Beginning

The Ten Commandments

5 Moses called all the people of Israel together and said: Listen, Israel, to the commands and laws I give you today. Learn them and obey them carefully. ² The Lord our God made an agreement with us at Mount Sinai. ³ He did not make this agreement with our ancestors. He made it with us. He made it with all of us who are alive here today. ⁴ The Lord spoke to you face to face. He spoke from the fire on the mountain. ⁵ (At that time I stood between you and the Lord. I told you what the Lord said. You were afraid of the fire. So you would not go up on the mountain.) The Lord said:

⁶ “I am the Lord your God. I brought you out of the land of Egypt where you were slaves.

⁷ “You must not have any other gods except me.

⁸ “You must not make for yourselves any idols. Don’t make something that looks like anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the water below the land. ⁹ You must not worship or serve any idol. This is because I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. A person may sin against me and hate me. I will punish his children, even his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. ¹⁰ But I will be very kind to thousands who love me and obey my commands.

¹¹ “You must not use the name of the Lord your God thoughtlessly. The Lord will punish anyone who is guilty and misuses his name.

¹² “Keep the Sabbath as a holy day. The Lord your God has commanded you to do this. ¹³ You may work and get everything done during six days each week. ¹⁴ But the seventh day is a day of rest to honor the Lord your God. On that day no one may do any work: not you, your son or daughter, or your men or women slaves. Neither your ox, your donkey nor any of your animals may work. The foreigners living in your cities may not work. That way your servants may rest as you do. ¹⁵ Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. The Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by his great power and strength. So the Lord your God has commanded you to rest on the Sabbath day.

¹⁶ “Honor your father and your mother. The Lord your God has commanded you to do this. Then you will live a long time. And things will go well for you in the land. The Lord your God is going to give you this land.

¹⁷ “You must not murder anyone.

¹⁸ “You must not be guilty of adultery.

¹⁹ “You must not steal.

²⁰ “You must not tell lies about your neighbor in court.

²¹ “You must not want to take your neighbor’s wife. You must not want to take your neighbor’s house or land. You must not want to take his men or women slaves. You must not want to take his ox or his donkey. You must not want to take anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

²² The Lord gave these commands to all of you on the mountain. He spoke them in a loud voice out of the fire. He spoke from the cloud and the deep darkness. He did not say anything else. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets. And he gave them to me.

²³ You heard the voice from the darkness. The mountain was blazing with fire. Then all the leaders of your tribes and your elders came to me. ²⁴ And you said, “The Lord our God has shown us his glory and majesty. We have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks to him. ²⁵ But now, we will die! This great fire will burn us up. And we will die if we hear the Lord our God speak anymore. ²⁶ No human being has ever heard the living God speaking from a fire and still lived. But we have. ²⁷ Moses, you go near and listen to everything the Lord our God says. Then you tell us what the Lord our God tells you. We will listen and obey.”

²⁸ The Lord heard what you said to me. And he said to me, “I have heard what the people said to you. Everything they said was good. ²⁹ I wish their hearts would always respect me. I wish they would always obey my commands. Then things would go well for them and their children forever!

³⁰ “Go and tell the people to return to their tents. ³¹ But you stay here with me. I will give you all the commands, rules and laws. Teach the people to obey them in the land I am giving them to own.”

³² So be careful. Do what the Lord your God has commanded you. You must follow the commands exactly. ³³ Live the way the Lord your God has commanded you. Then you will live and be successful. You will live a long time in the land you will own.

The Command to Love God

6 These are the commands, rules and laws of the Lord your God. He told me to teach them to you. Obey them in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to own. ² You, your children and grandchildren must respect the Lord your God. You must do this as long as you live. Obey all his rules and commands I give you. Then you will live a long time. ³ Listen, Israel, and carefully obey these laws. Then all will go well for you. You will become a great nation in a land where much food grows. The Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised it to you.

⁴ Listen, people of Israel! The Lord is our God. He is the only Lord. ⁵ Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength. ⁶ Always remember these commands I give you today. ⁷ Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and walk along the road. Talk about them when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Write them down and tie them to your hands as a sign. Tie them on your forehead to remind you. ⁹ Write them on your doors and gates.

¹⁰ The Lord your God will bring you into the land. He promised it to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He will give it to you. The land has large, growing cities you did not build. ¹¹ The houses there are full of good things that you did not buy. They have wells you did not dig. There are vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. You will eat as much as you want. ¹² But be careful! Do not forget the Lord. He brought you out of the land of Egypt where you were slaves.

