World English Bible · Egypt and Sinai
Exodus 20
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spoke all these words, saying, "I am your , who brought you out of the land of , out of the house of bondage. "You shall have no other gods before me. "You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any of anything that is in above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor them, for I, your , am , visiting the of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me, and showing to thousands of those who love me and keep my . "You shall not misuse the name of your , for will not hold him guiltless who misuses his name. "Remember the , to keep it . You shall labor six days, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a to your . You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your who is within your ; for in six days made and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the , and made it . " your and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which your gives you. "You shall not . "You shall not . "You shall not steal. "You shall not give false against your neighbor. "You shall not your neighbor's house. You shall not your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's." All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the , and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance. They said to , "Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don't let speak with us, lest we ." said to the people, "Don't be afraid, for has come to you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won't ." The people stayed at a distance, and came near to the thick where was. said to , "This is what you shall tell the : 'You yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from . You shall most certainly not make gods of silver or gods of gold for yourselves to be alongside me. You shall make an of earth for me, and shall on it your burnt offerings and your , your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I record my name I will come to you and you. If you make me an of stone, you shall not build it of cut stones; for if you lift up your tool on it, you have polluted it. You shall not go up by steps to my , that your may not be exposed to it.'
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
Christians read this chapter differently
- Are images of Christ permitted? · Exodus 20:4-6
Every view at its strongest, with who holds it and what it has to answer for.
The world at this moment · Egypt and Sinai, 1450 BC to 1200 BC ›
Israel in and then out of Egypt, at a period when Egypt was an imperial power that also controlled Canaan. The nation is formed as a people with a law before it has any land.
- Egypt
- The New Kingdom at its imperial peak, with a professional army, a chariot corps, and control reaching up through Canaan. Ramesses II reigns for sixty-six years and covers the country in monuments to himself. Egyptian power in this period is the reason Canaan is garrisoned rather than free.
- The Hittites
- The other superpower, in what is now Turkey, and Egypt's rival for the Levant. The two fight the largest chariot battle of the ancient world at Kadesh, then sign a treaty whose text survives from both sides. Hittite treaty form, with its historical prologue, stipulations, witnesses, blessings, and curses, is the shape the Sinai covenant takes, which is one of the stronger arguments for the antiquity of that material.
- The Aegean
- Mycenaean Greece: warrior kings in stone citadels at Mycenae and Pylos, keeping palace accounts in Linear B. The world of the Trojan War stories, whatever lies behind them.
- Further afield
- The Shang dynasty in China is casting extraordinary bronzes and writing questions to its ancestors on ox bones. In Mesoamerica the Olmec are beginning the first civilisation of the Americas.