And God spoke all these words, saying,
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
“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, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
“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. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 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. 11 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.
Comment: I am not a Hebrew scholar. I need every word of Hebrew translated for me! But in Wikipedia I read the following ‘The Ten Commandments are not numbered in the Hebrew Bible’. I am going to be ‘cheeky’ and suggest that what we call the Ten Commandments are better called ‘The Constitution God setup as Israel became a nation’. Not that I am suggesting that any of it is wrong or not extremely important but it needs to be thought about. I don’t recommend changing it! But, for instance God called the Israelis to war against the tribes living in the land into which they were entering. Does not war see people killed at other people’s hands? That is not seen as murder! And God orders later in the Torah that certain people be killed because of their crimes. That is not murder, in God’s sight. Does it mean that God was wrong in commanding ‘Capital Punishment’? I am not arguing for capital punishment but I am saying ‘The Ten Commandments’ is not a justification for stopping capital punishment! I am sure that it has been indiscriminately ordered frequently in the past, and in some countries still is. I will look at the same passage tomorrow and discuss this passage giving it a different numbering system. These four ‘Commandments’ are about man’s attitude to God. Note – not all translations and languages give the same numbers even to these ‘four’!
Prayer: Please help me to clearly see how I as a ‘Gentile’ handle and live aright within Your calling to me.
As I read it! 