Exodus 19; Exodus 20; Exodus 21

1 In the third month of the departure of Israel out of the land of Egypt, on this day they came into the wilderness of Sinai:

2 For departing out of Raphidim, and coming to the desert of Sinai, they camped in the same place, and there Israel pitched their tents over against the mountain.

3 And Moses went up to God; and the Lord called unto him from the mountain, and said: Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:

4 You have seen what I have done to the Egyptians, how I have carried you upon the wings of eagles, and have taken you to myself.

5 If therefore you will hear my voice, and keep my covenant, you shall be my peculiar possession above all people: for all the earth is mine.

6 And you shall be to me a priestly kingdom, and a holy nation. These are the words thou shalt speak to the children of Israel.

7 Moses came; and calling together the elders of the people, he declared all the words which the Lord had commanded.

8 And all the people answered together: All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do. And when Moses had related the people’s words to the Lord,

9 The Lord said to him: Lo, now will I come to thee in the darkness of a cloud, that the people may hear me speaking to thee, and may believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.

10 And he said to him: Go to the people, and sanctify them to day, and to morrow, and let them wash their garments.

11 And let them be ready against the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people, upon Mount Sinai.

12 And thou shalt appoint certain limits to the people round about, and thou shalt say to them: Take heed ye go not up into the mount, and that ye touch not the borders thereof: every one that toucheth the mount, dying he shall die.

13 No hands shall touch him, but he shall be stoned to death, or he shall be shot through with arrows: whether it be beast, or man, he shall not live. When the trumpet shall begin to sound, then let them go up into the mount.

14 And Moses came down from the mount to the people, and sanctified them. And when they had washed their garments,

15 He said to them: Be ready against the third day, and come not near your wives.

16 And now the third day was come, and the morning appeared: and behold thunders began to be heard, and lightning to flash, and a very thick cloud to cover the mount, and the noise of the trumpet sounded exceeding loud; and the people that was in the camp, feared.

17 And when Moses had brought them forth to meet God, from the place of the camp, they stood at the bottom of the mount.

18 And all Mount Sinai was on a smoke: because the Lord was come down upon it in fire, and the smoke arose from it as out of a furnace: and all the mount was terrible.

19 And the sound of the trumpet grew by degrees louder and louder, and was drawn out to a greater length: Moses spoke, and God answered him.

20 And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, in the very top of the mount, and he called Moses unto the top thereof. And when he was gone up thither,

21 He said unto him: Go down, and charge the people; lest they should have a mind to pass the limits to see the Lord, and a very great multitude of them should perish.

22 The priests also that come to the Lord, let them be sanctified, lest he strike them.

23 And Moses said to the Lord: The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai: for thou didst charge, and command, saying: Set limits about the mount, and sanctify it.

24 And the Lord said to him: Go, get thee down; and thou shalt come up, thou and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people pass the limits, nor come up to the Lord, lest he kill them.

25 And Moses went down to the people and told them all.

1 And the Lord spoke all these words:

2 I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3 Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.

4 Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth.

5 Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, 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 to them that love me, and keep my commandments.

7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain.

8 Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day.

9 Six days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy works.

10 But on the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work on it, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy beast, nor the stranger that is within thy gates.

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, and rested on the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.

12 Honour thy father and thy mother, that thou mayst be long lived upon the land which the Lord thy God will give thee.

13 Thou shalt not kill.

14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

15 Thou shalt not steal.

16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house; neither shalt thou desire his wife, nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his.

18 And all the people saw the voices and the flames, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mount smoking; and being terrified and struck with fear, they stood afar off,

19 Saying to Moses: Speak thou to us, and we will hear: let not the Lord speak to us, lest we die.

20 And Moses said to the people: Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that the dread of him might be in you, and you should not sin.

21 And the people stood afar off. But Moses went to the dark cloud wherein God was.

22 And the Lord said to Moses: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven.

23 You shall not make gods of silver, nor shall you make to yourselves gods of gold.

24 You shall make an altar of earth unto me, and you shall offer upon it your holocausts and peace offerings, your sheep and oxen, in every place where the memory of my name shall be: I will come to thee, and will bless thee.

25 And if thou make an altar of stone unto me, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones; for if thou lift up a tool upon it, it shall be defiled.

26 Thou shalt not go up by steps unto my altar, lest thy nakedness be discovered.

1 These are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.

2 If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve thee; in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

3 With what raiment he came in, with the like let him go out: if having a wife, his wife also shall go out with him.

4 But if his master gave him a wife, and she hath borne sons and daughters; the woman and her children shall be her master’s: but he himself shall go out with his raiment.

5 And if the servant shall say: I love my master and my wife and children, I will not go out free:

6 His master shall bring him to the gods, and he shall be set to the door and the posts, and he shall bore his ear through with an awl: and he shall be his servant for ever.

7 If any man sell his daughter to be a servant, she shall not go out as bondwomen are wont to go out.

8 If she displease the eyes of her master to whom she was delivered, he shall let her go: but he shall have no power to sell her to a foreign nation, if he despise her.

9 But if he have betrothed her to his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.

10 And if he take another wife for him, he shall provide her a marriage, and raiment, neither shall he refuse the price of her chastity.

11 If he do not these three things, she shall go out free without money.

12 He that striketh a man with a will to kill him, shall be put to death.

13 But he that did not lie in wait for him, but God delivered him into his hands: I will appoint thee a place to which he must flee.

14 If a man kill his neighbour on set purpose, and by lying in wait for him: thou shalt take him away from my altar that he may die.

15 He that striketh his father or mother, shall be put to death.

16 He that shall steal a man, and sell him, being convicted of the guilt, shall be put to death.

17 He that curseth his father or mother, shall die the death.

18 If men quarrel, and the one strike his neighbour with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:

19 If he rise again and walk abroad upon his staff, he that struck him shall be quit, yet so that he make restitution for his work, and for his expenses upon the physicians.

20 He that striketh his bondman, or bondwoman, with a rod, and they die under his hands, shall be guilty of the crime.

21 But if the party remain alive a day or two, he shall not be subject to the punishment, because it is his money.

22 If men quarrel, and one strike a woman with child and she miscarry indeed, but live herself: he shall be answerable for so much damage as the woman’s husband shall require, and as arbiters shall award.

23 But if her death ensue thereupon, he shall render life for life,

24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

26 If any man strike the eye of his manservant or maidservant, and leave them but one eye, he shall let them go free for the eye which he put out.

27 Also if he strike out a tooth of his manservant or maidservant, he shall in like manner make them free.

28 If an ox gore a man or a woman, and they die, he shall be stoned: and his flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall be quit.

29 But if the ox was wont to push with his horn yesterday, and the day before, and they warned his master, and he did not shut him up, and he shall kill a man or a woman: then the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.

30 And if they set a price upon him, he shall give for his life whatsoever is laid upon him.

31 If he have gored a son, or a daughter, he shall fall under the like sentence.

32 If he assault a bondman or bondwoman, he shall give thirty sicles of silver to their master, and the ox shall be stoned.

33 If a man open a pit, and dig one, and cover it not, and an ox or an ass fall into it,

34 The owner of the pit shall pay the price of the beasts: and that which is dead shall be his own.

35 If one man’s ox gore another man’s ox, and he die: they shall sell the live ox, and shall divide the price, and the carcass of that which died they shall part between them:

36 But if he knew that his ox was wont to push yesterday, and the day before, and his master did not keep him in; he shall pay ox for ox, and shall take the whole carcass.