Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.
And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.
The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to look and many of them perish.
Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them.”
And Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it.’”
And the Lord said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them.”
So Moses went down to the people and told them.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved 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 on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
“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.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, 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 on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off
Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.”
The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven.
“Now these are the rules that you shall set before them.
When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.
If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out alone.
But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’
then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.
“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.
“When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed,
then if the man rises again and walks outdoors with his staff, he who struck him shall be clear; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall have him thoroughly healed.
“When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged.
But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.
“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine.
“When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye.
If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth.
“When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall not be liable.
But if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.
If a ransom is imposed on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed on him.
If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
the owner of the pit shall make restoration. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead beast shall be his.
“When one man's ox butts another's, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and share its price, and the dead beast also they shall share.
Or if it is known that the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he shall repay ox for ox, and the dead beast shall be his.
but if the sun has risen on him, there shall be bloodguilt for him. He shall surely pay. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.
If the stolen beast is found alive in his possession, whether it is an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he shall pay double.
“If a man causes a field or vineyard to be grazed over, or lets his beast loose and it feeds in another man's field, he shall make restitution from the best in his own field and in his own vineyard.
“If fire breaks out and catches in thorns so that the stacked grain or the standing grain or the field is consumed, he who started the fire shall make full restitution.
“If a man gives to his neighbor money or goods to keep safe, and it is stolen from the man's house, then, if the thief is found, he shall pay double.
If the thief is not found, the owner of the house shall come near to God to show whether or not he has put his hand to his neighbor's property.
For every breach of trust, whether it is for an ox, for a donkey, for a sheep, for a cloak, or for any kind of lost thing, of which one says, ‘This is it,’ the case of both parties shall come before God. The one whom God condemns shall pay double to his neighbor.
an oath by the Lord shall be between them both to see whether or not he has put his hand to his neighbor's property. The owner shall accept the oath, and he shall not make restitution.
“If a man borrows anything of his neighbor, and it is injured or dies, the owner not being with it, he shall make full restitution.
If the owner was with it, he shall not make restitution; if it was hired, it came for its hiring fee.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
ESV® Permanent Text Edition (2016). The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers.
Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.