Exodus: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13a 13b 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30a 30b 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38a 38b 39 40
The verse numbering is problematic in this chapter, as almost every translation does it differently, Jewish as well as Christian. I am going to follow the traditional (Masoretic) order, and will give the King James numbering in brackets where it varies. Note that there are single Masoretic verses which become multiples in the King James.
20:1 VA YEDABER ELOHIM ET KOL HA DEVARIM HA ELEH LEMOR
וַיְדַבֵּר אֱלֹהִים אֵת כָּל הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה לֵאמֹר
KJ (King James translation): And God spake all these words, saying,
BN (BibleNet translation): And Elohim spoke all these words, saying...
Elohim again; the Midyanite version? But in the next verse it becomes YHVH again, and indeed both. So yet again we have multiple tales in multiple versions, all amalgamated in condensed form into this.
Elohim again; the Midyanite version? But in the next verse it becomes YHVH again, and indeed both. So yet again we have multiple tales in multiple versions, all amalgamated in condensed form into this.
What follows is itself only the first version of the Ten Commandments, even within this Redaction. Deuteronomy 5:6-17 for the second version.
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20:2 ANOCHI YHVH ELOHEYCHA ASHER HOTS'E'TIYCHA ME ERETS MITSRAYIM MI BEYT AVADIM LO YIHEYEH LECHA ELOHIM ACHERIM AL PANAI
אָנֹכִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתִיךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם מִבֵּית עֲבָדִים לֹא יִהְיֶה לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל פָּנָי
KJ (20:2): I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage
KJ (20:3): Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
BN: "I am YHVH your god, who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me...
LO YIHEYEH ELOHIM ACHERIM AL PANAI: Inferring, or indeed implying, on this polytheistic mountain, that you can have as many gods after me as you darned well please, but you must acknowledge me, YHVH, as the head of the pantheon. This verse more than any other provides a counter-argument to the Documentary Hypothesis; the distinction between YHVH and Elohim is not the equivalent of the French calling him Dieu but the Germans Gott, this is a distinction between Zeus and the rest of Mount Olympus, between Wotan and the rest of Valhalla.
20:3 LO TA'ASEH LECHA PESEL VE CHOL TEMUNAH ASHER BA SHAMAYIM MI MA'AL VA ASHER BA ARETS MI TACHAT VA ASHER BA MAYIM MI TACHAT LA ARETS
לֹא תַעֲשֶׂה לְךָ פֶסֶל וְכָל תְּמוּנָה אֲשֶׁר בַּשָּׁמַיִם מִמַּעַל וַאֲשֶׁר בָּאָרֶץ מִתָּחַת וַאֲשֶׁר בַּמַּיִם מִתַּחַת לָאָרֶץ
KJ (20:4): Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
BN: "You shall not make for yourselves any graven images, nor any kind of likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is on the Earth beneath, or that is in the water under the Earth...
PESEL: quite specifically "carved", or "formed by cutting". It tends to get applied to molten images, but really that is MASEYCHA (cf Isaiah 40:19, 44:10, also Jeremiah 10:14 and 51:17 - which strangely are identical). This includes sculpture, woodwork...
TEMUNAH: literally "appearance", it is understood as "likeness" in the sense of a verisimilitudinous drawing, a photograph or moving image, even a collage made out of play-dough or pieces of wire. If it looks like something that exists in Nature, it is prohibited. Drawn, stained-glass, oil or acrylic, digital construction, photograph...We are not told why these prohibitions are in place, but the verse before and the verse above (classic hermeneutical exegesis in the approved manner - "Mi-binyan av mi-katuv echad, u-mi-binyan av mi-shney chetuvim" in the wording of Rabbi Yishmael [or see "A Myrtle Among Reeds"] make clear it is a prohibition against the making of idols, which is to say representations of the gods, or anything the gods have created.
Remember that all religions until this time represented their gods in images, whether clay figureens, or bronze statues, or scarab-necklaces, or amulets with cats' claws; and that the gods were always represented totemically, with trees or flowers or animals etc attached to them. When General Titus entered the Temple in Yeru-Shala'im in 70CE, he was shocked by the absence of any representation of the Jewish god. But the Beney Yisra-El, from this verse and on through their history until today, have established their deity as abstract and invisible (see verse 3 of Yigdal, or chapter one of Maimonides' "Guide for the Perplexed", on which Yigdal is based), and nothing may be depicted lest it be envisaged as god-like. Pictures of pop stars on your bedroom wall or photographs of the Rebbe in your yeshiva (apparently the Lubavich are exceptions to this rule), late Matisse butterflies or the Leonardo Moses in Rome; almost all art (abstract art and calligraphic art are the principal exceptions) is prohibited, as is photography, still or moving; all sculpture, even the most abstract, because you still have to cut the stone or refashion the mineral from its natural form into another.
Remember that all religions until this time represented their gods in images, whether clay figureens, or bronze statues, or scarab-necklaces, or amulets with cats' claws; and that the gods were always represented totemically, with trees or flowers or animals etc attached to them. When General Titus entered the Temple in Yeru-Shala'im in 70CE, he was shocked by the absence of any representation of the Jewish god. But the Beney Yisra-El, from this verse and on through their history until today, have established their deity as abstract and invisible (see verse 3 of Yigdal, or chapter one of Maimonides' "Guide for the Perplexed", on which Yigdal is based), and nothing may be depicted lest it be envisaged as god-like. Pictures of pop stars on your bedroom wall or photographs of the Rebbe in your yeshiva (apparently the Lubavich are exceptions to this rule), late Matisse butterflies or the Leonardo Moses in Rome; almost all art (abstract art and calligraphic art are the principal exceptions) is prohibited, as is photography, still or moving; all sculpture, even the most abstract, because you still have to cut the stone or refashion the mineral from its natural form into another.