¹³ Respect the Lord your God. Serve only him. Make your promises in his name. ¹⁴ Do not worship other gods as the people around you do. ¹⁵ The Lord your God is a jealous God. He is present with you. If you worship other gods, he will become angry with you. And he will destroy you from the earth. ¹⁶ Do not test the Lord your God as you did at Massah. ¹⁷ Be sure to obey the commands of the Lord your God. Obey the rules and laws he has given you. ¹⁸ Do what the Lord says is good and right. Then things will go well for you. Then you may go in and take the good land the Lord promised to your ancestors. ¹⁹ He will force all your enemies out as you go in. This is what the Lord has said.

²⁰ In the future your son will ask you, “What do the laws, commands and rules the Lord our God gave us mean?” ²¹ Tell him, “We were slaves to the king of Egypt. But the Lord brought us out of Egypt by his great power. ²² The Lord showed us great and terrible signs and miracles. He did them to Egypt, the king and his whole family. ²³ The Lord brought us out of Egypt. He led us here. And he will give us the land he promised our ancestors. ²⁴ The Lord ordered us to obey all these commands. And we must respect the Lord our God. Then we will always do well and stay alive as we are today. ²⁵ The right thing for us to do is this: Obey all these rules in the presence of the Lord our God. He has commanded it.”

God’s People

7 The Lord your God will bring you into the land. You are entering that land to own it. As you go in, he will force out these nations: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. These seven nations are stronger than you. ² The Lord your God will hand these nations over to you. You will defeat them. You must destroy them completely. Do not make a peace treaty with them. Do not show them any mercy. ³ Do not marry any of them. Don’t let your daughters marry their sons. And don’t let your sons marry their daughters. ⁴ Those people will turn your children away from me. Your children will begin serving other gods. The Lord will be very angry with you. And he will quickly destroy you. ⁵ This is what you must do to those people: Tear down their altars. Smash their holy stone pillars. Cut down their Asherah idols and burn their idols in the fire. ⁶ You are holy people. You belong to the Lord your God. He has chosen you from all the people on earth. You are his very own.

⁷ The Lord did not care for you and choose you because there were many of you. You are the smallest nation of all. ⁸ But the Lord chose you because he loved you. And he kept his promise to your ancestors. So he brought you out of Egypt by his great power. He brought you back from the land of slavery. He bought you back from the power of the king of Egypt. ⁹ So know that the Lord your God is God. He is the faithful God. He will keep his agreement of love for a thousand lifetimes. He does this for people who love him and obey his commands. ¹⁰ But he will pay back those people who hate him. He will destroy them. And he will not be slow to pay back those who hate him. ¹¹ So be careful to obey the commands, rules and laws I give you today.

¹² Pay attention to these laws. Obey them carefully. Then the Lord your God will keep his agreement and show his love to you. He promised your ancestors he would. ¹³ He will love and bless you. He will make the number of your people grow. He will bless you with children. He will bless your fields with good crops. He will give you grain, new wine and oil. He will bless your cows with calves and your sheep with lambs. This is the way it will be in the land he promised your ancestors he would give you. ¹⁴ You will be blessed more than any other people. Every husband and wife will have children. All your cattle will have calves. ¹⁵ The Lord will take away all disease from you. You will not have the terrible diseases that were in Egypt. But he will give them to your enemies. ¹⁶ You must destroy all the people the Lord your God hands over to you. Do not feel sorry for them. Do not worship their gods. They will trap you.

¹⁷ You might say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than we are. We can’t force them out.” ¹⁸ But don’t be afraid of them. Remember what the Lord your God did to all of Egypt and its king. ¹⁹ You saw for yourselves the troubles, signs and miracles he did. You saw how the Lord’s great power and strength brought you out of Egypt. The Lord your God will do the same thing to all the nations you now fear. ²⁰ The Lord your God will also send hornets to attack them. Even those who are alive and hiding from you will die. ²¹ Don’t be afraid of them. The Lord your God is with you. He is a great God and people are afraid of him. ²² The Lord your God will force those nations out of the land. They will leave little by little ahead of you. Don’t destroy them all at once. Otherwise, the wild animals will grow too many in number. ²³ But the Lord your God will hand those nations over to you. He will confuse them until they are destroyed. ²⁴ The Lord will help you defeat their kings. The world will forget who they were. No one will be able to stop you. You will destroy them all. ²⁵ Burn up their idols in the fire. Do not wish for the silver and gold on them. Don’t take it for yourselves, or you will be trapped by it. The Lord your God hates it. ²⁶ Do not bring one of those hated things into your house. If you do, you will be completely destroyed along with it. Hate and reject those things. They must be completely destroyed.