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Revised Standard Version
Exodus 20:2
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"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Mitzrayim, out of the house of bondage.
I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
"I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves.
"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt where you were slaves.
"I, the Lord , am your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.
"I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
I am the Lorde thy God, which haue brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
"I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
I am the Lord your God, the one who brought you out of Egypt where you were slaves.
א "I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the abode of slavery.
I am Jehovah thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
"I am the Lord your God. I am the one who freed you from the land of Egypt, where you were slaves.
"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
"I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.
I am Jehovah your God, who has brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
I am the LORDE thy God, which haue brought the out of the londe of Egipte from ye house of bondage.
I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house.
I am the Lord thy GOD, whiche haue brought thee out of the lande of Egypt, out of ye house of bondage.
I am the LORD thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.
I am the Lord thy God, which haue brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage:
I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
that ladde thee out of the lond of Egipt, fro the hous of seruage.
I [am] Jehovah thy God, who hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of a house of servants.
I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves.
I [am] the LORD thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
"I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
"I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.
"I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house where you were servants.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;
I, am Yahweh thy God, - who have brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of servants: -
I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
the Lord: Genesis 17:7, Genesis 17:8, Leviticus 26:1, Leviticus 26:13, Deuteronomy 5:6, Deuteronomy 6:4, Deuteronomy 6:5, 2 Chronicles 28:5, Psalms 50:7, Psalms 81:10, Jeremiah 31:1, Jeremiah 31:33, Hosea 13:4, Romans 3:29, Romans 10:12
brought: Exodus 10:1 - Exodus 15:27, Leviticus 19:36, Leviticus 23:43
out of the: Exodus 13:3, Deuteronomy 5:15, Deuteronomy 7:8, Deuteronomy 13:10, Deuteronomy 15:15, Deuteronomy 26:6-8
bondage: Heb. servants
Reciprocal: Exodus 1:14 - was with rigour Exodus 6:2 - I am the Lord Exodus 6:26 - Bring Exodus 22:21 - for ye were strangers Exodus 29:46 - that I am Exodus 32:4 - which brought Leviticus 11:44 - I am the Leviticus 11:45 - be holy Leviticus 18:2 - General Leviticus 22:33 - General Leviticus 25:10 - proclaim Leviticus 25:38 - which Leviticus 25:55 - my servants Leviticus 26:45 - General Numbers 23:22 - God Deuteronomy 6:21 - General Deuteronomy 28:58 - fear this glorious Deuteronomy 28:68 - there ye shall Judges 2:1 - I made Judges 6:10 - I am the 2 Samuel 23:3 - God 2 Kings 17:7 - which had 2 Chronicles 20:7 - our God Psalms 95:7 - For he Psalms 105:7 - the Lord Psalms 114:1 - Israel Jeremiah 16:14 - that brought Ezekiel 20:5 - I am Ezekiel 20:10 - General Ezekiel 20:19 - the Lord Hosea 12:9 - I that Micah 6:4 - I brought Revelation 11:8 - Egypt
Cross-References
And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.
Abraham said, "I did it because I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.
Besides she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
And when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, 'This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, He is my brother.'"
Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to Abim'elech king of the Philistines.
When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, "She is my sister"; for he feared to say, "My wife," thinking, "lest the men of the place should kill me for the sake of Rebekah"; because she was fair to look upon.
And Abim'elech said to Isaac, "Go away from us; for you are much mightier than we."
But Jehu the son of Hana'ni the seer went out to meet him, and said to King Jehosh'aphat, "Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD? Because of this, wrath has gone out against you from the LORD.
Then Elie'zer the son of Do-dav'ahu of Mare'shah prophesied against Jehosh'aphat, saying, "Because you have joined with Ahazi'ah, the LORD will destroy what you have made." And the ships were wrecked and were not able to go to Tarshish.
And so in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land, God left him to himself, in order to try him and to know all that was in his heart.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
I am the Lord thy God,.... This verse does not contain the first of these commands, but is a preface to them, showing that God had a right to enact and enjoin the people of Israel laws; and that they were under obligation to attend unto them with reverence, and cheerfully obey them, since he was the Lord, the eternal and immutable Jehovah, the Being of beings, who gives being to all creatures, and gave them theirs, and therefore had a right to give them what laws he pleased; and he was their God, their covenant God, in a special and peculiar manner, their King and their God, they being a Theocracy, and so more immediately under his government, and therefore had laws given them preferable to what any other people had:
which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt: where they had been afflicted many years, and reduced to great distress, but were brought forth with an high hand, and with great riches, and in a very wonderful and miraculous manner; so that they were under great obligations to yield a ready and cheerful obedience to the will of God:
out of the house of bondage: or "servants" b; that is, where they had been servants and slaves, but now were made free, and were become a body politic, a kingdom of themselves, under their Lord, King, Lawgiver, and Saviour, Jehovah himself, and therefore to be governed by laws of his enacting; and this shows that this body of laws was delivered out to the people of Israel, and primarily belong to them; for of no other can the above things be said.
