The Ten Commandments^(A)

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

¹¹ And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

²² “These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And ^(A)He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

The People Afraid of God’s Presence^(B)

^23 (C)“So it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders. ²⁴ And you said: ‘Surely the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and ^(D)we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet he ^(E)still lives. ²⁵ Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; ^(F)if we hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore, then we shall die. ^26 (G)For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?

The Glorious Company

¹⁸ For you have not come ^[a]to ^(A)the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and ^[b]darkness and tempest, ¹⁹ and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it ^(B)begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. ²⁰ (For they could not endure what was commanded: ^(C)“And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned ^[c]or shot with an arrow.” ²¹ And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ^(D)“I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)

²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, ²³ to the ^[d]general assembly and church of ^(E)the firstborn ^(F)who are registered in heaven, to God ^(G)the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men ^(H)made perfect, ²⁴ to Jesus ^(I)the Mediator of the new covenant, and to ^(J)the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things ^(K)than that of Abel.

Hear the Heavenly Voice

²⁵ See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For ^(L)if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, ²⁶ whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, ^(M)“Yet once more I ^[e]shake not only the earth, but also heaven.”

¹⁶ If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

¹² Therefore ^(A)the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

Law Cannot Save from Sin

¹³ Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. ¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, ^(B)sold under sin.