Deuteronomy 5

1 Moses/I summoned all the people of Israel and said to them, “You Israeli people, listen to all the rules and regulations that I am giving to you today. Learn them and be sure to obey them.

And Moses sent for all Israel, and said to them, Give ear, O Israel, to the laws and the decisions which I give you today, and give attention to them so that you may keep and do them.

2 When we were at Sinai [Mountain], Yahweh our God made an agreement with us.

The Lord our God made an agreement with us in Horeb.

3 But this agreement was not only for our ancestors. He made it also for us who are alive now.

The Lord did not make this agreement with our fathers but with us, who are all living and present here today.

4 Yahweh spoke with us face-to-face on that mountain, from the middle of the fire.

The word of the Lord came to you face to face on the mountain, out of the heart of the fire,

5 On that day, I stood between your ancestors and Yahweh to tell them what he said, because they were afraid of the fire, and they did not climb up the mountain. This is what Yahweh said:

(I was between the Lord and you at that time, to make clear to you the word of the Lord: because, through fear of the fire, you did not go up the mountain; ) saying,

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

I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house.

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

You are to have no other gods but me.

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

You may not make for yourselves an image in the form of anything in heaven or on earth or in the waters under the earth:

9 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 punish those who sin and hate me. I punish not only them, but I will punish (their descendants, down to the third and fourth generation/their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren).

You may not go down on your faces before them or give them worship: for I, the Lord your God, am a God who will not give his honour to another; and I will send punishment on the children for the wrongdoing of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation of my haters;

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

And I will have mercy through a thousand generations on those who have love for me and keep my laws.

11 Do not use/speak 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/speak my name for wrong/evil purposes [LIT].

You are not to make use of the name of the Lord your God for an evil purpose; whoever takes the Lord's name on his lips for an evil purpose will be judged as a sinner by the Lord.

12 Do not forget that the seventh day [of every week] is mine. Dedicate those days to me just like I, Yahweh your God, am commanding you.

Keep the Sabbath day as a holy day, as you have been ordered by the Lord your God.

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

On six days do all your work:

14 but the seventh day is a rest day, a day dedicated to me, Yahweh your God. 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 tell foreigners to work, those who are living in your country. You must allow your slaves to rest on that day just like you do.

But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on that day do no work, you or your son or your daughter, or your man-servant or your woman-servant, or your ox or your ass or any of your cattle, or the man from a strange country who is living among you; so that your man-servant and your woman-servant may have rest as well as you.

15 Do not forget that you were slaves in Egypt, and that I, Yahweh your God, brought you out from there by my very great power. [DOU, MTY] That is the reason that I am commanding that [all of] you must rest on the seventh/Sabbath day [each week].

And keep in mind that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God took you out of that land by his strong hand and his stretched-out arm: for this reason the Lord has given you orders to keep the Sabbath day.

16 Honor/Respect your fathers and your mothers, just like I, Yahweh your God, am commanding you, in order that you may live a long time in the land that I, Yahweh your God, will give you, and in order that things will go well for you there.

Give honour to your father and your mother, as you have been ordered by the Lord your God; so that your life may be long and all may be well for you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

17 Do not murder anyone.

Do not put anyone to death without cause.

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

Do not be false to the married relation.

19 Do not steal anything.

Do not take the property of another.

20 Do not tell lies about anyone [when you are speaking in a court].

Do not give false witness against your neighbour;

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

Or let your desire be turned to your neighbour's wife, or his house or his field or his man-servant or his woman-servant or his ox or his ass or anything which is your neighbour's.

22 Those are the commandments that Yahweh spoke to your ancestors. When they were gathered there at [the bottom of] the mountain, he spoke with a very loud voice from the middle of the fire, and there were dark clouds surrounding the mountain. He spoke only those [ten] commandments, no more. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

These words the Lord said to all of you together on the mountain, out of the heart of the fire, out of the cloud and the dark, with a great voice: and he said no more; he put them in writing on the two stones of the law and gave them to me.

23 After your ancestors heard [Yahweh’s] voice when he spoke to them out of the darkness, while there was a big fire burning on the mountain, their leaders and elders came to me,

And after hearing the voice which came out of the dark while the mountain was burning with fire, all the heads of your tribes and your chiefs came to me,

24 and [one of] them said, ‘Listen to us! Yahweh our God showed us that he is very great and glorious when we heard him speak [MTY] from the fire. Today we have realized that it is possible for us humans to continue to live even though God has spoken to us.

And said, The Lord has let us see his glory and his power, and his voice has come to us out of the fire: today we have seen that a man may go on living even after hearing the voice of God.

25 But we are afraid that we will die [RHQ] if we hear Yahweh our God speak [MTY] to us again; his terrible fire will destroy/kill us.

Why then is death to be our fate? For if the voice of the Lord our God comes to us any more, death will overtake us, and we will be burned up in this great fire.

26 (Who has/Certainly no human has) remained alive after hearing the all-powerful God speak [MTY] to them from a fire.

For what man is there in all the earth, who, hearing the voice of the living God as we have, out of the heart of the fire, has been kept from death?

27 [So Moses], you go [up the mountain] and listen to everything that Yahweh our God will say. Then [come back and] tell us everything that he has said, and we will listen to what he has said and obey it.’

Do you go near: and after hearing everything which the Lord our God has to say, give us an account of all he has said to you, and we will give ear, and do it.

28 Yahweh heard your leaders say that, so [when I went back up the mountain], Yahweh said to me, ‘I have heard what your leaders have said, and what they have said is right/correct.

Then the Lord, hearing your words to me, said to me, The words which this people have said to you have come to my ears: what they have said is well said.

29 I surely wish that they would always think like that and revere me and obey all my commandments, in order that things may go well for them and for their descendants forever.

If only they had such a heart in them at all times, so that they might go in fear of me and keep my orders and that it might be well for them and for their children for ever!

30 So go [down] and tell them to return to their tents.

Now say to them, Go back to your tents.

31 But [then] you [come back up here and] stand near me, and I will give to you all the rules and regulations that I [want them to obey]. Then you can teach them to the people, in order that they will obey them when they are in the land that I am giving to them.’

But as for you, keep your place here by me, and I will give you all the orders and the laws and the decisions which you are to make clear to them, so that they may do them in the land which I am giving them for their heritage.

32 [So I went back down to the people, and I said to them], ‘Be sure that you do everything that Yahweh our God has commanded us to do. Do not disobey any of his laws.

Take care, then, to do whatever the Lord your God has given you orders to do; let there be no turning away to the right hand or to the left.

33 Conduct your lives as Yahweh our God has commanded us to do, in order that you may live a long time, and in order that things will go well for you [when you are living] in the land that you will occupy.’”

Go on walking in the way ordered for you by the Lord your God, so that life may be yours and it may be well for you, and your days may be long in the land of your heritage.