1 Then Moses called all the Israelites together and told them: Listen, people of Israel to the rules and regulations that I'm giving you today. Learn them and make sure you follow them carefully. 2 Remember that the Lord our God made an agreement with us at Horeb. 3 He didn't make this agreement with our fathers, but with us, all of those who are still alive today. 4 The Lord talked with you person to person from the fire on the mountain. 5 This was the time when I stood between the Lord and you to tell you what the Lord said, because you were afraid of the fire and refused to go up the mountain. He told you, 6 “I am the Lord your God, who led you out of Egypt, out of the prison-house of slavery. 7 You must not have any other gods except me. 8 You must not make for yourself any kind of idol, whether in the form of anything in the heavens above, or on the earth beneath, or in the waters below. 9 You must not bow down before them or worship them; for I am the Lord your God and I am passionately exclusive. I lay the consequences of the sin of those who hate me on their sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons; 10 but I show trustworthy love to the thousands of generations who love me and keep my commandments. 11 You must not use the name of the Lord your God in a wrong way, for the Lord will not forgive anyone who uses his name in a wrong way. 12 Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you to do. 13 You have six days to work and earn your living, 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath to honor the Lord your God. On this day you must not do any work—not you, not your son or daughter, not your male slave or female slave or your ox or donkey or any of your livestock, and not the foreigner who is staying with you, so that your male slave and female slave can have the same rest as you. 15 Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt, and that the Lord your God led you out from there with his great power and incredible strength. This is why the Lord your God has ordered you to keep the Sabbath day. 16 Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you to do, so that you may live a long time and do well in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 17 You must not kill people. 18 You must not commit adultery. 19 You must not steal. 20 You must not give false evidence against others. 21 You must not desire to have anyone else's wife. You must not desire to have their house or field, or their male slave or female slave, or their ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to them.” 22 In a loud voice the Lord gave these commandments to all of you, speaking from the fire, the cloud, and the deep darkness that covered the mountain. He didn't add anything else. He wrote them down on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. 23 When you heard the voice that came from the darkness while the mountain was on fire, all your tribal leaders and elders came to me, 24 and said, “Listen, the Lord our God has revealed his glory and majesty to us, and we have heard his voice that came from the fire. Today we have seen that human beings don't die even when God speaks with them. 25 But we could still die, couldn't we? This enormous fire is going to burn us up, and we'll die if the Lord our God continues to speak to us. 26 Has anybody else ever heard the living God speak from the fire and survived, as we have? 27 You go and listen to everything the Lord our God tells you. Then you can repeat to us everything the Lord our God tells you. We promise to listen and obey.” 28 The Lord heard what you told me, and he said to me, “I've heard what these people told you. All that they've said is good. 29 I only wish they really did respect me and always kept my commandments so that they and their children would do well for all time. 30 Go and tell them: ‘You need to return to your tents.’ 31 But you are to stay here with me so that I can give you all the commandments and rules and regulations you are to teach them to follow in the country that I am giving them to take over and own.” 32 So make sure you do what the Lord your God has ordered you to do—don't go astray in any direction. 33 Follow all the ways the Lord your God has shown you, so that you do well and live long lives in the country that you will occupy.
