THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Moses is the founder of the Jewish people, and the leader who freed them from slavery in Egypt. Moses protected the Jews from the wrath of God, and negotiated with God on their behalf.

The Bible clearly sees Moses as the founder of the faith, Abraham is the founder of the nation. Moses is the author of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible (also called The Pentateuch or the Torah ), and the establisher of Jewish law in the Mosaic code . When Moses was 80, God spoke to him on Mount Sinai through a burning bush and ordered him to go back to Egypt and lead the Hebrew people out of slavery.

Three months after leaving Egypt, Moses went up the mountain alone and stayed there for 40 days, during which time God gave him the Ten Commandments carved on stone tablets, and taught Moses various other laws.

After seeing that the Israelites had gone astray during his absence and his brother Aaron had made the Golden Calf, Moses broke the tablets (Exodus 32:19).

God subsequently commanded Moses to carve two other tablets like the first (Exodus 34:1)

  1. “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt… You shall have no other gods before me.
  2. “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
  3. “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
  4. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
  5. “Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
  6. “You shall not kill.
  7. “You shall not commit adultery.
  8. “You shall not steal.
  9. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
  10. “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbour’s. “Exodus 20: 1-17
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