⁴“You must not make for yourselves an idol that looks like anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the water below the land. ⁵You must not worship or serve any idol, because I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. If you hate me, I will punish your children, and even your grandchildren and great-grandchildren. ⁶But I show kindness to thousands who love me and obey my commands.

⁷“You must not use the name of the Lord your God thoughtlessly; the Lord will punish anyone who misuses his name.

⁸“Remember to keep the Sabbath holy. ⁹Work and get everything done during six days each week, ¹⁰but the seventh day is a day of rest to honor the Lord your God. On that day no one may do any work: not you, your son or daughter, your male or female slaves, your animals, or the foreigners living in your cities. ¹¹The reason is that in six days the Lord made everything—the sky, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. On the seventh day he rested. So the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

¹²“Honor your father and your mother so that you will live a long time in the land that the Lord your God is going to give you.

¹³“You must not murder anyone.

¹⁴“You must not be guilty of adultery.

¹⁵“You must not steal.

¹⁶“You must not tell lies about your neighbor.

¹⁷“You must not want to take your neighbor’s house. You must not want his wife or his male or female slaves, or his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

¹⁸When the people heard the thunder and the trumpet, and when they saw the lightning and the smoke rising from the mountain, they shook with fear and stood far away from the mountain. ¹⁹Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself, and we will listen. But don’t let God speak to us, or we will die.”

²⁰Then Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid, because God has come to test you. He wants you to respect him so you will not sin.”

²¹The people stood far away from the mountain while Moses went near the dark cloud where God was. ²²Then the Lord told Moses to say these things to the Israelites: “You yourselves have seen that I talked with you from heaven. ²³You must not use gold or silver to make idols for yourselves; do not worship these gods in addition to me.

²⁴“Make an altar of dirt for me, and sacrifice on it your whole burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and your cattle. Worship me in every place that I choose, and I will come and bless you. ²⁵If you use stones to make an altar for me, don’t use stones that you have shaped with tools. When you use any tools on them, you make them unsuitable for use in worship. ²⁶And you must not go up to my altar on steps, or people will be able to see under your clothes.”

Laws for Living

21Then God said to Moses, “These are the laws for living that you will give to the Israelites:

²“If you buy a Hebrew slave, he will serve you for six years. In the seventh year you are to set him free, and he will have to pay nothing. ³If he is not married when he becomes your slave, he must leave without a wife. But if he is married when he becomes your slave, he may take his wife with him. ⁴If the slave’s master gives him a wife, and she gives birth to sons or daughters, the woman and her children will belong to the master. When the slave is set free, only he may leave.

⁵“But if the slave says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children, and I don’t want to go free,’ ⁶then the slave’s master must take him to God. The master is to take him to a door or doorframe and punch a hole through the slave’s ear using a sharp tool. Then the slave will serve that master all his life.

⁷“If a man sells his daughter as a slave, the rules for setting her free are different from the rules for setting the male slaves free. ⁸If the master wanted to marry her but then decided he was not pleased with her, he must let one of her close relatives buy her back. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has treated her unfairly. ⁹If the man who bought her promises to let the woman marry his son, he must treat her as a daughter. ¹⁰If the man who bought her marries another woman, he must not keep his first wife from having food or clothing or sexual relations. ¹¹If he does not give her these three things, she may go free, and she owes him no money.

Laws About Injuries

¹²“Anyone who hits a person and kills him must be put to death. ¹³But if a person kills someone accidentally, God allowed that to happen, so the person must go to a place I will choose. ¹⁴But if someone plans and murders another person on purpose, put him to death, even if he has run to my altar for safety.

¹⁵“Anyone who hits his father or his mother must be put to death.

¹⁶“Anyone who kidnaps someone and either sells him as a slave or still has him when he is caught must be put to death.

¹⁷“Anyone who says cruel things to his father or mother must be put to death.

