Exodus 20

1 God spoke all these words, saying,

Then God said this [to the Israeli people: ]

2 "I am YHWH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

“I am Yahweh God, the one you [worship]. I am the one who brought you out of Egypt. I am the one who freed you from being slaves [there].

3 Do not have other gods before me.

[So] you must worship [only] me; you must not worship any other god.

4 "Do 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:

You must not carve/make for yourselves any idol that represents anything in the sky or that is on the ground or that is in the water under the ground/earth.

5 you must not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, YHWH your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and upon the children's children, on the third and on the fourth [generation] of those who hate me,

You must not bow down to any idol and worship it, because I am Yahweh God, and I (am very jealous/want you to worship me only). I will punish those who sin and hate me. I will punish not only them, but I will punish (their descendants, down to the third and fourth generation/their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren).

6 and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

But I will steadfastly love thousands of generations of those who love me and obey my commandments (OR, I will love for thousands of generations.)

7 "Do not take the name of YHWH your God in vain, for YHWH will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Do not use my name carelessly (OR, for wrong/evil purposes), because I am Yahweh God, the one whom you [should worship], and I will certainly punish those who use my name for wrong/evil purposes [LIT].

8 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Do not forget that the seventh day [of every week] is mine, so dedicate those days to me.

9 Six days you may labor, and do all your work,

There are six days each week for you to do all your work,

10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to YHWH your God. You must 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;

but the seventh day is a day of rest, a day dedicated to me, Yahweh God, the one whom you [should worship]. On that day you must not do any work. You and your sons and daughters and your male and female slaves must not work. You must not even force your livestock to work, and you must not allow foreigners to work, those who are living in your country.

11 for in six days YHWH made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore YHWH blessed the seventh day, and made it holy.

I, Yahweh, created the sky, the earth, the ocean, and everything that is in them, in six days. Then I stopped my work of creating everything, and rested on the seventh day. That is the reason that I, Yahweh, have blessed the rest day and set it apart [to be a sacred/special day].

12 "Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you, that your days may be long in the land which YHWH your God gives you.

Honor/Respect your fathers and your mothers, in order that you may live a long time in the land that I, Yahweh God, will give you.

13 "Do not commit adultery.

Do not murder anyone.

14 "Do not murder.

Do not (commit adultery/have sex with anyone other than your spouse).

15 "Do not steal.

Do not steal anything.

16 "Do not give false testimony against your neighbor.

Do not falsely accuse anyone [of committing a crime].

17 "Do not covet your neighbor's house. Do 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."

Do not (covet/desire to have) someone else’s house, someone else’s wife, someone else’s male or female slave, someone else’s livestock, someone else’s donkeys, or anything else that some other person owns.”

18 And all the people saw the thunder and the lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, and the people were afraid and trembled and kept their distance.

When the people heard the thunder and saw the lightning, and when they heard the sound of the trumpet and saw the smoke on the mountain, they were afraid and trembled. They stood at a distance,

19 They said to Moses, "Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but do not let God speak with us, lest we die."

and said to Moses/me, “If you speak to us, we will listen. But do not let God speak any more to us. [We are afraid that] if he speaks [any more] to us, we will die.”

20 Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won't sin."

Moses/I replied, “Do not be afraid! God has come to determine/test [how you will behave]. He wants you to revere him, and to not sin.”

21 The people stayed at a distance, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

Then, as the people [watched from] a distance, Moses/I went close to the black cloud where God was.

22 YHWH 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.

Yahweh said to Moses/me, “Say this to the Israeli people: ‘You have heard how I, Yahweh, have spoken to you from heaven. I told you that you must not make any idols of silver or gold [that you will worship instead] of me.

23 You shall most certainly not make alongside of me gods of silver, or gods of gold for yourselves.

24 You 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.

Make for me an altar from dirt. Sacrifice on it the animals that you will burn completely. Also sacrifice on it the animals that you will not burn completely, to maintain fellowship with me. Worship me [MTY] in any place that I choose for you to honor/worship me; and if you do that, I will come to you and bless you.

25 If 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.

If you make for me an altar from stones, do not make it from stones that you have cut [to make them look nice], because you will make the altar unsuitable for [worshiping] me if you use tools to cut the stones.

26 Neither shall you go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed to it.'

Do not make an altar that has steps in front of it, because if you do that, [people] could see your naked [buttocks] as you go up the steps.’”