Beginning

19 In the third month after the Israelites left the land of Egypt, the same day, they came into the Wilderness of Sinai.

² When they had departed from Rephidim and had come to the Wilderness of Sinai, they encamped there before the mountain.

³ And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him out of the mountain, Say this to the house of Jacob and tell the Israelites:

⁴ You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.

⁵ Now therefore, if you will obey My voice in truth and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own peculiar possession and treasure from among and above all peoples; for all the earth is Mine.

⁶ And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation [consecrated, set apart to the worship of God]. These are the words you shall speak to the Israelites.

⁷ So Moses called for the elders of the people and told them all these words which the Lord commanded him.

⁸ And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

⁹ And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I come to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you and remain steadfast forever. Then Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.

¹⁰ And the Lord said to Moses, Go and sanctify the people [set them apart for God] today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes

¹¹ And be ready by the third day, for the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai [in the cloud] in the sight of all the people.

¹² And you shall set bounds for the people round about, saying, Take heed that you go not up into the mountain or touch the border of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.

¹³ No hand shall touch it [or the offender], but he shall surely be stoned or shot [with arrows]; whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.^(A)

¹⁴ So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified them [set them apart for God], and they washed their clothes.

¹⁵ And he said to the people, Be ready by the day after tomorrow; do not go near a woman.

¹⁶ The third morning there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.

¹⁷ Then Moses brought the people from the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.

¹⁸ Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, for the Lord descended upon it in fire; its smoke ascended like that of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.

¹⁹ As the trumpet blast grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with a voice.^(B)

²⁰ The Lord came down upon Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

²¹ The Lord said to Moses, Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to gaze and many of them perish.

²² And also let the priests, who come near to the Lord, sanctify (set apart) themselves [for God], lest the Lord break forth against them.

²³ And Moses said to the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for You Yourself charged us, saying, Set bounds about the mountain and sanctify it [set it apart for God].

²⁴ Then the Lord said to him, Go, get down and you shall come up, you and Aaron with you; but let not the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest He break forth against them.

²⁵ So Moses went down to the people and told them.

20 Then God spoke all these words:

² I am the Lord your God, Who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

³ You shall have no other gods before or besides Me.

⁴ You shall not make yourself any graven image [to worship it] or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;

⁵ You shall not bow down yourself to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me,^(C)

⁶ But showing mercy and steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

⁷ You shall not use or repeat the name of the Lord your God in vain [that is, lightly or frivolously, in false affirmations or profanely]; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

⁸ [Earnestly] remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (withdrawn from common employment and dedicated to God).

⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

¹⁰ But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, your domestic animals, or the sojourner within your gates.

¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it [set it apart for His purposes].

¹² Regard (treat with honor, due obedience, and courtesy) your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land the Lord your God gives you.

¹³ You shall not commit murder.

¹⁴ You shall not commit ^[a]adultery.^(D)

¹⁵ You shall not steal.^(E)

¹⁶ You shall not witness falsely against your neighbor.^(F)

¹⁷ You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.^(G)

¹⁸ Now all the people perceived the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the smoking mountain, and as [they] looked they trembled with fear and fell back and stood afar off.

¹⁹ And they said to Moses, You speak to us and we will listen, but let not God speak to us, lest we die.

²⁰ And Moses said to the people, Fear not; for God has come to prove you, so that the [reverential] fear of Him may be before you, that you may not sin.

²¹ And the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

²² And the Lord said to Moses, Thus shall you say to the Israelites, You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven.

²³ You shall not make [gods to share] with Me [My glory and your worship]; gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves.

²⁴ An altar of earth you shall make to Me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name and cause it to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.

²⁵ And if you will make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone, for if you lift up a tool upon it you have polluted it.

²⁶ Neither shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness be not exposed upon it.

21 Now these are the ordinances you [Moses] shall set before [the Israelites].

² If you buy a Hebrew servant [as the result of debt or theft], he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, paying nothing.^(H)

³ If he came [to you] by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he came married, then his wife shall go out with him.

⁴ If his master has given him a wife and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out [of your service] alone.

⁵ But if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go free,

⁶ Then his master shall bring him to God [the judges as His agents]; he shall bring him to the door or doorpost and shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him for life.

⁷ If a man sells his daughter to be a maidservant or bondwoman, she shall not go out [in six years] as menservants do.

⁸ If she does not please her master who has not espoused her to himself, he shall let her be redeemed. To sell her to a foreign people he shall have no power, for he has dealt faithlessly with her.

⁹ And if he espouses her to his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter.

¹⁰ If he marries again, her food, clothing, and privilege as a wife shall he not diminish.

¹¹ And if he does not do these three things for her, then shall she go out free, without payment of money.

¹² Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death.

¹³ But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God allowed him to fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee [for protection until duly tried].^(I)

¹⁴ But if a man comes willfully upon another to slay him craftily, you shall take him from My altar [to which he may have fled for protection], that he may die.

¹⁵ Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

¹⁶ Whoever kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or is found with him in his possession, shall surely be put to death.

¹⁷ Whoever curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

¹⁸ If men quarrel and one strikes another with a stone or with his fist and he does not die but keeps his bed,

¹⁹ If he rises again and walks about leaning upon his staff, then he that struck him shall be clear, except he must pay for the loss of his time and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.

²⁰ And if a man strikes his servant or his maid with a rod and he [or she] dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished.

²¹ But if the servant lives on for a day or two, the offender shall not be punished, for he [has injured] his own property.

²² If men contend with each other, and a pregnant woman [interfering] is hurt so that she has a miscarriage, yet no further damage follows, [the one who hurt her] shall surely be punished with a fine [paid] to the woman’s husband, as much as the judges determine.

²³ But if any damage follows, then you shall give life for life,

²⁴ Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

²⁵ Burn for burn, wound for wound, and lash for lash.

²⁶ And if a man hits the eye of his servant or the eye of his maid so that it is destroyed, he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake.

²⁷ And if he knocks out his manservant’s tooth or his maidservant’s tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth’s sake.

²⁸ If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, then the ox shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be clear.

²⁹ But if the ox has tried to gore before, and its owner has been warned but has not kept it closed in and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner also put to death.

³⁰ If a ransom is put on [the man’s] life, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is laid upon him.

³¹ If the [man’s ox] has gored another’s son or daughter, he shall be dealt with according to this same rule.

³² If the ox gores a manservant or a maidservant, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

³³ If a man leaves a pit open or digs a pit and does not cover it and an ox or a donkey falls into it,

³⁴ The owner of the pit shall make it good; he shall give money to the animal’s owner, but the dead beast shall be his.

³⁵ If one man’s ox hurts another’s so that it dies, they shall sell the live ox and divide the price of it; the dead ox also they shall divide between them.

³⁶ Or if it is known that the ox has gored in the past, and its owner has not kept it closed in, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead beast shall be his.