20:4 LO TISHTACHAVEH LA HEM VE LO TA'AVDEM KI ANOCHI YHVH ELOHEYCHA EL KANA, PO'KED AVON AVOT AL BANIM AL SHILESHIM VE AL RIB'E'IM LE SONAI
לֹא תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה לָהֶם וְלֹא תָעָבְדֵם כִּי אָנֹכִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֵל קַנָּא פֹּקֵד עֲוֹן אָבֹת עַל בָּנִים עַל שִׁלֵּשִׁים וְעַל רִבֵּעִים לְשֹׂנְאָי
KJ (20:5): Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
BN: "You shall not prostrate yourself before them, nor serve them; for I, YHVH your god, am a jealous god, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of those who hate me...
KANA: We have difficulty in English - we the people, not the formal lexicons and grammar books - in distinguishing correctly between envy and jealousy: envy is a yearning to have what other people have (something akin to the TACHMOD = "covet" of verse 13), where jealousy is a desire to keep what you have already. We usually turn the latter into the former. So which does the deity mean here? In the former, there are lots of other gods, and they all have amazing powers, and I am deeply envious, and want those powers; and if you worship me, and I can get the rest of the world to do the same, eventually I can get rid of all the other gods, and absorb their powers into mine, and rule alone. In the latter: yes, they have important jobs, but I have the top job, and I am keeping it. Given that this is KANA and not TACHMOD, and given that the epoch of Omnideity is more than a millennium away, the latter is the more likely.
PO'KED AVON: For which I can only apologise in advance to my future great and great-great grand-children, but I am not going to be held to ransom for my choices today by something that may or may not befall you half a century from now.
20:5 VE OSEH CHESED LA ALAPHIM LE OHAVAI U LE SHOMREY MITSVOTAI
וְעֹשֶׂה חֶסֶד לַאֲלָפִים לְאֹהֲבַי וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי מִצְוֹתָי
KJ (20:6): And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
BN: "And showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments...
OSEH CHESED LA ALAPHIM: Words that will be re-used in the closing phrase of Avinu Malkeynu, the final hymn of Yom Kippur (click here for an absolutely gorgeous rendition of it by Barbara Streisand).
CHESED: Mercy, but also the root that yields CHASID = pious, as in Hasidim, or Hassidim, as you prefer.
The terms of the covenant are laid out throughout these ten commandments, but none more prophetically than here; as Yesha-Yahu (Isaiah) will clarify later (1:11-17), though it was already stated in 1 Samuel 15:22, and again in Hoshe'a (Hosea) 6:6, in Psalms 40:6 and 51:16-17, in Proverbs 21:3, in Amos 5:21-24 and Micah 6: 6-8, what YHVH wants is not our worship, but our obedience. Keep the laws. This will become the mantra for ever after.
20:6 LO TISA ET SHEM YHVH ELOHEYCHA LA SHAV KI LO YENAKEH YHVH ET ASHER YISA ET SHEMO LA SHAV
לֹא תִשָּׂא אֶת שֵׁם יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לַשָּׁוְא כִּי לֹא יְנַקֶּה יְהוָה אֵת אֲשֶׁר יִשָּׂא אֶת שְׁמוֹ לַשָּׁוְא
KJ (20:7): Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
BN: "You shall not take YHVH's name in vain; for YHVH will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain...
SHAV: A phrase oft-repeated yet poorly understood. Used to mean "blaspheme", and for any manner of being "light" towards the deity. But in fact the word is very precise, and its precision is partly driven by its conjunction with the verb TISA = "to take up" or "to lift up". Alone it means "evil" or "wickedness", so "you shall not take up the name of god and use it wickedly, or for evil purposes". The intention is insincerity or falsehood, and specifically refers to the sort of person who would swear on the Bible in court and then commit willful perjury. Ultimately it is nothing more nor less than an instruction to honesty and integrity.
Three verses in a row that describe the relationship between a feudal lord and his vassal, and not really all that different from the relationship between the AVADIM and Yosephite Pharaoh at the end of Genesis or the beginning of this Book of Exodus. I, the Pharaoh/deity, rule. You, the AVADIM (slaves/worshippers) are required to obey me, prostrate when I call for prostration, and happily. Fail to do so and you will be punished, and your descendants likewise. Do as is expected, and there will be unspecified rewards for you at some unstated date in the future. Sign on the dotted line your full and unequivocal commitment to this thoroughly equal covenant.
Three verses in a row that describe the relationship between a feudal lord and his vassal, and not really all that different from the relationship between the AVADIM and Yosephite Pharaoh at the end of Genesis or the beginning of this Book of Exodus. I, the Pharaoh/deity, rule. You, the AVADIM (slaves/worshippers) are required to obey me, prostrate when I call for prostration, and happily. Fail to do so and you will be punished, and your descendants likewise. Do as is expected, and there will be unspecified rewards for you at some unstated date in the future. Sign on the dotted line your full and unequivocal commitment to this thoroughly equal covenant.
20:7 ZECHOR ET YOM HA SHABAT LE KADSHO
זָכוֹר אֶת יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת לְקַדְּשׁוֹ
KJ (20:8): Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
BN: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it separate...
Which would be better translated as "Remember to make the Sabbath day special", in the sense of "make it different from the other six days of the week" The second version (Deuteronomy 5:4-20) will tell us specifically to "keep" the Sabbath day, from which the Rabbis will deduce the Thirty-Nine Melachot, the things you absolutely cannot do on the Sabbath (the root-word for this, "MAL'ACHAH", will be found in each of the next two verses). This version merely gives instruction to set it apart from other days, "set apart" being the literal meaning of LEKADESH, or "holy".
