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Historical

Read the books of the Bible as they were written historically, according to the estimated date of their writing.

Duration: 365 days

Exodus 19-21

VI. Covenant and Legislation at Mount Sinai

Chapter 19

Arrival at Sinai. ¹^(A)In the third month after the Israelites’ departure from the land of Egypt, on the first day, they came to the wilderness of Sinai. ²After they made the journey from Rephidim and entered the wilderness of Sinai, they then pitched camp in the wilderness.^[a]

While Israel was encamped there in front of the mountain, ³Moses went up to the mountain of God. Then the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying: This is what you will say to the house of Jacob; tell the Israelites: ⁴You have seen how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.^(B) ⁵Now, if you obey me completely and keep my covenant,^[b] you will be my treasured possession among all peoples,^(C) though all the earth is mine. ⁶You will be to me a kingdom of priests,^[c] a holy nation.^(D) That is what you must tell the Israelites. ⁷So Moses went and summoned the elders of the people. When he set before them all that the Lord had ordered him to tell them, ⁸all the people answered together, “Everything the Lord has said, we will do.” Then Moses brought back to the Lord the response of the people.

⁹The Lord said to Moses: I am coming to you now in a dense cloud,^(E) so that when the people hear me speaking with you, they will also remain faithful to you.

When Moses, then, had reported the response of the people to the Lord, ¹⁰the Lord said to Moses: Go to the people and have them sanctify themselves today and tomorrow. Have them wash their garments ¹¹and be ready for the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. ¹²Set limits for the people all around,^(F) saying: Take care not to go up the mountain, or even to touch its edge. All who touch the mountain must be put to death. ¹³No hand shall touch them, but they must be stoned to death or killed with arrows. Whether human being or beast, they must not be allowed to live. Only when the ram’s horn sounds may they go up on the mountain.^[d] ¹⁴Then Moses came down from the mountain to the people and had them sanctify themselves, and they washed their garments. ¹⁵He said to the people, “Be ready for the third day. Do not approach a woman.”

The Great Theophany. ¹⁶^(G)On the morning of the third day there were peals of thunder and lightning, and a heavy cloud over the mountain, and a very loud blast of the shofar,^[e] so that all the people in the camp trembled. ¹⁷But Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stationed themselves at the foot of the mountain. ¹⁸Now Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the Lord had come down upon it in fire. The smoke rose from it as though from a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently. ¹⁹The blast of the shofar grew louder and louder, while Moses was speaking and God was answering him with thunder.

²⁰^[f]When the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. ²¹Then the Lord told Moses: Go down and warn the people not to break through to the Lord in order to see him; otherwise many of them will be struck down. ²²For their part, the priests, who approach the Lord must sanctify themselves; else the Lord will break out in anger against them. ²³But Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot go up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying: Set limits around the mountain to make it sacred.” ²⁴So the Lord said to him: Go down and come up along with Aaron. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord; else he will break out against them.” ²⁵So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.

Chapter 20

The Ten Commandments.^[g] ¹Then God spoke all these words:

²^(H)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,^(I) out of the house of slavery. ³You shall not have other gods beside me.^[h] ⁴You shall not make for yourself an idol^(J) or a likeness of anything^[i] in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; ⁵you shall not bow down before them or serve them.^(K) For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their ancestors’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation^[j]; ⁶but showing love down to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

⁷You shall not invoke the name of the Lord, your God, in vain.^[k]^(L) For the Lord will not leave unpunished anyone who invokes his name in vain.

⁸Remember the sabbath day—keep it holy.^[l] ⁹Six days you may labor and do all your work, ¹⁰but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God.^(M) You shall not do any work, either you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your work animal, or the resident alien within your gates. ¹¹For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day he rested.^(N) That is why the Lord has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.^[m]

¹²^[n]^(O)Honor your father and your mother, that you may have a long life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.^(P)

¹³You shall not kill.^[o]^(Q)

¹⁴You shall not commit adultery.^(R)

¹⁵You shall not steal.^(S)

¹⁶You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.^(T)

¹⁷You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.^(U)

Moses Accepted as Mediator. ¹⁸Now as all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blast of the shofar and the mountain smoking, they became afraid and trembled.^(V) So they took up a position farther away ¹⁹and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we shall die.” ²⁰Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid, for God has come only to test you and put the fear of him upon you so you do not sin.” ²¹So the people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the dark cloud where God was.