b עבדים "servorum", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
The Hebrew name which is rendered in our King James Version as the ten commandments occurs in Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 4:13; Deuteronomy 10:4. It literally means “the Ten Words.” The Ten Commandments are also called the law, even the commandment Exodus 24:12, the words of the covenant Exodus 34:28, the tables of the covenant Deuteronomy 9:9, the covenant Deuteronomy 4:13, the two tables Deuteronomy 9:10, Deuteronomy 9:17, and, most frequently, the testimony (e. g. Exodus 16:34; Exodus 25:16), or the two tables of the testimony (e. g. Exodus 31:18). In the New Testament they are called simply the commandments (e. g. Matthew 19:17). The name decalogue is found first in Clement of Alexandria, and was commonly used by the Fathers who followed him.
Thus we know that the tables were two, and that the commandments were ten, in number. But the Scriptures do not, by any direct statements, enable us to determine with precision how the Ten Commandments are severally to be made out, nor how they are to be allotted to the Two tables. On each of these points various opinions have been held (see Exodus 20:12).
Of the Words of Yahweh engraven on the tables of Stone, we have two distinct statements, one in Exodus Exodus 20:1-17 and one in Deuteronomy Deuteronomy 5:7-21, apparently of equal authority, but differing principally from each other in the fourth, the fifth, and the tenth commandments.
It has been supposed that the original commandments were all in the same terse and simple form of expression as appears (both in Exodus and Deuteronomy) in the first, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth, such as would be most suitable for recollection, and that the passages in each copy in which the most important variations are found were comments added when the books were written.
The account of the delivery of them in Exodus 19:0 and in Exodus 20:18-21 is in accordance with their importance as the recognized basis of the covenant between Yahweh and His ancient people (Exodus 34:27-28; Deuteronomy 4:13; 1 Kings 8:21, etc.), and as the divine testimony against the sinful tendencies in man for all ages. While it is here said that “God spake all these words,” and in Deuteronomy 5:4, that He “talked face to face,” in the New Testament the giving of the law is spoken of as having been through the ministration of Angels Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19; Hebrews 2:2. We can reconcile these contrasts of language by keeping in mind that God is a Spirit, and that He is essentially present in the agents who are performing His will.
Exodus 20:2
Which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage - It has been asked: Why, on this occasion, was not the Lord rather proclaimed as “the Creator of Heaven and Earth”? The answer is, Because the Ten Commandments were at this time addressed by Yahweh not merely to human creatures, but to the people whom He had redeemed, to those who had been in bondage, but were now free men Exodus 6:6-7; Exodus 19:5. The commandments are expressed in absolute terms. They are not sanctioned by outward penalties, as if for slaves, but are addressed at once to the conscience, as for free men. The well-being of the nation called for the infliction of penalties, and therefore statutes were passed to punish offenders who blasphemed the name of Yahweh, who profaned the Sabbath, or who committed murder or adultery. (See Leviticus 18:24-30 note.) But these penal statutes were not to be the ground of obedience for the true Israelite according to the covenant. He was to know Yahweh as his Redeemer, and was to obey him as such (Compare Romans 13:5).
Exodus 20:3
Before me - Literally, “before my face.” The meaning is that no god should be worshipped in addition to Yahweh. Compare Exodus 20:23. The polytheism which was the besetting sin of the Israelites did not in later times exclude Yahweh, but associated Him with false deities. (Compare the original of 1 Samuel 2:25.)
Exodus 20:4
Graven image - Any sort of image is here intended.
As the first commandment forbids the worship of any false god, seen or unseen, it is here forbidden to worship an image of any sort, whether the figure of a false deity Joshua 23:7 or one in any way symbolic of Yahweh (see Exodus 32:4). The spiritual acts of worship were symbolized in the furniture and ritual of the tabernacle and the altar, and for this end the forms of living things might be employed as in the case of the Cherubim (see Exodus 25:18 note): but the presence of the invisible God was to be marked by no symbol of Himself, but by His words written on stones, preserved in the ark in the holy of holies and covered by the mercy-seat. The ancient Persians and the earliest legislators of Rome also agreed in repudiating images of the Deity.
A jealous God - Deuteronomy 6:15; Joshua 24:19; Isaiah 42:8; Isaiah 48:11; Nahum 1:2. This reason applies to the First, as well as to the second commandment. The truth expressed in it was declared more fully to Moses when the name of Yahweh was proclaimed to him after he had interceded for Israel on account of the golden calf (Exodus 34:6-7; see the note).
Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children - (Compare Exodus 34:7; Jeremiah 32:18). Sons and remote descendants inherit the consequences of their fathers’ sins, in disease, poverty, captivity, with all the influences of bad example and evil communications. (See Leviticus 26:39; Lamentations 5:7 following) The “inherited curse” seems to fall often most heavily on the least guilty persons; but such suffering must always be free from the sting of conscience; it is not like the visitation for sin on the individual by whom the sin has been committed. The suffering, or loss of advantages, entailed on the unoffending son, is a condition under which he has to carry on the struggle of life, and, like all other inevitable conditions imposed upon men, it cannot tend to his ultimate disadvantage, if he struggles well and perseveres to the end. The principle regulating the administration of justice by earthly tribunals Deuteronomy 24:16, is carried out in spiritual matters by the Supreme Judge.
Exodus 20:6
Unto thousands - unto the thousandth generation. Yahweh’s visitations of chastisement extend to the third and fourth generation, his visitations of mercy to the thousandth; that is, forever. That this is the true rendering seems to follow from Deuteronomy 7:9; Compare 2 Samuel 7:15-16.
Exodus 20:7
Our translators make the Third commandment bear upon any profane and idle utterance of the name of God. Others give it the sense, “Thou shalt not swear falsely by the name of Jehovah thy God.” The Hebrew word which answers to “in vain” may be rendered either way. The two abuses of the sacred name seem to be distinguished in Leviticus 19:12 (see Matthew 5:33). Our King James Version is probably right in giving the rendering which is more inclusive. The caution that a breach of this commandment incurs guilt in the eyes of Yahweh is especially appropriate, in consequence of the ease with which the temptation to take God’s name “in vain” besets people in their common conversation with each other.
Exodus 20:8
Remember the sabbath day - There is no distinct evidence that the Sabbath, as a formal ordinance, was recognized before the time of Moses (compare Nehemiah 9:14; Ezekiel 20:10-12; Deuteronomy 5:15). The word “remember” may either be used in the sense of “keep in mind” what is here enjoined for the first time, or it may refer back to what is related in Exodus 16:22-26.
Exodus 20:10
The sabbath ... - a Sabbath to Yahweh thy God. The proper meaning of “sabbath” is, “rest after labor.” Compare Exodus 16:26.
Thy stranger that is within thy gates - Not a “stranger,” as is an unknown person, but a “lodger,” or “sojourner.” In this place it denotes one who had come from another people to take up his permanent abode among the Israelites, and who might have been well known to his neighbors. That the word did not primarily refer to foreign domestic servants (though all such were included under it) is to be inferred from the term used for “gates,” signifying not the doors of a private dwelling, but the gates of a town or camp.
Exodus 20:12
Honour thy father and thy mother - According to our usage, the fifth commandment is placed as the first in the second table; and this is necessarily involved in the common division of the commandments into our duty toward God and our duty toward men. But the more ancient, and probably the better, division allots five commandments to each table (compare Romans 13:9), proceeding on the distinction that the First table relates to the duties which arise from our filial relations, the second to those which arise from our fraternal relations. The connection between the first four commandments and the fifth exists in the truth that all faith in God centers in the filial feeling. Our parents stand between us and God in a way in which no other beings can. On the maintenance of parental authority, see Exodus 21:15, Exodus 21:17; Deuteronomy 21:18-21.
That thy days may be long upon the land - Filial respect is the ground of national permanence (compare Jeremiah 35:18-19; Matthew 15:4-6; Mark 7:10-11). The divine words were addressed emphatically to Israel, but they set forth a universal principle of national life Ephesians 6:2.
Exodus 20:13-14
Matthew 5:21-32 is the best comment on these two verses.
Exodus 20:15
The right of property is sanctioned in the eighth commandment by an external rule: its deeper meaning is involved in the tenth commandment.
Exodus 20:17
As the sixth, seventh, and eighth commandments forbid us to injure our neighbor in deed, the ninth forbids us to injure him in word, and the tenth, in thought. No human eye can see the coveting heart; it is witnessed only by him who possesses it and by Him to whom all things are naked and open Luke 12:15-21. But it is the root of all sins of word or deed against our neighbor James 1:14-15.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT
Against mental or theoretic idolatry.
Verse Exodus 20:2. I am the LORD thy God — יהוה אלהיך Yehovah eloheycha. On the word JEHOVAH, which we here translate LORD, Genesis 2:4, and "Exodus 6:3". And on the word Elohim, here translated GOD, Genesis 1:1. It is worthy of remark that each individual is addressed here, and not the people collectively, though they are all necessarily included; that each might feel that he was bound for himself to hear and do all these words. Moses laboured to impress this personal interest on the people's minds, when he said, Deuteronomy 5:3-4: "The Lord made this covenant with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day."
Brought thee out of the land of Egypt, &c. — And by this very thing have proved myself to be superior to all gods, unlimited in power, and most gracious as well as fearful in operation. This is the preface or introduction, but should not be separated from the commandment. Therefore, -