20:8 SHESHET YAMIM TA'AVOD VE ASIYTA KOL MELACHTECHA
שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּעֲבֹד וְעָשִׂיתָ כָּל מְלַאכְתֶּך
KJ (20:9): Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
BN: "For six days you shall labour, and do all your work...
MELA'CHTECHA: Why is this the word for work, and not either PE'ULAH or AVODAH? The question matters, especially in relation to the Thirty-Nine Melachot, because the statement is open to interpretation: what exactly constitutes work. As someone who taught Torah and led prayer services, every day of every week for fifteen years, in a boarding school for teenagers, not having to do so in the holidays was a shabat shabaton of the most restful proportions; but teaching Torah and leading prayers is not counted as work, either for a lay person or for the clergy. On the other hand, recovering from the rigours of the morning with a round of golf on shobbas afternoon, and making that day different from any other in the process - strictly prohibited. Why? Because of the ways in which work is defined; because of the ways in which Shabat is defined; because of the ways the Deuteronomic "keep" is defined, and all three in regular contradiction. In the end, as per my comment at the last verse, this is an arrangement between the feudal lord, the god of fertility, and the earthly steward, who will do the actual ploughing, sowing, reaping and harvesting. Look again at the Thirty-Nine Melachot (I have listed them below) and you will see that it is essentially a Trades Union getting an agreement with Management that there is to be a day off every week. To whom but the Crafts Guilds do any of these meaningfully apply?
20:9 VA YOM HA SHEVIY'I SHABAT LA YHVH ELOHEYCHA LO TA'ASEH CHOL MELA'CHAH ATAH U VINCHA U VITECHA AVDECHA VA AMAT'CHA, U VEHEMTECHA VE GERCHA ASHER BI SH'EAREYCHA
וְיוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי שַׁבָּת לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לֹא תַעֲשֶׂה כָל מְלָאכָה אַתָּה וּבִנְךָ וּבִתֶּךָ עַבְדְּךָ וַאֲמָתְךָ וּבְהֶמְתֶּךָ וְגֵרְךָ אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׁעָרֶיךָ
KJ (20:10): But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
BN: "But the seventh day is a Sabbath to YHVH your god; on it you shall not do any manner of work, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor any man-servant, nor any maid-servant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger who is within your gates...
SHABAT LE; Sabbath to, not Sabbath of.
The trouble is, once again: what does CHOL MELA'CHAH really mean; we know what the words mean, but, as with so many of the commandments, the meanings of the meanings are left unelaborated. Talmud Tractate Shabbat (Ch7, Mishnah 2), attempts to resolve this by determining precisely which actions are prohibited; this is the original place in which you will find the Thirty-Nine Melachot (which are: carrying, burning, extinguishing, finishing, writing, erasing, cooking, washing, sewing, tearing, knotting, untying, shaping, ploughing, planting, reaping, harvesting, threshing, winnowing, selecting, sifting, grinding, kneading, combing, spinning, dyeing, chain-stitching, warping, weaving, unraveling, building, demolishing, trapping, shearing, slaughtering, skinning, tanning, smoothing, and marking).
Whether or not this is what Mosheh, let alone YHVH, intended, we cannot know; certainly a number of these would not have applied to the Beney Yisra-El in the desert, but that is irrelevant, as Talmud was interpreting contemporaneously. All of them are about physical rather than mental labour; finishing, for example, is a technical term from the textile trade: we are perfectly free to finish a piece of Torah study or the reading of a book. Can we play sport? The way many of us play golf, the prohibition against threshing and winnowing presumably applies. Probably the most contentious today is the first one: burning. You cannot light a fire, but can you switch on electricity, which some Jews regard as an equivalent act? The answer to that rather depends on your reading of the laws of physics, and not those of Mosheh, but Reform Jews would say you can use electricity, and you can start a car engine; others would argue that you can start the engine, but you cannot drive the car, because it burns fuel; still others that you should be walking anyway, and even that not more than... well this is complicated too, and depends whether you are in the city or the country, have an eruv, don't have an eruv, need a stick, are in a wheelchair... take a look here for some of the answers.
Whether or not this is what Mosheh, let alone YHVH, intended, we cannot know; certainly a number of these would not have applied to the Beney Yisra-El in the desert, but that is irrelevant, as Talmud was interpreting contemporaneously. All of them are about physical rather than mental labour; finishing, for example, is a technical term from the textile trade: we are perfectly free to finish a piece of Torah study or the reading of a book. Can we play sport? The way many of us play golf, the prohibition against threshing and winnowing presumably applies. Probably the most contentious today is the first one: burning. You cannot light a fire, but can you switch on electricity, which some Jews regard as an equivalent act? The answer to that rather depends on your reading of the laws of physics, and not those of Mosheh, but Reform Jews would say you can use electricity, and you can start a car engine; others would argue that you can start the engine, but you cannot drive the car, because it burns fuel; still others that you should be walking anyway, and even that not more than... well this is complicated too, and depends whether you are in the city or the country, have an eruv, don't have an eruv, need a stick, are in a wheelchair... take a look here for some of the answers.
All of this is, in the end, Talmudic hair-splitting and not implementation of Torah; Torah requires making the day different from any other, special and holy. Talmud is only one interpretation. The previous reference to the Shabat (Exodus 16:5 ff, but especially v29) only required people not to leave their homes (though of course, if your home is within an eruv...).
GERCHA ASHER BI SH'EARECHA: Another point at which Reform and non-Reform Jews part company. Non-Reform Jews tend to berate Reform Jews for not keeping the Thirty-Nine Melachot properly; Reform Jews respond by asking: how do you justify employing a "shobbas goy" to light fires for you and cook your meals and press the buttons on your elevators, when GERCHA ASHER BI SH'ERACHA is entirely unequivocal? Non-Reform Jews get very upset when accused of this particular hypocrisy, and cite particularly hypocritical Rabbis of yore in their self-defense, and then insist that the Goy volunteered, as if this creates an exemption to the law. The truth is, very few of the 613 laws are definitive, but this one is. NO WORK applies to the Shobbas Goy. You shouldn't be using one.
20:10 KI SHESHET YAMIM ASAH YHVH ET HA SHAMAYIM VE ET HA ARETS ET HA YAM VE ET KOL ASHER BAM VA YANACH BA YOM HA SHEVIY'I AL KEN BERACH YHVH ET YOM HA SHABAT, VE YEKADSHEHU
כִּי שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים עָשָׂה יְהוָה אֶת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת הָאָרֶץ אֶת הַיָּם וְאֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר בָּם וַיָּנַח בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי עַל כֵּן בֵּרַךְ יְהוָה אֶת יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת וַיְקַדְּשֵׁהוּ
KJ (20:11): 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.
BN: £For in six days YHVH made the heavens and the Earth, the sea, and everything that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; and this is why YHVH blessed the Sabbath day, and set it apart ...
More than anywhere else, this is the declaration of monotheism. The first Creation story, and the version we read in Egypt, both - albeit concealed by the Redactor - demonstrate that seven different gods and goddesses participated in the Creation, each having his or her own day, his or her own area of responsibility. But YHVH is now claiming to have done the whole thing himself, absorbing the other deities into himself. Was this Mosheh's view of the world? Was this given at Sinai? We simply cannot know, but the evidence suggests - no, it was superimposed later on.
VA YANACH: The same root that gives the name No'ach (Noah); but why this verb, which is very specifically the "coming to rest" of a moving object, and as such quite different from the "sitting down" of SHABAT?
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20:11 KABED ET AVIYCHA VE ET IMECHA LEMA'AN YA'ARICHUN YAMEYCHA AL HA ADAMAH ASHER YHVH ELOHEYCHA NOTEN LACH
כַּבֵּד אֶת אָבִיךָ וְאֶת אִמֶּךָ לְמַעַן יַאֲרִכוּן יָמֶיךָ עַל הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ
KJ (20:12): Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
BN: "Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which YHVH your god has given to you...
KABED: Honour, in the sense of "respect". On the principle that you do not need a prohibition if something is not being done, and you do not need a requirement if everyone is doing it because they take for granted that it is right, we have to assume that there was a great deal of disrespect for parents at that time; a point endorsed by the need to do more than make it a law; this is the only commandment that carries with it a specific reward.
HA ADAMAH: Not HA ARETS. Adamah is the mud, the land, the soil; Arets is either the country (in the sense of nation) or the planet. So this law applies on whatever plot of land you may be living, and not just in Erets Yisra-El.
NOTEN LACH or NATAN LACH: "Is giving you", or "has given you"? Most translators prefer the former, based on their mis-translation of "land" at the start of the verse. The reading is based on the fact that we are in a covenant-giving or covenant-renewal ceremony, and that the land in question is Kena'an; thus YHVH is giving it now, regardless of what may have been given in the past. Hence the present tense. But, as noted above, the word used is Adamah, not Arets, and without pointing Nun-Tav-Nun (נתן) can be either NOTEN or NATAN. This is simply about getting a long life on whatever portion of land happens to be yours; no more than that (one of those occasions when we commentators have to learn to read less into the text, not more!)
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20:12 LO TIRTSACH LO TINAPH LO TIGNOV LO TA'ANEH VE RE'ACHA ED SHAKER
לֹא תִּרְצָח {ס} לֹא תִּנְאָף {ס} לֹא תִּגְנֹב {ס} לֹא תַעֲנֶה בְרֵעֲךָ עֵד שָׁקֶר
KJ (20:13): Thou shalt not kill.
KJ (20:14): Thou shalt not commit adultery.
KJ (20:15): Thou shalt not steal.
KJ (20:16): Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
BN: "Do not murder. {S} Do not commit adultery. {S} Do not steal. {S} Do not bear false witness against your neighbour. {S}
LO TIRTSACH: Usually translated as "You shall not kill" (or "Thou Shalt Not..." in the older Aenglisch), but in fact it is much more precisely imperative than that; hence my preference for "Do not".
"Kill" is also the traditional translation, but in error. Like most languages, Yehudit has a number of alternatives, to distinguish the various good and bad reasons for killing (self-defense, in war, for food, premeditated, in anger, genocide, etc). Broadly speaking (because none of these is ever absolutely precise), LIKTOL (לִקְטוֹל) is used for the culling of animals in the wild, LESHACHET (לְשַׁחֵת) when it takes place in the abattoir or on the Temple altar, LEHAKOT (לְהַכּוֹת) when the weapon of killing is a club or the fists, LAHAROG (לַהֲרוֹג) if it is manslaughter, and LEHAMIT (לְהַמִית) for the death penalty. Which leaves the one used here, LIRTSO'ACH (לִרְצוֹחַ), which has the meaning of "willful and deliberate murder".
LO TINAPH: From the root NA'APH (נאף), which can also be found in Proverbs 6:32, Jeremiah 29:23, and most importantly in Leviticus 20:10:
וְאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר יִנְאַף אֶת אֵשֶׁת אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר יִנְאַף אֶת אֵשֶׁת רֵעֵהוּ מוֹת יוּמַת הַנֹּאֵף וְהַנֹּאָפֶת
"If a man commits adultery with another man's wife - with the wife of his neighbour - both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death", which Maimonides in Mishneh Torah interprets as "for a court to execute by strangulation" though he provides no textual evidence to support this, and elsewhere the death penalty is carried out by stoning (Exodus 21:33, Deuteronomy 21:22, 22:19-24)
The gospel writer John also noted this apparent anomaly (John 8:5).
Yirme-Yah (Jeremiah) uses the verb, and the concept of adultery, to describe poetically the tendency of the people to stray from absolute love of YHVH by going in search of other gods (e.g. Jeremiah 3:8, 5:7, 9:1, 21:14), though actually he stole the poetry from Hoshe'a, who railed against Ba'al worship and the idolatry of the Golden Calf during the reign of Jeroboam II in the northern kingdom of Ephrayiml, in the 8th century, shortly before the destruction of the northern kingdom by Sennacherib and the disappearance of the Ten Tribes.
LO TA'ANEH: From the root ANAH (ענה) which came to mean "to answer", though originally it was used for "to sing" (cf Exodus 15:21, "וַתַּעַן לָהֶם, מִרְיָם"; also Psalm 147:7; other references in the First Book of Samuel - e.g. 21:12, 29:5 - appear to validate the antiquity of this usage, while ANAH as "to answer", which is the meaning today, only occurs Biblically in later writings - further evidence that Exodus was from the period of Yesha-Yahu/Isaiah).
multiple samech breaks within this verse, which really the Christian verse-numberers should have made into multiple verses, even if each verse ended up with just two words. I have left the samech indicators in on this occasion, to show how it should work.
20:13 LO TACHMOD BEYT RE'ECHA LO TACHMOD ESHET RE'ECHA VE AVDO VE AMATO VE SHORO VE CHAMORO VE CHOL ASHER LE RE'ECHA
לֹא תַחְמֹד בֵּית רֵעֶךָ {ס} לֹא תַחְמֹד אֵשֶׁת רֵעֶךָ וְעַבְדּוֹ וַאֲמָתוֹ וְשׁוֹרוֹ וַחֲמֹרוֹ וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר לְרֵעֶךָ
KJ (20:17): Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
BN: Do not covet your neighbour's house. {S} Do not covet your neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is your neighbour's. {P}"
Almost impossible to enforce, of course! The house is the most interesting here, because the Beney Yisra-El in the desert did not have houses; evidence that this law was given much later, when the Beney Yisra-El (who had never been city-dwellers since Av-Raham left Charan) became city-dwellers.
Traditionally the first five commandments are held to relate to the relationship between humans and the deity, the second five between humans and other humans; some may argue that the fifth, "respect your parents", belongs in the second category, but alas that doesn't make for a neat symmetrical division. It is also noteworthy that the divine commandments require much elaboration over several lines, where the human ones are just bland statements, orders, tweets.
Traditionally the first five commandments are held to relate to the relationship between humans and the deity, the second five between humans and other humans; some may argue that the fifth, "respect your parents", belongs in the second category, but alas that doesn't make for a neat symmetrical division. It is also noteworthy that the divine commandments require much elaboration over several lines, where the human ones are just bland statements, orders, tweets.
pey break; but there is also a samech break inside the verse, which I have retained. To remind you, to save you going back to the introduction to understand what these pey and samech breaks are for: the Yehudit text is one continuous line, unpunctuated, save only for paragraph breaks (denoted in modern print versions by the letter pey (פ), meaning "perek" or "paragraph". The exception to this is the samech (ס) break, the samech standing for "selah", which is the equivalent of an end-of-phrase pause in a line of music (which is why you will find the word no less than 71 times in the Psalms, and no, you are not meant to say it). In the Yehudit scroll a list or a poem or song would break the pattern of continuous lines, being presented as we would recognise poetry over prose; in modern print versions, which use the Christian chapter-and-verse format, the letter samech shows where the original breaks occurred.
And yes, I am anticipating your next question: why then are they called pey and samech breaks, and not perek and selah breaks? Good question. And that is because there is an entirely different usage of them, which is to denote the breaks in the reading of the law in synagogue, on Mondays, Thursdays and Sabbaths. The Torah is subdivided into Sedrot (which has a samech), and the Sedrot into Pareshot (which has a pey) - you can see the full annual reading-cycle by clicking here. That cycle begins and ends at Simchat Torah, the day following the end of Sukot and Shemini Atseret.
And yes, I am anticipating your next question: why then are they called pey and samech breaks, and not perek and selah breaks? Good question. And that is because there is an entirely different usage of them, which is to denote the breaks in the reading of the law in synagogue, on Mondays, Thursdays and Sabbaths. The Torah is subdivided into Sedrot (which has a samech), and the Sedrot into Pareshot (which has a pey) - you can see the full annual reading-cycle by clicking here. That cycle begins and ends at Simchat Torah, the day following the end of Sukot and Shemini Atseret.
20:14 VE CHOL HA AM RO'IM ET HA KOLOT VE ET HA LAPIYDIM VE ET KOL HA SHOPHAR VE ET HA HAR ASHEN VA YAR HA AM VA YANU'U VA YA'AMDU ME RACHOK
וְכָל הָעָם רֹאִים אֶת הַקּוֹלֹת וְאֶת הַלַּפִּידִם וְאֵת קוֹל הַשֹּׁפָר וְאֶת הָהָר עָשֵׁן וַיַּרְא הָעָם וַיָּנֻעוּ וַיַּעַמְדוּ מֵרָחֹק
KJ (20:18): And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
BN: And all the people perceived the rumbling, and the streaks of light, and heard the sound of the shofar, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood well back.
Nothing more likely to induce acceptance in a people who believe in nature gods than an entire volcanic eruption!
RO'IM: Unclear how you "see" thunder or "the voice of the horn", which is probably why most modern translators have rendered it as "perceived" rather than the KJ "saw".
20:15 VA YOMRU EL MOSHEH DABER ATAH IMANU VE NISHMA'AH VE AL YEDABER IMANU ELOHIM PEN NAMUT
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֶל מֹשֶׁה דַּבֵּר אַתָּה עִמָּנוּ וְנִשְׁמָעָה וְאַל יְדַבֵּר עִמָּנוּ אֱלֹהִים פֶּן נָמוּת
KJ (20:19): And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
BN: And they said to Mosheh: "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let Elohim speak with us, lest we die."
God as a verb, not as a noun! But note that, yet again, YHVH has been swapped with Elohim - I say swapped because this is not simply a name-change due to version-change, but the very role of the deity; this is the first time that Elohim rather than YHVH has been associated with the volcanic qualities of the holy mountain; elsewhere the mountain is the equivalent of Olympus or Valhalla to Elohim, but not to YHVH.
And again, if YHVH is the physical volcano, or at least they are seeing an EL, a divine kinetic power operating in the force of the volcanic eruption, which "YORED" or "comes down" on the mountain, and makes it life-threatening for them even to go on its foothills, then "don't let it speak to us" makes total (if rather primitive) sense.
20:16 VA YOMER MOSHEH EL HA AM AL TIRA'U KI LEVA'AVUR NASOT ET'CHEM BA HA ELOHIM U VA'AVUR TIHEYEH YIR'ATO AL PENEYCHEM LE VILTI TECHETA'U
The Exodus v Deuteronomy Ten Commandments
Exodus:
"I am YHVH your god, who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me...
וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה אֶל הָעָם אַל תִּירָאוּ כִּי לְבַעֲבוּר נַסּוֹת אֶתְכֶם בָּא הָאֱלֹהִים וּבַעֲבוּר תִּהְיֶה יִרְאָתוֹ עַל פְּנֵיכֶם לְבִלְתִּי תֶחֱטָאוּ
KJ (20:20): And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.
BN: And Mosheh said to the people: "Have no fear; Ha Elohim have come to test you, and that you may learn to fear them, so that you do not sin [against them]."
Specifically Ha Elohim now, reinforcing the above claim that seven gods were engaged in the act of Creation.
NASOT: What word is used for testing and proving in the other instances (the Akeda etc)? Your turn to do some work.
TECHETA'U: I have added the words "against them" in square brackets at the end of the translation; I can find no other translation that does so, but that Vav Medugash as a suffix is not a scribal error: the point here is not sin per se - those have been listed above and do not need restating. The point here is the fear of the deity, not the details of the iniquity. "Against them" is crucial.
20:17 VA YA'AMOD HA AM ME RACHOK U MOSHEH NIGASH EL HA ARAPHEL ASHER SHAM HA ELOHIM
וַיַּעֲמֹד הָעָם מֵרָחֹק וּמֹשֶׁה נִגַּשׁ אֶל הָעֲרָפֶל אֲשֶׁר שָׁם הָאֱלֹהִים
KJ (20:21): And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.
BN: And the people stood well back; but Mosheh approached close to the thick darkness in which were Ha Elohim.
The Internet is full of amazing accounts of people witnessing volcanic eruptions like this one, especially the total darkness at the eye of the eruption. My recommendations are here, here and especially here.
U MOSHEH NIGASH: Given the accolades of support that he just received, going closer was rather necessary; but still, we finally have something to admire about Mosheh as he does what the people want their leader to do, and not what his god instructs his menial to do, and braves the proximity. And what a surprise - the boss approves (see next verse).
samech break
20:18 VA YOMER YHVH EL MOSHEH KOH TOMAR EL BENEY YISRA-EL ATEM RE'IYTEM KI MIN HA SHAMAYIM DIBARTI IMACHEM
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל מֹשֶׁה כֹּה תֹאמַר אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אַתֶּם רְאִיתֶם כִּי מִן הַשָּׁמַיִם דִּבַּרְתִּי עִמָּכֶם
KJ (20:22): And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
BN: Then YHVH said to Mosheh: "Thus shall you say to the Beney Yisra-El: You yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from the heavens...
Note the constant shifts between Elohim, Ha Elohim and YHVH; it may well be that we have three versions compacted here. Sadly most people have no idea of this, because translations, both Christian and Jewish, tend to use the word God regardless, or maybe "The Lord" for YHVH, but in such a way that it is simply a courtesy title for God, and not actually an entirely different deity, and an entirely different concept of deity.
If this were all one and the same version, we would have to note how "God" has managed to make it all about "me" again, despite Mosheh taking all the attention in the previous verse. But it is not: that was the Elohim version; this is returned to YHVH, and to the TECHETA'U of verse 16.
And of course, if there is a volcanic eruption and the explosion goes up into the skies like an ICBM or an Independence Day firework, it will also have to come down again, mushroom-like in its cloudiness, and so, yes, that would be the divinity speaking.
20:19 LO TA'ASUN ITI ELOHEY CHESEPH VE ELOHEY ZAHAV LO TA'ASU LACHEM
לֹא תַעֲשׂוּן אִתִּי אֱלֹהֵי כֶסֶף וֵאלֹהֵי זָהָב לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ לָכֶם
KJ (20:23): Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.
BN: "Do not make gods of silver out of me. And do not make gods of gold for yourselves...
Worth looking at a range of translations of this, because most seem to find it difficult and make a mess of it. The issue is theological, not linguistic: ELOHEY CHESEPH and ELOHEY ZAHAV are unequivocally plural. And the text is about making them "out of", which is to say, using the natural minerals, which are the essence (YHVH) made manifest as existence (CHAI).
The placement of this commandment is significant. Because, surely, this is the Eleventh Commandment? And if it is not, why is it not, since it is being given at exactly the same time; and several more to come in the following verses?
The answer, on this occasion, is (first) that it provides further elaboration of a previous commandment, an appendix to "you shall have no other gods before me" and "you shall not make graven images", making a logical completion of those. But it is also necessary as prefiguration, because the Redactor is shortly going to have the complicated problem of the Golden Calf to deal with. As we shall see when we get to that scene, that calf represents Hor (Horus), the principal god of this covenant renewal ceremony in the original Egyptian version; but had to be removed for the later Beney Yisra-El version. All other aspects of the Exodus story could simply be attached to Mosheh, Aharon and Mir-Ya in their Osher, Hor and Eshet roles, or else to YHVH and Elohim and Ha Elohim in their Geb and Ra equivalences, but the Golden Calf was more difficult, because nothing in the Yisra-Eli cult could be equivalated. The Redactor would probably have preferred just to expunge it, but it is too central to the tale for that, so it had to be outlawed. The tale of how the wicker man Guy Faux turned into the Gunpowder Plotter Guy Fawkes makes for an interesting comparison - click here.
The answer, on this occasion, is (first) that it provides further elaboration of a previous commandment, an appendix to "you shall have no other gods before me" and "you shall not make graven images", making a logical completion of those. But it is also necessary as prefiguration, because the Redactor is shortly going to have the complicated problem of the Golden Calf to deal with. As we shall see when we get to that scene, that calf represents Hor (Horus), the principal god of this covenant renewal ceremony in the original Egyptian version; but had to be removed for the later Beney Yisra-El version. All other aspects of the Exodus story could simply be attached to Mosheh, Aharon and Mir-Ya in their Osher, Hor and Eshet roles, or else to YHVH and Elohim and Ha Elohim in their Geb and Ra equivalences, but the Golden Calf was more difficult, because nothing in the Yisra-Eli cult could be equivalated. The Redactor would probably have preferred just to expunge it, but it is too central to the tale for that, so it had to be outlawed. The tale of how the wicker man Guy Faux turned into the Gunpowder Plotter Guy Fawkes makes for an interesting comparison - click here.
20:20 MIZBACH ADAMAH TA'ASEH LI, VE ZAVACHTA ALAV ET OLOTEYCHA VE ET SHELAMEYCHA ET TSONCHA VE ET BEKARECHA BE CHOL HA MAKOM ASHER AZKIR ET SHEMI AVO ELEYCHA U VERACHTIYCHA
מִזְבַּח אֲדָמָה תַּעֲשֶׂה לִּי וְזָבַחְתָּ עָלָיו אֶת עֹלֹתֶיךָ וְאֶת שְׁלָמֶיךָ אֶת צֹאנְךָ וְאֶת בְּקָרֶךָ בְּכָל הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר אַזְכִּיר אֶת שְׁמִי אָבוֹא אֵלֶיךָ וּבֵרַכְתִּיךָ
KJ (20:24): An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.
BN: "You shall make an altar of earth for me, and sacrifice on it your meat-offerings, and your peace-offerings, your sheep, and your oxen; in every place where I cause my name to be mentioned I will come to you and bless you...
Seeming to infer that altars may only be made of earth, and not of wood or stone; but the next verse will clarify that.
OLOTEYCHA does not mean burnt-offerings; that would be KURBANECHA (קרבנך); this can be any level of animal sacrifice - click here for the full detail.
BE CHOL HA MAKOM: Importantly for the later centralisation of Yisra-El upon the Temple, this formally permits, even encourages, multiple shrines. It also conflicts with the later Prophetic injunction that YHVH does not want sacrifices, but only obedience. Starting here, one of the two major conflicts in the development of the cult of the Beney Yisra-El: Priests versus Prophets, and Priests versus Rabbis (Saducees versus Pharisees).
I have asked this before, and will no doubt ask it again, but it is something that I am completely at a loss to explain, unless it is merely a variation of dialect or over time: why is it MIZBACH here, but elsewhere MIZBE'ACH?
20:21 VE IM MIZBACH AVANIM TA'ASEH LI LO TIVNEH ET'HEN GAZIT KI CHARBECHA HENAPHTA ALEYHA VE TECHALELEHA
וְאִם מִזְבַּח אֲבָנִים תַּעֲשֶׂה לִּי לֹא תִבְנֶה אֶתְהֶן גָּזִית כִּי חַרְבְּךָ הֵנַפְתָּ עָלֶיהָ וַתְּחַלְלֶהָ
KJ (20:25): And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
BN: And if you make me an altar of stone, do not build it of hewn stones; for if you lift up your tool upon it, you have profaned it...
Tell that to Shelomoh (King Solomon), or to Ezra and Nechem-Yah! The first and second Temples were both built of hewn stones (click here), as confirmed, for example, in 1 Chronicles 22:1/2. Why does it profane it? Because the god of the Beney Yisra-El is Creation itself, and it is not only art and sculpture that count as graven images, but "you shall not make a graven image of anything under the heavens"; so even to carve stone into an altar changes Nature, and is therefore unacceptable. As this applies to all shrines, it must apply even to the modern synagogue, though self-evidently it does not.
But it is also a law that is not applied consistently, even by the deity, because metal is permitted to be compounded, and Betsal-El will be employed to make all manner of items in wrought iron, while gold and silver refinement for the purpose of enjewelling the Temple, or the vain humans themselves, will all be fully authorised, and evem, in some cases, required.
But it is also a law that is not applied consistently, even by the deity, because metal is permitted to be compounded, and Betsal-El will be employed to make all manner of items in wrought iron, while gold and silver refinement for the purpose of enjewelling the Temple, or the vain humans themselves, will all be fully authorised, and evem, in some cases, required.
ET'HEN: Is ET'HEN not plural? And feminine plural at that.
20:22 VE LO TA'ALEH VE MA'ALOT AL MIZBECHI ASHER LO TIGALEH ERVAT'CHA ALAV
וְלֹא תַעֲלֶה בְמַעֲלֹת עַל מִזְבְּחִי אֲשֶׁר לֹא תִגָּלֶה עֶרְוָתְךָ עָלָיו
KJ (20:26): Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.
BN: Nor shall you go up to my altar by steps, so that your nakedness shall not be uncovered by doing so.
