Exodus 20
1 Then God said this [to the Israeli people: ]
And God said all these words:
2 “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].
I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house.
3 [So] you must worship [only] me; you must not worship any other god.
You are to have no other gods but me.
4 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.
You are not to make an image or picture of anything in heaven or on the earth or in the waters under the earth:
5 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).
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;
6 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.)
And I will have mercy through a thousand generations on those who have love for me and keep my laws.
7 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].
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 a sinner by the Lord
8 Do not forget that the seventh day [of every week] is mine, so dedicate those days to me.
Keep in memory the Sabbath and let it be a holy day.
9 There are six days each week for you to do all your work,
On six days do all your work:
10 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.
But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on that day you are to do no work, you or your son or your daughter, your man-servant or your woman-servant, your cattle or the man from a strange country who is living among you:
11 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].
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and everything in them, and he took his rest on the seventh day: for this reason the Lord has given his blessing to the seventh day and made it holy.
12 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.
Give honour to your father and to your mother, so that your life may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
13 Do not murder anyone.
Do not put anyone to death without cause.
14 Do not (commit adultery/have sex with anyone other than your spouse).
Do not be false to the married relation.
15 Do not steal anything.
Do not take the property of another.
16 Do not falsely accuse anyone [of committing a crime].
Do not give false witness against your neighbour.
17 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.”
Let not your desire be turned to your neighbour's house, or his wife or his man-servant or his woman-servant or his ox or his ass or anything which is his.
18 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,
And all the people were watching the thunderings and the flames and the sound of the horn and the mountain smoking; and when they saw it, they kept far off, shaking with fear.
19 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.”
And they said to Moses, To your words we will give ear, but let not the voice of God come to our ears, for fear death may come on us.
20 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.”
And Moses said to the people, Have no fear: for God has come to put you to the test, so that fearing him you may be kept from sin.
21 Then, as the people [watched from] a distance, Moses/I went close to the black cloud where God was.
And the people kept their places far off, but Moses went near to the dark cloud where God was.
22 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.
And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, You yourselves have seen that my voice has come to you from heaven
Gods of silver and gods of gold you are not to make for yourselves.
24 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.
Make for me an altar of earth, offering on it your burned offerings and your peace-offerings, your sheep and your oxen: in every place where I have put the memory of my name, I will come to you and give you my blessing.
25 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.
And if you make me an altar of stone do not make it of cut stones: for the touch of an instrument will make it unclean.
26 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.’”
And do not go up by steps to my altar, for fear that your bodies may be seen uncovered.
