1God spoke all these words, saying, 2"I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3"You shall have no other gods before me. 4"You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. 7"You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. 8"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9You shall labor six days, and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; 11for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy. 12"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. 13"You shall not murder. 14"You shall not commit adultery. 15"You shall not steal. 16"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. 17"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's." 18All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance. 19They said to Moses, "Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don't let God speak with us, lest we die." 20Moses said to the people, "Don't be afraid, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won't sin." 21The people stayed at a distance, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. 22Yahweh said to Moses, "This is what you shall tell the children of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. 23You shall most certainly not make alongside of me gods of silver, or gods of gold for yourselves. 24You shall make an altar of earth for me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I record my name I will come to you and I will bless you. 25If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stones; for if you lift up your tool on it, you have polluted it. 26Neither shall you go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed to it.'
The Book ofExodus 20Chapter XX 20
· 26 verses · 3 minute read
About this chapter
Exodus 20 — The Ten Commandments
Exodus 20 contains the Ten Commandments—the "Ten Words" (Hebrew aseret ha-devarim)—delivered on Mount Sinai to a people freshly liberated from Egyptian bondage. The structure is deliberate and instructive: the first four commandments govern our relationship with God (exclusivity, images, the divine name, the Sabbath), while the remaining six govern our relationships with one another (parents, life, marriage, property, truth, and desire). This order is no accident—love for God precedes and establishes the foundation for love of neighbor. The prologue is essential to everything that follows: "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Here we see the fundamental principle: law comes after grace, never before it. God first liberates, then guides. The commandments are not conditions for acceptance but rather the grateful response of those already redeemed. Christ did not abolish this law; He summarized it into two great commandments (Matthew 22:37–40) and deepened each one in the Sermon on the Mount—revealing that murder begins in hatred, adultery begins in the glance, and that the human heart is the true battlefield. These words, carved in stone and written on the conscience, remain the moral foundation upon which Western civilization was built and by which all believers are called to live.
Mount Sinai, circa 1446 BC (traditional chronology). Israel had just emerged from 430 years of slavery. The Ten Commandments inaugurate the Old Covenant and establish the ethical foundation of Western civilization.
Read this to understand biblical morality at its source—and to see that it begins not with demand, but with deliverance.
Key verses in Exodus 20
Exodus 20:13Exodus 20:3Exodus 20:14
Explore each verse of Exodus 20
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