Exodus 19:18–23:33

¹⁸Now ^xMount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon ^yit in fire. ^zIts smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and ³the ^awhole mountain quaked greatly. ¹⁹And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, ^bMoses spoke, and ^cGod answered him by voice. ²⁰Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

²¹And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through ^dto gaze at the Lord, and many of them perish. ²²Also let the ^epriests who come near the Lord ^fconsecrate themselves, lest the Lord ^gbreak out against them.”

²³But Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai; for You warned us, saying, ^h‘Set bounds around the mountain and consecrate it.’ ”

²⁴Then the Lord said to him, “Away! Get down and then come up, you and Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest He break out against them.” ²⁵So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.

The Ten Commandments

20And God spoke ^aall these words, saying:

^2b“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, ^cout of the house of ¹bondage.

^3d“You shall have no other gods before Me.

^4e“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—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; ^5fyou shall not bow down to them nor ²serve them. ^gFor I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, ^hvisiting ³the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, ⁶but ⁱshowing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

^7j“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord ^kwill not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

^8l“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ^9mSix days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰but the ⁿseventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, ^onor your stranger who is within your gates. ¹¹For ^pin six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

^12q“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be ^rlong upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

^13s“You shall not murder.

^14t“You shall not commit ^uadultery.

^15v“You shall not steal.

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

^17x“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; ^yyou 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.”

The People Afraid of God’s Presence

¹⁸Now ^zall the people ^awitnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain ^bsmoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. ¹⁹Then they said to Moses, ^c“You speak with us, and we will hear; but ^dlet not God speak with us, lest we die.”

²⁰And Moses said to the people, ^e“Do not fear; ^ffor God has come to test you, and ^gthat His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.” ²¹So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near ^hthe thick darkness where God was.

The Law of the Altar

²²Then the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘You have seen that I have talked with you ⁱfrom heaven. ²³You shall not make anything to be ^jwith Me—gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves. ²⁴An altar of ^kearth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, ^lyour sheep and your oxen. In every ^mplace where I ⁴record My name I will come to you, and I will ⁿbless you. ²⁵And ^oif you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you ^puse your tool on it, you have profaned it. ²⁶Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your ^qnakedness may not be exposed on it.’

The Law Concerning Servants

21“Now these are the ¹judgments which you shall ^aset before them: ^2bIf you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing. ³If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. ⁴If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself. ^5cBut if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ ⁶then his master shall bring him to the ^djudges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.

⁷“And if a man ^esells his daughter to be a female slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. ⁸If she ²does not please her master, who has betrothed her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt deceitfully with her. ⁹And if he has betrothed her to his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters. ¹⁰If he takes another wife, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, ^fand her marriage rights. ¹¹And if he does not do these three for her, then she shall go out free, without paying money.

The Law Concerning Violence

^12g“He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. ¹³However, ^hif he did not lie in wait, but God ⁱdelivered him into his hand, then ^jI will appoint for you a place where he may flee.

¹⁴“But if a man acts with ^kpremeditation against his neighbor, to kill him by treachery, ^lyou shall take him from My altar, that he may die.

¹⁵“And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

^16m“He who kidnaps a man and ⁿsells him, or if he is ^ofound in his hand, shall surely be put to death.

¹⁷“And ^phe who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

¹⁸“If men contend with each other, and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but is confined to his bed, ¹⁹if he rises again and walks about outside ^qwith his staff, then he who struck him shall be ³acquitted. He shall only pay for the loss of his time, and shall provide for him to be thoroughly healed.

²⁰“And if a man beats his male or female servant with a rod, so that he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished. ²¹Notwithstanding, if he remains alive a day or two, he shall not be punished; for he is his ^rproperty.

²²“If men ⁴fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that ⁵she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman’s husband imposes on him; and he shall ^spay as the judges determine. ²³But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, ^24teye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

²⁶“If a man strikes the eye of his male or female servant, and destroys it, he shall let him go free for the sake of his eye. ²⁷And if he knocks out the tooth of his male or female servant, he shall let him go free for the sake of his tooth.

Animal Control Laws

²⁸“If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, then ^uthe ox shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be ⁶acquitted. ²⁹But if the ox ⁷tended to thrust with its horn in times past, and it has been made known to his owner, and he has not kept it confined, so that it has killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner also shall be put to death. ³⁰If there is imposed on him a sum of money, then he shall pay ^vto redeem his life, whatever is imposed on him. ³¹Whether it has gored a son or gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him. ³²If the ox gores a male or female servant, he shall give to their master ^wthirty shekels of silver, and the ^xox shall be stoned.

³³“And if a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls in it, ³⁴the owner of the pit shall make it good; he shall give money to their owner, but the dead animal shall be his.

³⁵“If one man’s ox hurts another’s, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide the money from it; and the dead ox they shall also divide. ³⁶Or if it was known that the ox tended to thrust in time past, and its owner has not kept it confined, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead animal shall be his own.

Responsibility for Property

22“If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and slaughters it or sells it, he shall ^arestore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. ²If the thief is found ^bbreaking in, and he is struck so that he dies, there shall be ^cno guilt for his bloodshed. ³If the sun has risen on him, there shall be guilt for his bloodshed. He should make full restitution; if he has nothing, then he shall be ^dsold ¹for his theft. ⁴If the theft is certainly ^efound alive in his hand, whether it is an ox or donkey or sheep, he shall ^frestore double.

⁵“If a man causes a field or vineyard to be grazed, and lets loose his animal, and it feeds in another man’s field, he shall make restitution from the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard.

⁶“If fire breaks out and catches in thorns, so that stacked grain, standing grain, or the field is consumed, he who kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.

⁷“If a man ^gdelivers to his neighbor money or articles to keep, and it is stolen out of the man’s house, ^hif the thief is found, he shall pay double. ⁸If the thief is not found, then the master of the house shall be brought to the ⁱjudges to see whether he has put his hand into his neighbor’s goods.

⁹“For any kind of trespass, …