The Ten Commandments
Exodus 20:1-17
On Mount Sinai, amid fire, cloud, and thunder, God made a covenant with his people and gave them his commandments: the “ten words.” Exodus 20:1-17
The story, in plain words
In the third month after leaving Egypt, the Israelites came to the desert of Sinai. They camped in front of the mountain. Exodus 19:1-2
Moses went up to God. The Lord told him that if they kept his covenant (his pact with them), they would be his special people. Exodus 19:3-5
All the people answered with one voice that they would do what the Lord had said. Exodus 19:8
On the third day there was thunder and lightning, and a thick cloud covered the mountain. A horn sounded with a very loud blast, like a trumpet. Exodus 19:16 All…
The rest of the story is part of the subscription.
See the mapWhat the Bible says
Exodus 20:1-17
1And the Lord spoke all these words: 2I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. 4Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. 5Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me: 6And shewing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments. 7Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain. 8Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day. 9Six days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy works. 10But on the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work on it, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy beast, nor the stranger that is within thy gates. 11For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, and rested on the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it. 12Honour thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest be longlived upon the land which the Lord thy God will give thee. 13Thou shalt not kill. 14Thou shalt not commit adultery. 15Thou shalt not steal. 16Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 17Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house: neither shalt thou desire his wife, nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
To talk about together
- Before giving the commandments, God reminded them that he had brought his people out of slavery. Why do you think he began that way?
- Which of the commandments do you think is hardest to live today?
- For the child: how can you honor your dad and your mom today?