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Text -- Exodus 20:5-26 (NET)
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Strongs On/Off
Context
20:5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I , the Lord , your God , am a jealous God , responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations of those who reject me,
20:6 and showing covenant faithfulness to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments .
20:7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain , for the Lord will not hold guiltless anyone who takes his name in vain .
20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day to set it apart as holy .
20:9 For six days you may labor and do all your work ,
20:10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God ; on it you shall not do any work , you , or your son , or your daughter , or your male servant , or your female servant , or your cattle , or the resident foreigner who is in your gates .
20:11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day ; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy .
20:12 “Honor your father and your mother , that you may live a long time in the land the Lord your God is giving to you.
20:13 “You shall not murder .
20:14 “You shall not commit adultery .
20:15 “You shall not steal .
20:16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor .
20:17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house . You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife , nor his male servant , nor his female servant , nor his ox , nor his donkey , nor anything that belongs to your neighbor .”
20:18 All the people were seeing the thundering and the lightning , and heard the sound of the horn , and saw the mountain smoking – and when the people saw it they trembled with fear and kept their distance .
20:19 They said to Moses , “You speak to us and we will listen , but do not let God speak with us, lest we die .”
20:20 Moses said to the people , “Do not fear , for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you so that you do not sin .”
20:21 The people kept their distance , but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.
The Altar
20:22 The Lord said to Moses : “Thus you will tell the Israelites : ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken with you from heaven .
20:23 You must not make gods of silver alongside me, nor make gods of gold for yourselves.
20:24 ‘You must make for me an altar made of earth , and you will sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings , your sheep and your cattle . In every place where I cause my name to be honored I will come to you and I will bless you.
20:25 If you make me an altar of stone , you must not build it of stones shaped with tools , for if you use your tool on it you have defiled it.
20:26 And you must not go up by steps to my altar , so that your nakedness is not exposed .’
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Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics
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Names, People and Places:
Dictionary Themes and Topics:
Decalogue |
ARK OF THE COVENANT |
ISRAEL, RELIGION OF, 2 |
SANCTUARY |
ISRAEL, HISTORY OF, 1 |
LEVITICUS, 2 |
Israel |
TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT |
LAW IN THE OLD TESTAMENT |
BIBLE, THE, IV CANONICITY |
TEN COMMANDMENTS, THE |
EXODUS, THE BOOK OF, 3-4 |
Sinai |
CRITICISM OF THE BIBLE |
ETHICS, III |
HAMMURABI, CODE OF |
Revelation |
GOVERNMENT |
EXODUS, THE BOOK OF, 2 |
COVENANT, BOOK OF THE |
more
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expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes -> Exo 20:5; Exo 20:5; Exo 20:5; Exo 20:5; Exo 20:5; Exo 20:6; Exo 20:6; Exo 20:7; Exo 20:7; Exo 20:7; Exo 20:8; Exo 20:8; Exo 20:8; Exo 20:9; Exo 20:9; Exo 20:9; Exo 20:10; Exo 20:10; Exo 20:10; Exo 20:12; Exo 20:12; Exo 20:12; Exo 20:13; Exo 20:14; Exo 20:15; Exo 20:16; Exo 20:16; Exo 20:17; Exo 20:17; Exo 20:18; Exo 20:18; Exo 20:18; Exo 20:18; Exo 20:18; Exo 20:18; Exo 20:19; Exo 20:20; Exo 20:20; Exo 20:20; Exo 20:21; Exo 20:21; Exo 20:21; Exo 20:22; Exo 20:22; Exo 20:23; Exo 20:23; Exo 20:23; Exo 20:24; Exo 20:24; Exo 20:24; Exo 20:24; Exo 20:25; Exo 20:25; Exo 20:25; Exo 20:26
NET Notes: Exo 20:5 This is an important qualification to the principle. The word rendered “reject” is often translated “hate” and carries with it...
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NET Notes: Exo 20:6 Heb “to thousands” or “to thousandth.” After “tenth,” Hebrew uses cardinal numbers for ordinals also. This stateme...
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NET Notes: Exo 20:8 The Piel infinitive construct provides the purpose of remembering the Sabbath day – to set it apart, to make it distinct from the other days. Ve...
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NET Notes: Exo 20:10 The Sabbath day was the sign of the Sinaitic Covenant. It required Israel to cease from ordinary labors and devote the day to God. It required Israel ...
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NET Notes: Exo 20:12 The promise here is national rather than individual, although it is certainly true that the blessing of life was promised for anyone who was obedient ...
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NET Notes: Exo 20:13 The verb רָצַח (ratsakh) refers to the premeditated or accidental taking of the life of another human being; it includes...
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NET Notes: Exo 20:14 This is a sin against the marriage of a fellow citizen – it destroys the home. The Law distinguished between adultery (which had a death penalty...
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NET Notes: Exo 20:15 This law protected the property of the Israelite citizen. See D. Little, “Exodus 20,15: ‘Thou Shalt Not Steal’,” Int 34 (1980)...
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NET Notes: Exo 20:16 The expression עֵד שָׁקֶר (’ed shaqer) means “a lying witness” (B. S. Childs, ...
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NET Notes: Exo 20:17 See further G. Wittenburg, “The Tenth Commandment in the Old Testament,” Journal for Theology in South Africa 21 (1978): 3-17: and E. W. N...
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NET Notes: Exo 20:19 The verb is a Piel imperative. In this context it has more of the sense of a request than a command. The independent personal pronoun “you”...
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NET Notes: Exo 20:20 The negative form לְבִלְתִּי (lÿvilti) is used here with the imperfect tense (see for...
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NET Notes: Exo 20:21 It will not be hard to expound the passage on the Ten Commandments once their place in scripture has been determined. They, for the most part, are rei...
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NET Notes: Exo 20:23 U. Cassuto explains that by the understanding of parallelism each of the halves apply to the whole verse, so that “with me” and “for...
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NET Notes: Exo 20:24 The verb is זָכַר (zakhar, “to remember”), but in the Hiphil especially it can mean more than remember or ca...
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NET Notes: Exo 20:25 The verb is a preterite with vav (ו) consecutive. It forms the apodosis in a conditional clause: “if you lift up your tool on it…you...
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