I really want to do this well because I am likely to refer back to this chapter/post many times over the next few months or years. The Ten Commandments are often used as shorthand for the entire Law. This is a pivotal moment, much like the night of the Passover, in the history of Israel. Having the Law – and hopefully, at least sometimes – keeping the Law is what makes Israel God’s people and distinguishes them from every other people and nation on the earth.

Here is the article I mention in the audio about the Catholic version of the 10 Commandments. I would have mentioned this fact even if they had not just elected a new pope, the first American pope, Leo XIV.

Below the Bible text are several links to different versions found at Bible Gateway.

Exodus 20

God spoke all these words:

2 I am the LORD your God, which has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

3 You shall have no other gods before me.

4 You shall not make for yourself any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

5 You shall not bow down to them, nor 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 generation of them that hate me;

6 And showing mercy to thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

7 You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain.

8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work:

10 But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant,  nor your maidservant, nor your livestock, nor the stranger that is within your gates:

11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

12 Honor your father and your mother: that your days may be long in the land which the LORD God gives you.

13 You shall not murder.

14 You shall not commit adultery.

15 You shall not steal.

16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.

18 All the people witnessed the thundering and the lightning, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood at a distance. 

19 And they said to Moses “You speak with us, and we will hear: but do not let God speak with us, lest we die.”

20 Moses said unto the people “Do not be afraid: for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that you do not sin.”

21 And the people stood far off, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

22 The LORD said to Moses “Say this to the children of Israel: “You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.

23 You shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.

24 You shall make an altar of earth for me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings, and your peace offerings, your sheep, and your oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come to you, and I will bless you.

25 And if you will make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stone: for if you wield your tool on it, you will pollute it.

26 Neither shall you go up by steps to my altar, so that your nakedness is not exposed on it. 

You can always read one or two translations, you don’t have to look at all them on the same page at once like I do. You can read Exodus 20 in the English Standard Version, or the Holman Christian Standard Bible, the New American Standard Bible or in the New International Version. Or here they are side-by-side. You can also add, change or take away from the parallel display.