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Student Text

The Four Biblical Decalogues

The Ten Commandments version in Exodus Chapter 34 is thought by many Biblical scholars to be closest to what may have existed in Solomon's time. They identify the author as the "J" author who lived in Judah. He is called "J" because he consistently uses YHWH (pronounced Yahweh) as the name of God. (The scholarly analysis first was worked out by Germans, and "J" in German sounds like the English "Y.")

From Exodus Chapter 34. Note: Most English language Bible versions--like the New Revised Standard Version--substitue ""the LORD" for the Hebrew text's YHWH.

The LORD said to Moses, "Cut two tablets of stone.... 2) Be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me, on the top of the mountain.... 5) The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name, "The LORD." 6) The LORD passed before him, and proclaimed,
"The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7) keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. [The NRSV spaces this paragraph differently, as if lines in a poem.]
8) And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. 9) He said "If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance." 10) He said: I hereby make a covenant, Before all your people I will perform marvels, such as have not been performed in all the earth or in any nation; and all the people among whom you live shall see the work of the LORD; for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. 11) Observe what I command you today. See, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 12) Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, or it will become a snare among you. 13) You shall tear down their altars, break their pillars, and cut down their sacred poles 14) for you shall worship no other god, because the LORD whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God). 15) You shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, someone among them will invite you, and you will eat of the sacrifice. 16) And you will take wives from among their daughters for your sons, and their daughters who prostitute themselves to their gods will make your sons also prostitute themselves to their gods.
17) You shall not make cast idols.
18) You shall keep the festival of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.
19) All that first opens the womb is mine, all your male livestock, the first-born of cow and sheep. 20) The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem.
No one shall appear before me empty-handed.
21) Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in plowing time and in harvest time you shall rest. 22) You shall observe the festival of weeks, the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the festival of ingathering at the turn of the year. 23) Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the LORD God, the God of Israel. 24) For I will cast out nations before you, and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times in the year.
25) You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, and the sacrifice of the festival of the passover shall not be left until the morning.
26) The best of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
27) The LORD said to Moses: Write these words; in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel. 28) He was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

This second listing of the Commandments comes from Exodus Chapter 20. It's author is known as "E" who reflects the northern kingdom's emphasis. He's known as "E" because he used the Hebrew word "Elohim" (which is translated as God) until his narrative says that Moses was told by God that his name was YHWH.

From Exodus Chapter 20.

Then God spoke all these words: 2) I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3) You shall have no other gods before me.
        4) You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5) You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, 6) but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
        7) You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.        
 8) Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9) Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10) But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work--you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.
11) For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
        12) Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
        13) You shall not murder.
        14) You shall not commit adultery.
        15) You shall not steal.
        16) You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
        17) You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave,or ox, or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
        18) When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightening, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, 19) and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die. 20) Moses said to the people. "Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin."   21) Then the people stood at a distance, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. [More commandments follow relating to altar construction, directions for sacrifices, instructions on the treatment of slaves, etcetera.]

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