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Sunday, January 19, 2025

Chapter 20: 10 Words brought to the wandering people down Mount Sinai

also known as "The Decalogue"

Chapter 20  Second Book of the Torah

modern translation (1966) Jerusalem Bible

undertaken from a French Ecole Biblique

Then God spoke all these words.  He said,

I am Yahweh your God who brought you

out of the land of Egypt, out of the house

of slavery.

You shall have no _gods except me.

You shall not make yourself a carved image

or any likeness of anything in heaven or on

earth beneath or in the waters under the earth;

you shall not bow down to them or serve them.

For I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God

and I punish the father's fault in the sons,

the grandsons, and the great-grandsons of

those who hate me; but I show kindness to

thousands of those who love me and keep

my commandments.

You shall not utter the name of Yahweh your

God to misuse it, for Yahweh will not leave

unpunished the man who utters his name

to misuse it.

Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

For six days you shall labor and do all your

work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath for 

Yahweh your God.  You shall do not work

that day, neither you nor your son nor your

daughter nor your servants, men or women, 

nor your animals, nor the stranger who lives

with you.  For in six days Yahweh made the heavens

and the earth and the sea and all that these

hold, but on the seventh day he rested; that

is why Yahweh has blessed the sabbath day 

and made it sacred.

Honor your Father and your mother so that

you may have a long life in the land that

Yahweh your God has given to you.

You shall not kill.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your

neighbor.

You shall not covet your neighbor's house.

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or 

his servant, man or woman, or his ox, or his

donkey, or anything that is his.

All the people shook with fear at the peals of

thunder and the lightning flashes, the sound of 

the trumpet, and the smoking mountain; and

they kept their distance.  "Speak to us yourself,"

they said to Moses "and we will listen but do not

let God speak to us, or we shall die."  Moses

answered the people,

"Do not be afraid; God has come to test you,

so that your fear of him, being always in your

mind, may keep you from sinning." So the people

kept their distance while Moses approached the

dark cloud where God was.

Yahweh said to Moses, "Tell the sons of Israel

this, 'You have seen for yourselves that I have

spoken to you from heaven.  You shall not make

_gods of silver or _gods of gold to stand beside

me; you shall not make things like this for 

yourselves.  You are to make me an altar of

earth, and sacrifice on this the holocausts and

communion sacrifices from your flocks or herds.

If you make me an altar of stone, do not build

it of dressed stones; for if you use a tool on it,

you profane it.  You shall not go up to my altar

by steps for fear you expose your nakedness.'"

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