The 10 commandments
1Moses called all the Israelites and he told them: ‘People of Israel, you must obey these laws that I am giving you today. Listen carefully. You must learn what the laws say and you must do it. 2The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Mount Horeb. 3He made this covenant with us, all of us who live here today. He did not make this covenant only with our forefathers. 4The Lord Himself spoke to you from the fire on the mountain. 5On that day I stood between the Lord and you to tell you what God said because you were afraid of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain. The Lord said:
6“I am the Lord your God. I brought you out of Egypt where you were slaves.
7You may never worship other gods. I am the only God.
8-9You may not make an image and bow down before it and serve it. You may not make any image that looks like something in heaven above, or like something on earth or like something in the water under the earth. I am the Lord your God. You must worship only Me. I will punish the children if their father has sinned. I will punish his children and grandchildren if he hates Me and does not listen to Me. 10But if someone loves Me and listens to Me, I will be good to him and his children, for a long time, for 1 000 generations.
11You may not use the name of the Lord your God in a wrong way, because God will punish everyone who uses his name for something that is not right.
12You must remember that the Sabbath day is a holy day. The Lord your God has told you that. 13You must work for 6 days and do everything that you have to do, 14but the 7th day is the Sabbath day of the Lord your God. Then you may not work, not you or your son or daughter, not your servant or servant girl, or your ox or donkey or other animals or the strangers who live among you. Your servant and your servant girl must rest like you. 15You must remember that you were also slaves in the land of Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you from there with his great power. This is why the Lord your God tells you to celebrate the Sabbath day.
16You must respect your parents as the Lord told you. Then you will have a long life and everything will go well for you in the land that the Lord your God gives you.
17You may not murder anyone.
18You may not commit_adultery.
19You may not steal.
20You may not tell lies about other people.
21You may not desire another man's wife and want her for yourself. You may not desire another person's home or his land or his slave or slave woman, or his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to another person.” ’
The people became afraid
22Moses said: ‘The Lord said these words loudly and clearly to all the people in the congregation. He did not say anything else. It was on the mountain and He spoke from the fire and out of the dark cloud. He then wrote the words on 2 flat stones and He gave them to me. 23But when the mountain started to burn and when you heard his voice speaking from the dark, all your chiefs and leaders came to me 24and said: “Listen, the Lord, the Great_King, has appeared to us. We heard Him speak from the fire. Today we saw that people can live after God has spoken to them. 25But if we keep on listening to the voice of the Lord our God, we will die. We will burn in this big fire and we do not want to die. 26No other person has ever heard the voice of God and lived, but we heard Him speak out of the fire and we are still_alive. 27Moses, please go to the Lord our God and listen to what the Lord our God says. Then you must come and tell us what He has told you. We will listen to Him and do everything He says.”
28The Lord heard what you said to me and He answered and said: “I have heard what these Israelites asked you. They are right. What they said is good. 29I wish they would always worship Me like this and always listen to Me and do what my laws say. Then everything would always go well with them and their children. 30Go and tell them to go back to their tents. 31But you must stay here with Me. I want to give you all the laws and rules that you must teach the people. They must do this in the land that I am giving them.”
32You must be careful and listen to everything that the Lord your God told you. You must do it exactly like He said. 33You must live as the Lord your God wants you to live. Then you will live for many years in the land that will belong to you.’
