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20:1  God spoke, and these were his words:
20:2  “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves.
20:3  “Worship no god but me.
20:4  “Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth.
20:5  Do not bow down to any idol or worship it, because I am the Lord your God and I tolerate no rivals. I bring punishment on those who hate me and on their descendants down to the third and fourth generation.
20:6  But I show my love to thousands of generations of those who love me and obey my laws.
20:7  “Do not use my name for evil purposes, for I, the Lord your God, will punish anyone who misuses my name.
20:8  “Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy.
20:9  You have six days in which to do your work,
20:10  but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to me. On that day no one is to work—neither you, your children, your slaves, your animals, nor the foreigners who live in your country.
20:11  In six days I, the Lord, made the earth, the sky, the seas, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested. That is why I, the Lord, blessed the Sabbath and made it holy.
20:12  “Respect your father and your mother, so that you may live a long time in the land that I am giving you.
20:13  “Do not commit murder.
20:14  “Do not commit adultery.
20:15  “Do not steal.
20:16  “Do not accuse anyone falsely.
20:17  “Do not desire another man's house; do not desire his wife, his slaves, his cattle, his donkeys, or anything else that he owns.”
20:18  When the people heard the thunder and the trumpet blast and saw the lightning and the smoking mountain, they trembled with fear and stood a long way off.
20:19  They said to Moses, “If you speak to us, we will listen; but we are afraid that if God speaks to us, we will die.”
20:20  Moses replied, “Don't be afraid; God has only come to test you and make you keep on obeying him, so that you will not sin.”
20:21  But the people continued to stand a long way off, and only Moses went near the dark cloud where God was.
20:22  The Lord commanded Moses to tell the Israelites: “You have seen how I, the Lord, have spoken to you from heaven.
20:23  Do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gold to be worshiped in addition to me.
20:24  Make an altar of earth for me, and on it sacrifice your sheep and your cattle as offerings to be completely burned and as fellowship offerings. In every place that I set aside for you to worship me, I will come to you and bless you.
20:25  If you make an altar of stone for me, do not build it out of cut stones, because when you use a chisel on stones, you make them unfit for my use.
20:26  Do not build an altar for me with steps leading up to it; if you do, you will expose yourselves as you go up the steps.