20:1   God said to the people of Israel:

20:2   I am the LORD your God, the one who brought you out of Egypt where you were slaves.

20:3   Do not worship any god except me.

20:4   Do not make idols that look like anything in the sky or on earth or in the ocean under the earth.

20:5   Don't bow down and worship idols. I am the LORD your God, and I demand all your love. If you reject me, I will punish your families for three or four generations.

20:6   But if you love me and obey my laws, I will be kind to your families for thousands of generations.

20:7   Do not misuse my name. I am the LORD your God, and I will punish anyone who misuses my name.

20:8   Remember that the Sabbath Day belongs to me.

20:9   You have six days when you can do your work,

20:10   but the seventh day of each week belongs to me, your God. No one is to work on that day--not you, your children, your slaves, your animals, or the foreigners who live in your towns.

20:11   In six days I made the sky, the earth, the oceans, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested. That's why I made the Sabbath a special day that belongs to me.

20:12   Respect your father and your mother, and you will live a long time in the land I am giving you.

20:13   Do not murder.

20:14   Be faithful in marriage.

20:15   Do not steal.

20:16   Do not tell lies about others.

20:17   Do not want anything that belongs to someone else. Don't want anyone's house, wife or husband, slaves, oxen, donkeys or anything else.

20:18   The people trembled with fear when they heard the thunder and the trumpet and saw the lightning and the smoke coming from the mountain. They stood a long way off

20:19   and said to Moses, "If you speak to us, we will listen. But don't let God speak to us, or we will die!"

20:20   "Don't be afraid!" Moses replied. "God has come only to test you, so that by obeying him you won't sin."

20:21   But when Moses went near the thick cloud where God was, the people stayed a long way off.

20:22   The LORD told Moses to say to the people of Israel: With your own eyes, you saw me speak to you from heaven.

20:23   So you must never make idols of silver or gold to worship in place of me.

20:24   Build an altar out of earth, and offer on it your sacrifices of sheep, goats, and cattle. Wherever I choose to be worshiped, I will come down to bless you.

20:25   If you ever build an altar for me out of stones, do not use any tools to chisel the stones, because that would make the altar unfit.

20:26   And don't build an altar that requires steps; you might expose yourself when you climb up.