The Ten Commandments

¹And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. ²xThe Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. ³yNot with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. ⁴The Lord spoke with you zface to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, ⁵awhile I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord. For byou were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain. He said:

⁶c“‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

⁷“‘You shall have no other gods before1 me.

⁸“‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁹You 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 fourth generation of those who hate me, ¹⁰but showing steadfast love to dthousands2 of those who love me and keep my commandments.

¹¹“‘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.

¹²“‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹³Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁴but ethe 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 or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, fthat your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. ¹⁵gYou shall remember that you were a slave3 in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there hwith a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

¹⁶“‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, ithat your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

¹⁷j“‘You shall not murder.4

¹⁸j“‘And you shall not commit adultery.

¹⁹“‘And you shall not steal.

²⁰“‘And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

²¹“‘And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.’

²²“These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly kat the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more. And lhe wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. ²³And mas soon as you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes, and your elders. ²⁴And you said, ‘Behold, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and ngreatness, and owe have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man, and man pstill live. ²⁵Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. qIf we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we shall die. ²⁶pFor who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of fire as we have, and has still lived? ²⁷Go near and hear all that the Lord our God will say, and rspeak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.’

²⁸“And the Lord heard your words, when you spoke to me. And the Lord said to me, ‘I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. sThey are right in all that they have spoken. ²⁹tOh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, uthat it might go well with them and with their descendants5 forever! ³⁰Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” ³¹But you, stand here by me, and vI will tell you the whole commandment and the statutes and the rules that you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess.’ ³²You shall be careful therefore to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. wYou shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. ³³xYou shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and ythat it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.

I Cry Out Day and Night Before You

A Song. A Psalm of zthe Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to aMahalath Leannoth. A Maskil1 of bHeman the Ezrahite.

¹O Lord, cGod of my salvation,

I dcry out day and night before you.

²Let my prayer come before you;

eincline your ear to my cry!

³For my soul is full of troubles,

and fmy life draws near to gSheol.

⁴I am counted among those who hgo down to the pit;

I am a man who has no strength,

⁵like one set loose among the dead,

like the slain that lie in the grave,

like those whom iyou remember no more,

for they are jcut off from your hand.

⁶You have put me in kthe depths of the pit,

in the lregions dark and mdeep.

⁷Your wrath nlies heavy upon me,

and you overwhelm me with oall your waves. Selah

⁸You have caused pmy companions to shun me;

you have made me qa horror2 to them.

I am rshut in so that I cannot escape;

⁹smy eye grows dim through sorrow.

Every day I call upon you, O Lord;

I tspread out my hands to you.

¹⁰Do you work wonders for the dead?

uDo the departed rise up to praise you? Selah

¹¹Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,

or your faithfulness in Abaddon?

¹²Are your vwonders known in wthe darkness,

or your righteousness in the land of xforgetfulness?

¹³But I, O Lord, cry yto you;

zin the morning my prayer comes before you.

¹⁴O Lord, why ado you cast my soul away?

Why bdo you hide your face from me?

¹⁵Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,

I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.3

¹⁶Your wrath has swept over me;

your cdreadful assaults destroy me.

¹⁷They dsurround me like a flood eall day long;

they fclose in on me together.

¹⁸You have caused gmy beloved and my friend to shun me;

my companions have become darkness.4

O Lord, Be Gracious to Us

¹lAh, you destroyer,

who yourself have not been destroyed,

you traitor,

whom none has betrayed!

When you have ceased to destroy,

you will be destroyed;

and when you have finished betraying,

they will betray you.

²O Lord, be gracious to us; mwe wait for you.

Be our arm every morning,

our salvation in the time of trouble.

³nAt the tumultuous noise peoples flee;

when you lift yourself up, nations are scattered,

⁴and your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;

oas locusts leap, it is leapt upon.

⁵pThe Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;

he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,

⁶qand he will be the stability of your times,

abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;

the fear of the Lord is Zion's1 treasure.

⁷Behold, their heroes cry in the streets;

rthe envoys of peace weep bitterly.

⁸sThe highways lie waste;

the traveler ceases.

tCovenants are broken;

cities2 are despised;

there is no regard for man.

⁹uThe land mourns and languishes;

Lebanon is confounded and withers away;

Sharon is like a desert,

and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.

¹⁰v“Now I will arise,” says the Lord,

“now I will lift myself up;

now I will be exalted.

¹¹wYou conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble;

your breath is xa fire that will consume you.

¹²And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,

xlike thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”

¹³Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;

and you who are near, acknowledge my might.

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid;

trembling has seized the godless:

y“Who among us can dwell zwith the consuming fire?

Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”

¹⁵aHe who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,

who despises the gain of oppressions,

who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,

who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed

band shuts his eyes from looking on evil,

¹⁶he will dwell on the heights;

his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks;

chis bread will be given him; his water will be sure.

¹⁷dYour eyes will behold the king in his beauty;

ethey will see a land that stretches afar.

¹⁸fYour heart will muse on the terror:

“Where is he who counted, where is ghe who weighed the tribute?

Where is hhe who counted the towers?”

¹⁹iYou will see no more the insolent people,

the people jof an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,

stammering in a tongue that you cannot understand.

²⁰Behold Zion, the city of our appointed feasts!

kYour eyes will see Jerusalem,

an untroubled habitation, an limmovable tent,

whose stakes will never be plucked up,

nor will any of its cords be broken.

²¹But there the Lord in majesty will be for us

a place of mbroad rivers and streams,

nwhere no galley with oars can go,

nor majestic ship can pass.

²²For the Lord is our ojudge; the Lord is our plawgiver;

the Lord is our qking; he will save us.

²³Your cords hang loose;

they cannot hold the mast firm in its place

or keep the sail spread out.

rThen prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;

even sthe lame will take the prey.

²⁴And no inhabitant will say, t“I am sick”;

uthe people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.

To the Church in Sardis

¹“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him iwho has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.

“‘I know your works. You have the reputation jof being alive, kbut you are dead. ²Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works lcomplete in the sight of my God. ³mRemember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, nI will come olike a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. ⁴Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not psoiled their garments, and they will walk with me qin white, for they are rworthy. ⁵sThe one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never tblot his name out of uthe book of life. vI will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. ⁶pHe who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

To the Church in Philadelphia

⁷“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of wthe holy one, xthe true one, ywho has the key of David, zwho opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.

⁸“‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you aan open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. ⁹Behold, I will make those of bthe synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, cI will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that dI have loved you. ¹⁰eBecause you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try fthose who dwell on the earth. ¹¹gI am coming soon. hHold fast what you have, so that no one may seize iyour crown. ¹²jThe one who conquers, I will make him ka pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him lthe name of my God, and mthe name of the city of my God, mthe new Jerusalem, nwhich comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own onew name. ¹³pHe who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

To the Church in Laodicea

¹⁴“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the pAmen, qthe faithful and true witness, rthe beginning of God's creation.

¹⁵“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. sWould that you were either cold or hot! ¹⁶So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. ¹⁷tFor you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, ublind, and naked. ¹⁸I counsel you vto buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and wwhite garments so that you may clothe yourself and xthe shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, uso that you may see. ¹⁹yThose whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. ²⁰Behold, I stand at the door and zknock. aIf anyone hears my voice and opens the door, bI will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. ²¹cThe one who conquers, dI will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as eI also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. ²²pHe who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”