Ten Commandments

e-mail response to the following verses
Should they be posted?

What about the second commandment?

Preamble:
From a given Bible which version of the Ten Commandments is really the Ten Commandments?

What is usually called Ten Commandments are listed in Ex 20:1 - 17.
However, the Bible does not call these the Ten Commandments.
What the Bible calls the  Ten Commandments are found in Ex 34:14 - 26

The Bible mentions the words "Ten commandments" in 3 places --
Ex 34:28, De 4:13, De 10:4.

Comment: - My comments are in special brackets {}.
(There are 613 commandments given in Old Testament, including the so called
"Ten Commandments" in 2 completely different versions.  The other 603 commandments
are on an equal footing in the Bible with the 10.  Why are they not upheld as
Commandments that must be obeyed? )

Compare the 2 versions in the table below:

     Ten Commandments 1 (?)      Ten Commandments 2
 Ex 20:1 - 17 What are usually called Ten Commandments, but the Bible does not  Ex 34:14 - 26  What the Bible calls the  Ten Commandments
 And God spake all these words, saying,

* 2 I [am] the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

1.


14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name [is] Jealous, [is] a jealous God:
15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and [one] call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
16 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.

{1st Commandment. Thou shalt worship no other god}

1.

* 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth:

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me;

6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

2.

Ex 34:17

Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

{2nd Commandment. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods}

2.
* 7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
3.

Ex 34:18

The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.
19 All that openeth the matrix [is] mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, [whether] ox or sheep, [that is male].
20 But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem [him] not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty.

{3rd Commandment. The feast of unleavened bread shalt
thou keep}

3.

* 8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

10 But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates:

11 For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

4.

21 Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.

{4th Commandment. Six days thou shalt work, but on the
seventh day thou shalt rest.}

4.
* 12 ¶ Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
5.

22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.

{5th Commandment. Thou shalt observe the feast of weeks.}

5.
* 13 Thou shalt not kill
6.

23 Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.
24 For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year.

{6th Commandment. Thrice in the year shall all your
menchildren appear before the Lord God.}

6.
* 14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
7.

25 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven;
(neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning).

{7th Commandment. Thou shalt not offer the blood
of my sacrifice with leaven. }

7.
* 15 Thou shalt not steal.
8.

25 (Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven;)
neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.

{8th Commandment. Neither shall the sacrifice of
the feast of the passover be left until the morning.}

8.
* 16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
9.

26 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God.
(Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.)

{9th Commandment. The first of the firstfruits
of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of
the Lord thy God.}

9.
* 17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour's.
10.

26 (The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God.)
Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

{10th Commandment. Thou shalt not seethe a
kid in his mother's milk.}

10.

God's Ten Commandments:

{Only the first, second, and fourth commandments are the same in the
2 versions of the Ten Commandments. Except that "molten" rather
than "graven" images are forbidden. All the others are totally different.
These are not additional commandments: they are "the words that were
in the first tables, which thou brakest". Nothing on homicide, theft and
perjury. 

{1. Of the important "Thou shalt's" about honoring your parents, not killing,
not committing adultery, not stealing, false witness, coveting there are no
real details to guide a person in obeying them -- How useful are they
for everyday realities?

2. The "Thou shalt's" do not end with the above
" Ex 20:17 Thou shalt not covet...". They continue with
commandments to Ex 24:4.  Why are these commandments
not included with the 10 listed above? }

Continuing:

Ex 24:4

And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

Ex 31:18

And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

Ex 32:19

And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.

{Because Moses broke the first 2 tablets, God made him 2 new ones and
wrote upon them what God calls the Ten Commandments in Ex 34:28.}


Second batch of commandments were supposed to be
the same as the first:

Ex 34:1 

And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon [these] tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.
2 And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.

{But as you can see in the table above, the second batch are not the words on the first tablets, which Moses broke!!}

Ex 34:4

And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.

Ex 34:28 

And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Ex 34:29

And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.

(The second set of tables are supposed to be exact duplicates of the first set)

Ex 34:27

And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.

Ex 34:28

And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

De 4:13

And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, [even] ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.

{This confused list of the 10 commandments is presented by some as the highest code of moral conduct
ever created. Have you ever been tempted to disobey the tenth commandment
about seething a kid in his mother's milk :-)? 
Thank goodness, we have in our western countries the secular laws that are not based on the
Ten Commandments that are called the "Ten Commandments" in the Bible}

O. Hooge

What about the penalties of not obeying the Commandments?

Back to Ethics in the Bible

Back to Homepage