The Covenant Code. ²²^[p]The Lord said to Moses: This is what you will say to the Israelites: You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven. ²³You shall not make alongside of me gods of silver, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.^(W) ²⁴An altar of earth make for me, and sacrifice upon it your burnt offerings and communion sacrifices, your sheep and your oxen.^(X) In every place where I cause my name to be invoked^[q] I will come to you and bless you. ²⁵But if you make an altar of stone for me,^(Y) do not build it of cut stone, for by putting a chisel to it you profane it. ²⁶You shall not ascend to my altar by steps, lest your nakedness be exposed.

Chapter 21

Laws Regarding Slaves. ¹These are the ordinances^[r] you shall lay before them. ²^(Z)When you purchase a Hebrew slave,^[s] he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he shall leave as a free person without any payment. ³If he comes into service alone, he shall leave alone; if he comes with a wife, his wife shall leave with him. ⁴But if his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children belong to her master and the man shall leave alone. ⁵If, however, the slave declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children; I will not leave as a free person,’ ⁶his master shall bring him to God^[t] and there, at the door or doorpost, he shall pierce his ear with an awl, thus keeping him as his slave forever.

⁷When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go free as male slaves do. ⁸But if she displeases her master, who had designated her^[u] for himself, he shall let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her. ⁹If he designates her for his son, he shall treat her according to the ordinance for daughters. ¹⁰If he takes another wife, he shall not withhold her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights. ¹¹If he does not do these three things for her, she may leave without cost, without any payment.

Personal Injury. ¹²^[v]Whoever strikes someone a mortal blow must be put to death.^(AA) ¹³However, regarding the one who did not hunt another down, but God caused death to happen by his hand, I will set apart for you a place to which that one may flee. ¹⁴But when someone kills a neighbor after maliciously scheming to do so, you must take him even from my altar and put him to death. ¹⁵Whoever strikes father or mother shall be put to death.^[w]

¹⁶A kidnapper, whether he sells the person or the person is found in his possession, shall be put to death.^(AB)

¹⁷Whoever curses^[x] father or mother shall be put to death.^(AC)

¹⁸When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, not mortally, but enough to put him in bed, ¹⁹the one who struck the blow shall be acquitted, provided the other can get up and walk around with the help of his staff. Still, he must compensate him for his recovery time and make provision for his complete healing.

²⁰When someone strikes his male or female slave with a rod so that the slave dies under his hand, the act shall certainly be avenged. ²¹If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property.

²²^[y]When men have a fight and hurt a pregnant woman, so that she suffers a miscarriage, but no further injury, the guilty one shall be fined as much as the woman’s husband demands of him, and he shall pay in the presence of the judges. ²³^(AD)But if injury ensues, you shall give life for life, ²⁴eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

²⁶When someone strikes his male or female slave in the eye and destroys the use of the eye, he shall let the slave go free in compensation for the eye. ²⁷If he knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let the slave go free in compensation for the tooth.

²⁸When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox must be stoned; its meat may not be eaten. The owner of the ox, however, shall be free of blame. ²⁹But if an ox was previously in the habit of goring people and its owner, though warned, would not watch it; should it then kill a man or a woman, not only must the ox be stoned, but its owner also must be put to death. ³⁰If, however, a fine is imposed on him, he must pay in ransom^[z] for his life whatever amount is imposed on him. ³¹This ordinance applies if it is a boy or a girl that the ox gores. ³²But if it is a male or a female slave that it gores, he must pay the owner of the slave thirty shekels of silver, and the ox must be stoned.

Property Damage. ³³When someone uncovers or digs a cistern and does not cover it over again, should an ox or a donkey fall into it, ³⁴the owner of the cistern must make good by restoring the value of the animal to its owner, but the dead animal he may keep.

³⁵When one man’s ox hurts another’s ox and it dies, they shall sell the live ox and divide this money as well as the dead animal equally between them. ³⁶But if it was known that the ox was previously in the habit of goring and its owner would not watch it, he must make full restitution, an ox for an ox; but the dead animal he may keep.

