Deuteronomy 5

Moses called all Israel and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments that I speak in your hearing today. Learn them and be careful to do them. The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, all of us here alive today. The LORD spoke with you face to face at the mountain from the midst of the fire. I was standing between the LORD and you at that time to declare the LORD’s word to you, for you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain. He said: ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything in the heavens above, or on the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold guiltless anyone who takes his name in vain. Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work: you, your son, your daughter, your male slave, your female slave, your ox, your donkey, any of your livestock, or the resident foreigner within your gates, so that your male slave and your female slave may rest as you do. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that your days may be long and it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. You shall not murder. Neither shall you commit adultery. Neither shall you steal. Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor. Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife, nor desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male slave, his female slave, his ox, his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’ These words the LORD spoke to your whole assembly at the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick gloom, with a loud voice, and he added no more. He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. When you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, all the heads of your tribes and your elders came near to me, and you said, ‘Look, the LORD our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire. Today we have seen that God speaks with a human being, and that person lives. Now why should we die? This great fire will consume us. If we continue to hear the voice of the LORD our God, we will die. For who of all flesh has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? You go near and hear all that the LORD our God says. Then tell us all that the LORD our God speaks to you, and we will hear and do it.’ The LORD heard the sound of your words when you spoke to me. The LORD said to me, ‘I have heard the sound of the words this people has spoken to you. All that they have said is good. Oh, that they had such a heart to fear me and keep all my commandments always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever! Go and tell them, “Return to your tents.” But you, stand here with me, and I will speak to you the whole commandment, the statutes and the judgments, which you shall teach them, so that they may do them in the land I am giving them to possess.’ You shall be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you. You shall turn neither to the right nor to the left. You shall walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live, that it may go well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land you will possess.

Rights and attribution