¹⁸“If two men argue, and one hits the other with a rock or with his fist, the one who is hurt but not killed might have to stay in bed. ¹⁹Later if he is able to get up and walk around outside with his walking stick, the one who hit him is not to be punished. But he must pay the injured man for the loss of his time, and he must support the injured man until he is completely healed.

²⁰“If a man beats his male or female slave with a stick, and the slave dies on the spot, the owner must be punished. ²¹But if the slave gets well after a day or two, the owner will not be punished since the slave belongs to him.

²²“Suppose two men are fighting and hit a pregnant woman, causing the baby to come out. If there is no further injury, the man who caused the accident must pay money—whatever amount the woman’s husband says and the court allows. ²³But if there is further injury, then the punishment that must be paid is life for life, ²⁴eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵burn for burn, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise.

²⁶“If a man hits his male or female slave in the eye, and the eye is blinded, the man is to free the slave to pay for the eye. ²⁷If a master knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, the man is to free the slave to pay for the tooth.

²⁸“If a man’s bull kills a man or woman, you must kill that bull by throwing stones at it, and you should not eat the bull. But the owner of the bull is not guilty. ²⁹However, suppose the bull has hurt people in the past and the owner, though warned, did not keep it in a pen. Then if it kills a man or woman, the bull must be stoned to death, and the owner must also be put to death. ³⁰But if the family of the dead person accepts money, the one who owned the bull may buy back his life, but he must pay whatever is demanded. ³¹Use this same law if the bull kills a person’s son or daughter. ³²If the bull kills a male or female slave, the owner must pay the master the price for a new slave, or twelve ounces of silver, and the bull must also be stoned to death.

³³“If a man takes the cover off a pit, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and another man’s ox or donkey comes and falls into it, ³⁴the owner of the pit must pay the owner of the animal for the loss. The dead animal will belong to the one who pays.

³⁵“If a man’s bull kills another man’s bull, they must sell the bull that is alive. Both men will get half of the money and half of the bull that was killed. ³⁶But if a person’s bull has hurt other animals in the past and the owner did not keep it in a pen, that owner must pay bull for bull, and the dead animal is his.

Property Laws

22“If a man steals a bull or a sheep and kills or sells it, he must pay back five bulls for the one bull he stole and four sheep for the one sheep he stole.

^2–4“The robber who is caught must pay back what he stole. If he owns nothing, he must be sold as a slave to pay for what he stole. If the stolen animal is found alive with the robber, he must give the owner two animals for every animal he stole, whether it was a bull, donkey, or sheep.

“If a thief is killed while breaking into a house at night, the one who killed him is not guilty of murder. But if this happens during the day, he is guilty of murder.

⁵“If a man lets his farm animal graze in his field or vineyard, and it wanders into another man’s field or vineyard, the owner of the animal must pay back the loss from the best of his crop.

⁶“Suppose a man starts a fire that spreads through the thornbushes to his neighbor’s field. If the fire burns his neighbor’s growing grain or grain that has been stacked, or if it burns his whole field, the person who started the fire must pay for what was burned.

⁷“Suppose a man gives his neighbor money or other things to keep for him and those things are stolen from the neighbor’s house. If the thief is caught, he must pay back twice as much as he stole. ⁸But if the thief is never found, the owner of the house must make a promise before God that he has not stolen his neighbor’s things.

⁹“Suppose two men disagree about who owns something—whether ox, donkey, sheep, clothing, or something else that is lost. If each says, ‘This is mine,’ each man must bring his case to God. God’s judges will decide who is guilty, and that person must pay the other man twice as much as the object is worth.

¹⁰“Suppose a man asks his neighbor to keep his donkey, ox, sheep, or some other animal for him, and that animal dies, gets hurt, or is taken away, without anyone seeing what happened. ¹¹That neighbor must promise before the Lord that he did not harm or kill the other man’s animal, and the owner of the animal must accept his promise made before God. The neighbor does not have to pay the owner for the animal. ¹²But if the animal was stolen from the neighbor, he must pay the owner for it. ¹³If wild animals killed it, the neighbor must bring the body as…

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