³⁷When someone steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for the one ox, and four sheep for the one sheep.^(AE)

Footnotes

19:2 Apparently from a different source (P) than v. 1, which notes the date, v. 2 from the J source includes a second notice of the arrival in the wilderness of Sinai. The Israelites now will be camped at Sinai from this point on all the way to Nm 10:10. This is a striking indication of the centrality and importance of the Sinai narrative in the overall composition of the Pentateuch.
19:5 Covenant: while covenants between individuals and between nations are ubiquitous in the ancient Near East, the adaptation of this concept to express the relationship that will henceforth characterize God’s relationship to Israel represents an important innovation of biblical faith. Other gods might “choose” nations to fulfill a special destiny or role in the world; but only Israel’s God is bound to a people by covenant. Thereby Israel’s identity as a people is put upon a foundation that does not depend upon the vicissitudes of Israelite statehood or the normal trappings of national existence. Israel will be a covenant people.
19:6 Kingdom of priests: inasmuch as this phrase is parallel to “holy nation,” it most likely means that the whole Israelite nation is set apart from other nations and so consecrated to God, or holy, in the way priests are among the people (cf. Is 61:6; 1 Pt 2:5, 9).
19:13 May they go up on the mountain: in vv. 12–13a, a later Priestly reshaping of an earlier version of the instructions governing how the people are to prepare for the encounter with God (vv. 10–11, 13b), the people are to be restrained from ascending the mountain, which is suffused with the holiness of God and too dangerous for their approach. In the earlier version, as v. 13b suggests, the sanctified people must come near, in order to hear God speaking with Moses (v. 9) and in this way receive confirmation of his special relationship with God.
19:16 Shofar: a ram’s horn used like a trumpet for signaling both for liturgical and military purposes.
19:20–25 At this point the Priestly additions of vv. 12–13a are elaborated with further Priestly instructions, which include the priests’ sanctifying themselves apart from the people (v. 22) and Aaron accompanying Moses to the top of the mountain (v. 24).
20:1–17
The precise numbering and division of these precepts into “ten commandments” is somewhat uncertain. Traditionally among Catholics and Lutherans vv. 1–6 are considered as only one commandment, and v. 17 as two. The Anglican, Greek Orthodox, and Reformed churches count vv. 1–6 as two, and v. 17 as one. Cf. Dt 5:6–21. The traditional designation as “ten” is not found here but in 34:28 (and also Dt 4:13 and 10:4), where these precepts are alluded to literally as “the ten words.” That they were originally written on two tablets appears in Ex 32:15–16; 34:28–29; Dt 4:13; 10:2–4.
The present form of the commands is a product of a long development, as is clear from the fact that the individual precepts vary considerably in length and from the slightly different formulation of Dt 5:6–21 (see especially vv. 12–15 and 21). Indeed they represent a mature formulation of a traditional morality. Why this specific selection of commands should be set apart is not entirely clear. None of them is unique in the Old Testament and all of the laws which follow are also from God and equally binding on the Israelites. Even so, this collection represents a privileged expression of God’s moral demands on Israel and is here set apart from the others as a direct, unmediated communication of God to the Israelites and the basis of the covenant being concluded on Sinai.
20:3
Beside me: this commandment is traditionally understood as an outright denial of the existence of other gods except the God of Israel; however, in the context of the more general prohibitions in vv. 4–5, v. 3 is, more precisely, God’s demand for Israel’s exclusive worship and allegiance.
The Hebrew phrase underlying the translation “beside me” is, nonetheless, problematic and has been variously translated, e.g., “except me,” “in addition to me,” “in preference to me,” “in defiance of me,” and “in front of me” or “before my face.” The latter translation, with its concrete, spatial nuances, has suggested to some that the prohibition once sought to exclude from the Lord’s sanctuary the cult images or idols of other gods, such as the asherah, or stylized sacred tree of life, associated with the Canaanite goddess Asherah (34:13). Over the course of time, as vv. 4–5 suggest, the original scope of v. 3 was expanded.
20:4 Or a likeness of anything: compare this formulation to that found in Dt 5:8, which understands this phrase and the following phrases as specifications of the prohibited idol (Hebrew pesel), which usually refers to an image that is carved or hewn rather than cast.
20:5 Jealous: demanding exclusive allegiance. Inflicting punishment…the third and fourth generation: the intended emphasis is on God’s mercy by the contrast between punishment and mercy (“to the thousandth generation”—v. 6). Other Old Testament texts repudiate the idea of punishment devolving on later generations (cf. Dt 24:16; Jer 31:29–30; Ez 18:2–4). Yet it is known that later generations may suffer the punishing effects of sins of earlier generations, but not the guilt.
