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The Ten Commandments^(a)

¹ God spoke, and these were his words: ² "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves.

³ "Worship no god but me.

^4 (b)"Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth. ^5 (c)Do not bow down to any idol or worship it, because I am the Lord your God and I tolerate no rivals. I bring punishment on those who hate me and on their descendants down to the third and fourth generation. ⁶ But I show my love to thousands of generations^[a] of those who love me and obey my laws.

^7 (d)"Do not use my name for evil purposes, for I, the Lord your God, will punish anyone who misuses my name.

^8 (e)"Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy. ^9 (f)You have six days in which to do your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to me. On that day no one is to work—neither you, your children, your slaves, your animals, nor the foreigners who live in your country. ^11 (g)In six days I, the Lord, made the earth, the sky, the seas, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested. That is why I, the Lord, blessed the Sabbath and made it holy.

^12 (h)"Respect your father and your mother, so that you may live a long time in the land that I am giving you.

^13 (i)"Do not commit murder.

^14 (j)"Do not commit adultery.

^15 (k)"Do not steal.

^16 (l)"Do not accuse anyone falsely.

^17 (m)"Do not desire another man's house; do not desire his wife, his slaves, his cattle, his donkeys, or anything else that he owns."

The People's Fear⁽ⁿ⁾

^18 (o)When the people heard the thunder and the trumpet blast and saw the lightning and the smoking mountain, they trembled with fear and stood a long way off. ¹⁹ They said to Moses, "If you speak to us, we will listen; but we are afraid that if God speaks to us, we will die."

²⁰ Moses replied, "Don't be afraid; God has only come to test you and make you keep on obeying him, so that you will not sin." ²¹ But the people continued to stand a long way off, and only Moses went near the dark cloud where God was.

Laws about Altars

²² The Lord commanded Moses to tell the Israelites: "You have seen how I, the Lord, have spoken to you from heaven. ²³ Do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gold to be worshiped in addition to me. ²⁴ Make an altar of earth for me, and on it sacrifice your sheep and your cattle as offerings to be completely burned and as fellowship offerings. In every place that I set aside for you to worship me, I will come to you and bless you. ^25 (p)If you make an altar of stone for me, do not build it out of cut stones, because when you use a chisel on stones, you make them unfit for my use. ²⁶ Do not build an altar for me with steps leading up to it; if you do, you will expose yourselves as you go up the steps.