The Ten Statements / Commandments

Saturday September 19, 2026

• I the ETERNAL am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage:
• You shall have no other gods besides Me.
• You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth.
• You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I the ETERNAL your God am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me,
• but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
• You shall not swear falsely by the name of the ETERNAL your God; for GOD will not clear one who swears falsely by that name.
• Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy.
• Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
• but the seventh day is a sabbath of the ETERNAL your God: you shall not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements.
• For in six days GOD made heaven and earth and sea—and all that is in them—and then rested on the seventh day; therefore GOD blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.
• Honor your father and your mother, that you may long endure on the land that your ETERNAL God is assigning to you.
• You shall not murder.
  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 male or female slave, or ox or donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

This is Exodus chapter 20, verses 2-14 from the 2023 English version from the Jewish Publication Society. It corresponds to what is called in Hebrew “The Ten Statements” and in Christian tradition “The Ten Commandments.” Perhaps Moses wrote this in the 15th century BCE, or perhaps others wrote it in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE.