The Ten Commandments

Rules for a successful life in freedom

Exodus 20:1-17

1 And God spoke all these words, saying: 2 I am YHWH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 

3 Thou shalt have no other gods beside me. 

4 Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, nor any likeness of those things which are in heaven above, or things which are in the earth beneath, or things which are in the waters under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them; for I, YHWH your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of those who hate me; 6 and showing kindness, by thousands, to those who love me and observe my commandments.

7 Thou shalt not speak the name of YHWH thy God to vain things: for YHWH will not count him blameless that speaketh his name to vain things. 

8 Remember the Shabbat day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is Shabbat unto YHWH thy God: thou shalt do no work at all, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and thy cattle, and thy stranger that is within thy gates. 11 For in six days YHWH made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; therefore YHWH blessed the Shabbat day and sanctified it.

12 Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be prolonged in the land which YHWH thy God giveth thee.

13 You shall not kill.

14 You shall not commit adultery.

15 Thou shalt not steal.

16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

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 thy neighbour hath.