The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments are recorded in chapter 20 of Exodus and in chapter 5 of Deuteronomy. The Old Testament calls them “the words of the covenant” (Exod 34:28) and “the ten words” (Exod 34:28; Deut 4:13); the New Testament calls them “the commandments”, in Greek ἐντολαί (Matt 19:17; Rom 13:9). Today they are often called the Decalogue, from the Greek δέκα λόγοι, “ten words”.
The two records of the Ten Commandments are essentially the same, but they give different grounds for the Sabbath commandment: in Exodus it rests on the creation of the world, in Deuteronomy on Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt.
In the New Testament Jesus and the apostles refer to these commandments more than once — to all of them except the Sabbath commandment. They speak above all of keeping them inwardly rather than outwardly and single out two chief requirements: love for God and love for one’s neighbour.
Exodus and Deuteronomy
God gave the people the Ten Commandments
“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. So you must worship only me; you must not worship any other god. 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 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►. 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.)
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].
Do not forget that the seventh day of every week is mine, so dedicate those days to me. There are six days each week for you to do all your work, 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. 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.
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.
Do not murder anyone.
Do not ◄commit adultery/have sex with anyone other than your spouse►.
Do not steal anything.
Do not falsely accuse anyone of committing a crime.
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.”
‘I am Yahweh your God, the one you worship. I am the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt. I am the one who freed you from being slaves there.
- You must worship only me; you must not worship any other god.
- You must not carve/make for yourselves any idol that represents anything in the sky or anything that is on the ground or anything that swims in the water.
- 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 punish those who sin and hate me. I punish not only them, but I will punish ◄their descendants, down to the third and fourth generation/their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren►. But I will steadfastly love ◄thousands of generations/all the descendants► of those who love me and obey my commandments (OR, I will love for thousands of generations).
- Do not use/speak 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/speak my name for wrong/evil purposes [LIT].
- Do not forget that the seventh day of every week is mine. Dedicate those days to me just like I, Yahweh your God, am commanding you.
- There are six days each week for you to do all your work, but the seventh day is a rest day, a day dedicated to me, Yahweh your God. 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 tell foreigners to work, those who are living in your country. You must allow your slaves to rest on that day just like you do. Do not forget that you were slaves in Egypt, and that I, Yahweh your God, brought you out from there by my very great power. [DOU, MTY] That is the reason that I am commanding that all of you must rest on the seventh/Sabbath day each week.
- Honor/Respect your fathers and your mothers, just like I, Yahweh your God, am commanding you, in order that you may live a long time in the land that I, Yahweh your God, will give you, and in order that things will go well for you there.
- Do not murder anyone.
- Do not ◄commit adultery/have sex with anyone other than your spouse►.
- Do not steal anything.
- Do not tell lies about anyone when you are speaking in a court.
- Do not ◄covet/desire to have► someone else’s wife, someone else’s house, someone else’s fields, someone else’s male slave or female slave, someone else’s livestock, someone else’s donkeys, or anything else that another person owns.’
How the commandments are numbered
The text holds more than ten precepts, and there is more than one way to divide it into ten commandments. The table shows which commandment each passage counts as in each tradition; a dash means the passage is not counted among the commandments, and “pre.” marks the preamble: it has no number of its own but is held to be part of the Ten Commandments.
| Text | Exodus | Deuteronomy | Septuagint | Talmud | Augustine | Philo | Catholic | Lutheran | Reformed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| “I am the LORD thy God…” | 20:2 | 5:6 | — | 1 | — | — | 1 | — | pre. |
| “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” | 20:3 | 5:7 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image…” | 20:4–6 | 5:8–10 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | — | 2 |
| “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain…” | 20:7 | 5:11 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| “Remember (keep) the sabbath day…” | 20:8–11 | 5:12–15 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| “Honour thy father and thy mother…” | 20:12 | 5:16 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| “Thou shalt not kill” | 20:13 | 5:17 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 6 |
| “Thou shalt not commit adultery” | 20:14 | 5:18 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 |
| “Thou shalt not steal” | 20:15 | 5:19 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 |
| “Thou shalt not bear false witness…” | 20:16 | 5:20 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 9 |
| “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house” | 20:17 | 5:21 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 10 |
| “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife” | 20:17 | 5:21 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 10 |
| “…nor his manservant, nor his maidservant… nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s” | 20:17 | 5:21 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
- Septuagint — the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Its division is followed today by the Orthodox Church and by most Protestant churches, except the Lutherans.
- Talmud — in the Jewish tradition the first commandment is the preamble, “I am the LORD thy God…”.
- Saint Augustine follows the Jewish tradition but does not count the preamble as a commandment, and splits the last commandment, “Thou shalt not covet”, in two, following the word order of Deuteronomy.
- Philo of Alexandria divides the text as the Septuagint does, but has “Thou shalt not kill” and “Thou shalt not commit adultery” the other way round.
- The Catholic Church follows Augustine’s division but counts the preamble as part of the first commandment.
- Lutherans follow Augustine’s division without the prohibition of images and take the text of Exodus as the basis.
- Reformed churches follow the Septuagint’s division; the preamble is held to be a necessary part of the Ten Commandments and is always said together with them.