Bible chapter guide

Exodus 20

God speaks the Ten Commandments: no other gods, no idols, not misusing his name, the Sabbath, honouring parents, and no murder, adultery, theft, false witness or coveting. The people, afraid, ask Moses to speak to them instead, and God gives the law of the altar.

Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.

What happens in this chapter

God speaks the ten words to the whole people, beginning not with a command but with who he is: the LORD who brought them "out of the house of bondage". The first commands concern God himself (no other gods, no carved images, no misuse of his name, the Sabbath), and the rest life with others: honouring parents, and no murder, adultery, theft, false witness or coveting. The people see the thunder, lightning and smoke, hear the trumpet, tremble and stand far off, and ask Moses to speak to them instead. Moses goes into the thick darkness where God is, and the chapter ends with the law of the altar: earth or uncut stone, and no steps up to it.

What the lab shows, and where to look

The Exodus lab ends here, at The Ten Commandments: two tablets of stone at the foot of the mountain. Exodus says later that they were written on both sides (32:15); their size, shape and script in the lab are artistic, and the carved lines are not letters. The card notes that Jewish, Catholic and Lutheran, and Orthodox and Reformed traditions number the ten differently. For the altar law at the end of the chapter, the Tabernacle lab's Bronze Altar has a ramp, the reading of 'no steps' it marks plausible. Arrival at Sinai, the stop before, holds the thunder and smoke of verse 18.

Questions people ask

Why are the Ten Commandments numbered differently?

The text calls them ten words (Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 4:13) but does not number them. Jewish tradition counts verse 2, 'I am the LORD thy God', as the first word; Catholics and Lutherans join other gods and images into one and split coveting into two; Orthodox and Reformed churches, and most other Protestants, keep other gods and images apart. The content is the same in every count.

Strongly supported

Why do the commandments begin with what God has done?

Verse 2 comes before any command: God names himself as the one who brought Israel out of Egypt. The order matters in the text: the people are not freed because they keep the law; they are given the law because they have been freed. Deuteronomy 5:6 keeps the same opening.

Textually stated

Why were there to be no steps up to God's altar?

Verse 26 gives the reason: so that the priest's nakedness would not be exposed on it. Later the priests were given linen undergarments (Exodus 28:42). Both the Tabernacle and Solomon's Temple labs draw a ramp up to the altar, a reading they mark as plausible rather than stated.

Plausible

See it in the Labs

Also in this chapter

The law at Sinai Bronze Altar The LORD comes down on Sinai The Ten Commandments

How sure can we be?

Textually stated
The commandments begin with redemption: God first says what he has done, then what his people are to do.
Exodus 20:2 precedes every command.
Plausible
Priests went up to the altar by an earthen ramp, not by steps.
Exodus 20:26 forbids steps to an altar, and the Second Temple altar had a ramp (Mishnah Middot 3:3). The tabernacle texts mention no ramp; some think the priests stood on the ground or on the ledge.
Plausible
The priests reach the top by a ramp on the south side.
Exodus 20:26 forbids steps up to the altar; a ramp is the traditional answer (Mishnah Middot 3:3). Ezekiel's visionary altar, however, has steps facing east (Ezekiel 43:17).

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King James Version (KJV) Chinese Union Version, 1919 (Wikisource)