Exodus 20 – The Ten Commandments Given at Sinai
God speaks the Ten Commandments directly to Israel.
With the mountain still trembling from the scene set in Exodus 19, God himself speaks the Ten Commandments directly to the people rather than through Moses. The list opens with worship, rejecting other gods and idols, and moves through the Sabbath and honoring parents before turning to murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and covetousness.
And the Lord spak alle these wordis, Y am thi Lord God,
that ladde thee out of the lond of Egipt, fro the hous of seruage.
Thou schalt not haue alien goddis bifore me.
Thou schalt not make to thee a grauun ymage, nethir ony licnesse of thing which is in heuene aboue, and which is in erthe bynethe, nether of tho thingis, that ben in watris vndur erthe; thou schalt not `herie tho,
nether `thou schalt worschipe; for Y am thi Lord God, a stronge gelouse louyere; and Y visite the wickidnesse of fadris in to the thridde and the fourthe generacioun of hem that haten me,
and Y do mercy in to `a thousynde, to hem that louen me, and kepen myn heestis.
Thou schalt not take in veyn the name of thi Lord God, for the Lord schal not haue hym giltles, that takith in veyn the name of his Lord God.
Haue thou mynde, that thou halowe the `dai of the sabat;
in sixe daies thou schalt worche and schalt do alle thi werkis;
forsothe in the seuenthe day is the sabat of thi Lord God; thou schalt not do ony werk, thou, and thi sone, and thi douytir, and thi seruaunt, and thin handmaide, thi werk beeste, and the comelyng which is withynne thi yatis;
for in sixe dayes God made heuene and erthe, the see, and alle thingis that ben in tho, and restide in the seuenthe dai; herfor the Lord blesside the `dai of the sabat, and halewide it.
Onoure thi fadir and thi moder, that thou be long lyuyng on the lond, which thi Lord God schal yyue to thee.
Thou schalt not sle.
Thou schalt `do no letcherie.
Thou schalt `do no theft.
Thou schalt not speke fals witnessyng ayens thi neiybore.
Thou schalt not coueyte `the hous of thi neiybore, nether thou schalt desyre his wijf, not seruaunt, not handmaide, not oxe, not asse, nether alle thingis that ben hise.
Forsothe al the puple herde voices, and siy laumpis, and the sowne of a clarioun, and the hil smokynge; and thei weren afeerd, and schakun with inward drede, and stoden afer,
and seiden to Moises, Speke thou to vs, and we schulen here; the Lord speke not to vs, lest perauenture we dien.
And Moises seide to the puple, Nyle ye drede, for God cam to proue you, and that his drede schulde be in you, and that ye schulden not do synne.
And the puple stood afer; forsothe Moises neiyede to the derknesse, wherynne God was.
And the Lord seide ferthermore to Moises, Thou schalt seie these thingis to the sones of Israel, Ye seiyen that fro heuene Y spak to you;
ye schulen not make goddis of silver, nethir ye schulen make to you goddis of gold.
Ye schulen make an auter of erthe to me, and ye schulen offre theronne youre brent sacrifices, and pesible sacrifices, youre scheep, and oxun, in ech place in which the mynde of my name schal be; Y schal come to thee, and Y schal blesse thee.
That if thou schalt make an auter of stoon to me, thou schalt not bilde it of stoonys hewun; for if thou schalt reise thi knyif theronne, it schal be `polluted, ether defoulid.
Thou schalt not stye bi grees to myn auter, lest thi filthe be schewid.