Exodus 20–21

The Ten Commandments

20^zAnd ^aGod spoke all these words, saying,

^2b“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

^3c“You shall have no other gods before¹ me.

^4d“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ^5eYou shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am ^fa jealous God, ^gvisiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶but showing steadfast love to thousands² of those who love me and keep my commandments.

^7h“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

⁸ⁱ“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ^9jSix days you shall labor, and do all your work, ¹⁰but the ^kseventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the ^lsojourner who is within your gates. ¹¹For ^min six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

¹²ⁿ“Honor your father and your mother, ^othat your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

^13p“You shall not murder.³

^14q“You shall not commit adultery.

^15r“You shall not steal.

^16s“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

^17t“You shall not covet ^uyour neighbor’s house; ^vyou shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

¹⁸Now when all the people saw ^wthe thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid⁴ and trembled, and they stood far off ¹⁹and said to Moses, ^x“You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” ^20yMoses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to ^ztest you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” ²¹The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the ^athick darkness where God was.

Laws About Altars

²²And the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have ^btalked with you from heaven. ^23cYou shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. ²⁴An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. ^dIn every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and ^ebless you. ^25fIf you make me an altar of stone, ^gyou shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it. ²⁶And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.’

Laws About Slaves

21“Now these are the ^hrules that you shall set before them. ²ⁱWhen you buy a Hebrew slave,¹ he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. ³If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. ⁴If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out alone. ⁵But ^jif the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ ⁶then his master shall bring him to ^kGod, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.

⁷“When a man ^lsells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. ⁸If she does not please her master, who has designated her² for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her. ⁹If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. ¹⁰If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or ^mher marital rights. ¹¹And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.

¹²ⁿ“Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. ^13oBut if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then ^pI will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. ¹⁴But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, ^qyou shall take him from my altar, that he may die.

¹⁵“Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.

^16r“Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found ^sin possession of him, shall be put to death.

^17t“Whoever curses³ his father or his mother shall be put to death.

¹⁸“When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed, ¹⁹then if the man rises again and walks outdoors with his staff, he who struck him shall be clear; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall have him thoroughly healed.

²⁰“When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. ²¹But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the ^uslave is his money.

²²“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and ^vhe shall pay as the ^wjudges determine. ²³But if there is harm,⁴ then you shall pay ^xlife for life, ^24yeye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

²⁶“When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye. ²⁷If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth.

²⁸“When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ^zox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall not be liable. ²⁹But if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death. ³⁰If ^aa ransom is imposed on him, then ^vhe shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed on him. ³¹If it gores a man’s son or daughter, he shall be dealt with according to this same rule. ³²If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master ^bthirty shekels⁵ of silver, and ^zthe ox shall be stoned.

Laws About Restitution

³³“When a man opens a pit, or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, ³⁴the owner of the pit shall make restoration. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead beast shall be his.

³⁵“When one man’s ox butts another’s, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and share its price, and the dead beast also they shall share. ³⁶Or if it is known that the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he shall repay ox for ox, and the dead beast shall be his.