Deuteronomy · Free Bible Version
Deuteronomy 5 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Moses
Drawn from the Nile, he led Israel out of Egypt and received God's Law.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 2–Deuteronomy 34
Cross references (32)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Deuteronomy 4:1; Matthew 23:3; Deuteronomy 29:10; Deuteronomy 1:1; Deuteronomy 29:2
- 2 Deuteronomy 4:23; Exodus 19:5–8; Exodus 24:8; Hebrews 9:19–23; Hebrews 8:6–13
- 3 Deuteronomy 29:10–15; Hebrews 8:8–9; Psalm 105:8–10; Genesis 17:7; Jeremiah 32:38–40
- 4 Exodus 19:18–19; Deuteronomy 34:10; Exodus 19:9; Deuteronomy 4:36; Deuteronomy 4:33
- 5 Galatians 3:19; Exodus 20:18–21; Exodus 19:16; Hebrews 12:18–24; Numbers 16:48
- 6 Exodus 20:2–17; Psalm 81:5–10; Leviticus 26:1–2; Deuteronomy 4:4
- 7 Exodus 20:3; Matthew 4:10; 1 John 5:21; John 5:23
- 8 Exodus 20:4; Deuteronomy 4:15–19
- 9 Exodus 20:4–6; Exodus 34:7; Daniel 9:4–9; Numbers 14:18; Exodus 34:14
- 10 Romans 8:28; 1 John 1:7; Jeremiah 32:18; John 15:14; Daniel 9:4
- 11 Exodus 20:7; Leviticus 19:12; Deuteronomy 6:13; Matthew 5:33–34; James 5:12
- 12 Exodus 20:8–11; Isaiah 58:13; Isaiah 56:6
- 13 Ezekiel 20:12; Luke 13:14–16; Exodus 35:2–3; Exodus 23:12; Luke 23:56
- 14 Hebrews 4:4; Genesis 2:2; Exodus 16:29–30; Exodus 23:12; Nehemiah 13:21
- 15 Deuteronomy 5:6; Deuteronomy 15:15; Deuteronomy 16:12; Ephesians 2:11–12; Deuteronomy 24:18–22
- 16 Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:1–3; Colossians 3:20; Deuteronomy 4:40; Deuteronomy 27:16
- 17 Exodus 20:13; Romans 13:9; Matthew 5:21–22; Genesis 9:6; James 2:11
- 18 Exodus 20:14; Luke 18:20; Matthew 5:27–28; Leviticus 20:10; Proverbs 6:32–33
- 19 Exodus 20:15; Romans 13:9; Ephesians 4:28
- 20 Exodus 20:16; Exodus 23:1; Proverbs 19:9; Proverbs 19:5; Malachi 3:5
- 21 Exodus 20:17; Romans 13:9; Luke 12:15; 1 Kings 21:1–4; 1 Timothy 6:9–10
- 22 Exodus 24:12; Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 4:12–15; Deuteronomy 4:36; Deuteronomy 5:4
- 23 Exodus 20:18–19; Hebrews 12:18–21
- 24 Deuteronomy 4:33; Exodus 19:19; Exodus 33:20; Genesis 32:30; Judges 13:22
- 25 Deuteronomy 18:16; Hebrews 12:29; 2 Corinthians 3:7–9; Galatians 3:21–22; Deuteronomy 33:2
- 26 Deuteronomy 4:33; Romans 3:20; Matthew 26:63; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Psalm 84:2
- 27 Exodus 20:19; Hebrews 12:19
- 28 Deuteronomy 18:17; Numbers 36:5; Numbers 27:7
- 29 Isaiah 48:18; Ezekiel 33:31–32; Deuteronomy 11:1; Matthew 23:37; Luke 19:42
- 31 Galatians 3:19; Deuteronomy 12:1; Ezekiel 20:11; Exodus 24:12; Deuteronomy 4:45
- 32 Proverbs 4:27; Joshua 23:6; Joshua 1:7; Deuteronomy 17:20; Deuteronomy 28:14
- 33 Jeremiah 7:23; Deuteronomy 4:40; Luke 1:6; 1 Timothy 4:8; Deuteronomy 10:12
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… expound it; but his meaning is similar to that of Moses, when it is said, "Thou shalt not make to thyself any image for God, of whatsoever things are in heaven above, whatsoever in the earth beneath, and whatsoever in the waters under the earth." And he does thus explain what are meant by the things in heaven: "Lest when," …
For if we attribute them to ourselves, they shall be servile; for it is said of the Sabbath, "Ye shall do no servile work in it." Wherefore also it is said by Ezekiel the prophet, "And I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctify …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
… us honour also the fathers of our flesh: since the Lord Himself hath evidently so appointed in the Law and the Prophets, saying, Honour thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and thy days shall be long in the land.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
As Moses says in Deuteronomy, "These are all the words which the Lord spake to the whole assembly of the sons of Israel on the mount, and He added no more; and He wrote them on two tables of stone, and gave them to me." For this reason [He did so], that they who are willing to follow Him might …
For it is written in the Law, "Thou shalt not bear false witness;" and it is written in the Law, "All men are liars." Recur then to that which I just lately suggested, when I defined in words as best I could the "meek" man.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 6 (1888)