(AF)they took their journey from ^(AG)Succoth and camped in Etham at the edge of the wilderness. ²¹And ^(AH)the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. ²²He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.