TA'ALEH: Instead, at least in the Temple, there was a ramp - though I would suggest that the risk of looking up people's linen tunics was less the issue than getting the sacrificial animals to the altar; cows and sheep don't generally find steps easy, and if they baulked at the steps they would ten not be in a fit state of calm acceptance to be sacrificed.
Several of the Psalms are known as "Shirey Ma'alot", and they were specifically sung on two occasions: by the pilgrims going up to Yeru-Shala'im, and by the choir as it ascended the ramp to the altar in the Temple. That word - "ramp" - is the key. Nothing is stated in the Bible, except the concern of this verse, but the probability is that it was a reaction against the temples of Babylon, the Ziggurats, which were stepped in their general construction, as well as accessed by staircases; because these were "pagan", those of the Beney Yisra-El had to be different. A ramp is not the same as a set of steps.
pey break
TA'ALEH: Instead, at least in the Temple, there was a ramp - though I would suggest that the risk of looking up people's linen tunics was less the issue than getting the sacrificial animals to the altar; cows and sheep don't generally find steps easy, and if they baulked at the steps they would ten not be in a fit state of calm acceptance to be sacrificed.
Several of the Psalms are known as "Shirey Ma'alot", and they were specifically sung on two occasions: by the pilgrims going up to Yeru-Shala'im, and by the choir as it ascended the ramp to the altar in the Temple. That word - "ramp" - is the key. Nothing is stated in the Bible, except the concern of this verse, but the probability is that it was a reaction against the temples of Babylon, the Ziggurats, which were stepped in their general construction, as well as accessed by staircases; because these were "pagan", those of the Beney Yisra-El had to be different. A ramp is not the same as a set of steps.
pey break
My commentaries on the Book of Exodus all demonstrate that the Passover was an ancient Egyptian festival, commemorating the rebirth of the year at Springtime, culminating in this covenant-renewal ceremony, long before it became the Yisra-Eli Pesach. My essay on "Creation" continues this theme, comparing the Creation myths of several other peoples, and noting especially that, central to every one of them, is the creation of what are called "The Tablets of Fate" or "The Tablets of Destiny", usually strapped to the hero's chest in the manner of the Urim and Tumim among the Beney Yisra-El, sometimes in the form of clay tablets, like the ones that Mosheh is about to scribe.
As per my comments at the beginning of the next chapter, we are about to enter a section which makes no contextual sense, given that it elaborates in great detail laws that have not yet been given, and does so before Mosheh goes up the mountain to obtan them. I shall not repeat my comments here, except to note that the laws for the making of the altar are themselves resumed, at Exodus 27:1, and at Exodus 30:1, with Mosheh building his own altar at 24:4 ff, and the laws relating to its for sacrificial purpoes in Exodus 29.
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As per my comments at the beginning of the next chapter, we are about to enter a section which makes no contextual sense, given that it elaborates in great detail laws that have not yet been given, and does so before Mosheh goes up the mountain to obtan them. I shall not repeat my comments here, except to note that the laws for the making of the altar are themselves resumed, at Exodus 27:1, and at Exodus 30:1, with Mosheh building his own altar at 24:4 ff, and the laws relating to its for sacrificial purpoes in Exodus 29.
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The Exodus v Deuteronomy Ten Commandments
Exodus:
"I am YHVH your god, who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me...
"You shall not make for yourselves any graven images, nor any kind of likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is on the Earth beneath, or that is in the water under the Earth...
"You shall not prostrate yourself before them, nor serve them; for I, YHVH your god, am a jealous god, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of those who hate me...
"And showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments...
"You shall not take YHVH's name in vain; for YHVH will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain...
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it separate... For in six days YHVH made the heavens and the Earth, the sea, and everything that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; and this is why YHVH blessed the Sabbath day, and set it apart... For six days you shall labour, and do all your work... "But the seventh day is a Sabbath to YHVH your god; on it you shall not do any manner of work, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor any man-servant, nor any maid-servant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger who is within your gates... For in six days YHVH made the heavens and the Earth, the sea, and everything that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; and this is why YHVH blessed the Sabbath day, and set it apart ...
"Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which YHVH your god has given to you...
"Do not murder. {S} Do not commit adultery. {S} Do not steal. {S} Do not bear false witness against your neighbour. {S}
Plus:
Deuteronomy:
"I am YHVH your god, who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me...
"Do not murder. {S} Do not commit adultery. {S} Do not steal. {S} Do not bear false witness against your neighbour. {S}
Plus:
"Do not make gods of silver out of me. And do not make gods of gold for yourselves...
Deuteronomy:
"I am YHVH your god, who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me...
"You shall not make for yourselves any graven image, or any manner of representation, of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is on the Earth beneath, or that is in the waters underneath the earth...
"You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them; for I YHVH your god am a jealous god, who will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the third and upon the fourth generation of those who hate me...
"And showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments...
"You shall not take the name of YHVH your god in vain; for YHVH will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain...
"Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as YHVH your god has instructed you...
"For six days you shall labour, and do all your work...
"But the seventh day is a Sabbath to YHVH your god, on it you shall not do any form of work, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your man-servant, nor your maid-servant, nor your ox, nor your ass, nor any of your cattle, nor the stranger who is within your gates; that your man-servant and your maid-servant may rest as well as you...
"And you shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Mitsrayim, and YHVH your god brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore YHVH your god instructed you to keep the Sabbath day...
"Honour your father and your mother, as YHVH your god instructed you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you, upon the land which YHVH your god is giving you...
"Do not commit murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness against your neighbour...
"Do not covet your neighbour's wife; do not desire your neighbour's house, his field, or his man-servant, or his maid-servant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is your neighbour's."
"Do not covet your neighbour's wife; do not desire your neighbour's house, his field, or his man-servant, or his maid-servant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is your neighbour's."
Exodus: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13a 13b 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30a 30b 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38a 38b 39 40
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The Argaman Press
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