20:7 In vain: i.e., to no good purpose, a general framing of the prohibition which includes swearing falsely, especially in the context of a legal proceeding, but also goes beyond it (cf. Lv 24:16; Prv 30:8–9).
20:8 Keep it holy: i.e., to set it apart from the other days of the week, in part, as the following verse explains, by not doing work that is ordinarily done in the course of a week. The special importance of this command can be seen in the fact that, together with vv. 9–11, it represents the longest of the Decalogue’s precepts.
20:11 Here, in a formulation which reflects Priestly theology, the veneration of the sabbath is grounded in God’s own hallowing of the sabbath in creation. Compare 31:13; Dt 5:15.
20:12–17 The Decalogue falls into two parts: the preceding precepts refer to God, the following refer primarily to one’s fellow Israelites.
20:13 Kill: as frequent instances of killing in the context of war or certain crimes (see vv. 12–18) demonstrate in the Old Testament, not all killing comes within the scope of the commandment. For this reason, the Hebrew verb translated here as “kill” is often understood as “murder,” although it is in fact used in the Old Testament at times for unintentional acts of killing (e.g., Dt 4:41; Jos 20:3) and for legally sanctioned killing (Nm 35:30). The term may originally have designated any killing of another Israelite, including acts of manslaughter, for which the victim’s kin could exact vengeance. In the present context, it denotes the killing of one Israelite by another, motivated by hatred or the like (Nm 35:20; cf. Hos 6:9).
20:22–23:33 This collection consists of the civil and religious laws, both apodictic (absolute) and casuistic (conditional), which were given to the people through the mediation of Moses. They will be written down by Moses in 24:4.
20:24 Where I cause my name to be invoked: i.e., at the sacred site where God wishes to be worshiped. Dt 12 will demand the centralization of all sacrificial worship in one place chosen by God.
21:1 Ordinances: judicial precedents to be used in settling questions of law and custom. More than half of the civil and religious laws in this collection (20:22–23:33), designated in 24:7 as “the book of the covenant,” have parallels in the cuneiform laws of the ancient Near East. It is clear that Israel participated in a common legal culture with its neighbors.
21:2 Slave: an Israelite could become a slave of another Israelite as a means of paying a debt, or an Israelite could be born into slavery due to a parent’s status as a slave. Here a time limit is prescribed for such slavery; other stipulations (vv. 20–21, 26–27) tried to reduce the evils of slavery, but slavery itself is not condemned in the Old Testament.
21:6 To God: the ritual of the piercing of the slave’s ear, which signified a lifetime commitment to the master, probably took place at the door of the household, where God as protector of the household was called upon as a witness. Another possible location for the ritual would have been the door of the sanctuary, where God or judges would have witnessed the slave’s promise of lifetime obedience to his master.
21:8 Designated her: intended her as a wife of second rank.
21:12–14 Unintentional homicide is to be punished differently from premeditated, deliberate murder. One who kills unintentionally can seek asylum by grasping the horns of the altar at the local sanctuary. In later Israelite history, when worship was centralized in Jerusalem, cities throughout the realm were designated as places of refuge. Apparently the leaders of the local community were to determine whether or not the homicide was intentional.
21:15 The verb used most often signifies a violent, sometimes deadly, attack. The severe penalty assigned is intended to safeguard the integrity of the family.
21:17 Curses: not merely an angrily uttered expletive at one’s parents, but a solemn juridical formula of justifiable retribution which was considered to be legally binding and guaranteed by God.
21:22–25 This law of talion is applied here in the specific case of a pregnant woman who, as an innocent bystander, is injured by two fighting men. The law of talion is not held up as a general principle to be applied throughout the book of the covenant. (But see note on Lv 24:19–20.) Here this principle of rigorous accountability aimed to prevent injury to a woman about to give birth by apparently requiring the assailant to have his own wife injured as she was about to bring new life into his family. However, it is debatable whether talion was ever understood or applied literally in Israel. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus challenges his audience to find a deeper form of justice than the supposed equilibrium offered by talion (Mt 5:38–40).
21:30 Ransom: the amount of money or material goods required to restore the relationship between the relatives of the victim and the negligent owner of the goring ox.

New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.