⁹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after.”

The People Consecrated

When Moses had told the words of the people to the Lord,^(A)

¹⁶ On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled.^{(A) 17} Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain. ¹⁸ Now all of Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently.^{(B) 19} As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder.^(C)

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)

The Ruler from Bethlehem