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 Golden Calf

32 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”^{(A) 2} Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.”^{(B) 3} So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ He took these from them, formed them in a mold,^[a] and cast an image of a calf, and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”^{(C) 5} When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.” ⁶ They rose early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being, and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to revel.^(D)

⁷ The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely;^{(E) 8} they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ”^{(F) 9} The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are.^{(G) 10} Now let me alone so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, and of you I will make a great nation.”^(H)

¹¹ But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?^{(I) 12} Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.^{(J) 13} Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”^{(K) 14} And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.^(L)

¹⁵ Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain, carrying the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, tablets that were written on both sides, written on the front and on the back.^{(M) 16} The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved upon the tablets.^{(N) 17} When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” ¹⁸ But he said,

¹⁹ As soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’s anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.^{(O) 20} He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.^(P)