Exodus20chapter 20

Exodus 20:1-2

God speaks these words to the whole nation at once, and Deuteronomy 5:4 says he talked with them face to face out of the midst of the fire. The law opens with a rescue already finished rather than with a demand, since the house of bondage is behind them before a single commandment is given. The Hebrew root behind bondage is the one Exodus 1:13 and 1:14 use five times over for the slave labour, and the same root carries the service of the tabernacle at the end of the book.

Exodus 20:3

The first demand is exclusive loyalty, and it is put to a people who have just watched judgment fall on the gods of Egypt at Exodus 12:12. The phrase before me reads in the Hebrew as before my face, which the older commentators take to mean in my presence rather than ahead of me in rank. Within weeks of hearing this the people make a calf and say these be thy gods, O Israel, at Exodus 32:4.

Exodus 20:4-5

Graven image occurs here for the first time in Scripture and jealous occurs for the first time in the next verse, so God's first self-description at Sinai is that he is jealous. The image is forbidden in three directions, heaven above, earth beneath and water under the earth, which covers everything a craftsman could copy. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation is limited in the same breath to them that hate me, and Deuteronomy 24:16 forbids a court to put children to death for their fathers.

Exodus 20:6

Mercy runs to thousands where the visiting ran to the third and fourth generation, and the two numbers are set against each other on purpose. The same pairing returns at Exodus 34:6 and 34:7 after the calf, where God proclaims his own name and the mercy comes first. That sentence is quoted or echoed at Numbers 14:18, Psalm 103:8, Joel 2:13 and Jonah 4:2, more often than any other statement about God in the Old Testament.

Exodus 20:7

The name is what God gave Moses at the bush and called his memorial unto all generations at Exodus 3:15, where memorial occurs for the first time in Scripture. Taking it in vain covers an empty oath and a light use alike, since the Hebrew word carries the sense of emptiness or falsehood. This is the one commandment of the ten that attaches its own sanction, that the LORD will not hold him guiltless.

Exodus 20:8-9

Remember the sabbath day: Remember points back to something the reader has already seen, since sabbath first occurs at Exodus 16:23 in the manna chapter, four chapters before this commandment. There the case was made by events rather than by law, with a double portion on the sixth day, worms in what was kept over on any other day, and men who went out to gather on the seventh and found nothing. Genesis 2:2-3 has God resting and blessing and sanctifying the seventh day while never using the noun.

Exodus 20:10-11

The rest reaches down the whole household to the son, the daughter, the servants, the cattle and the stranger inside the gates, so the one day covers people who own nothing. The ground given here is the creation, that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth and rested the seventh. Deuteronomy 5:15 repeats the commandment and gives a different ground, that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and both stand in the canon side by side.

Exodus 20:12

This commandment turns from God to men and it is the hinge between the two tables. Ephesians 6:2 calls it the first commandment with promise, so the New Testament itself notices that it carries a reward the others leave unstated. The promise attaches to length of days upon the land, which is a national promise given to a people who have no land yet.

Exodus 20:13

The Hebrew verb here is ratsach, the word the Old Testament uses for the killing a court or an avenger of blood deals with, and Numbers 35:16 to 35:31 sets out its cases. Other Hebrew words cover war, execution and sacrifice, and the law that follows in chapter 21 prescribes death for several crimes. Jesus takes the commandment inward at Matthew 5:21 and 5:22, putting anger against a brother under the same heading.

Exodus 20:14-15

Adultery and theft guard the two things a household is built on, the marriage and the property. Jesus reads the seventh commandment inward at Matthew 5:27 and 5:28 the same way he reads the sixth, putting the look under the act. Paul quotes both of these commandments at Romans 13:9 and concludes that love worketh no ill to his neighbour, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Exodus 20:16

The ninth commandment is set in a courtroom, since bearing witness against a neighbour is what a witness does at a trial. Deuteronomy 19:16 to 19:19 supplies the penalty, that a false witness receives what he intended for the accused. Matthew 26:59 and 26:60 report the council seeking false witness against Jesus and finding none that agreed until two came forward.

Exodus 20:17

The tenth commandment reaches something no court can try, since coveting leaves no evidence and gives nobody a charge to bring. Paul names this one commandment at Romans 7:7, saying he had not known lust except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet, and it is the one he picks to show what the law does inside a man. The list runs from the house down to the ox and the ass, the same kind of household inventory the sabbath commandment used at verse 10.

Exodus 20:18-19

The people see the thunder and the trumpet and move back, and their request is that Moses stand between them and the voice. Deuteronomy 5:28 records God's answer, that they have well said all that they have spoken, and Deuteronomy 18:15 to 18:18 meets the request with the promise of a prophet like unto Moses from among their brethren. Peter applies that promise to Christ at Acts 3:22, so the New Testament reads this moment of fear as the origin of a promise.

Exodus 20:20

Moses puts two fears in one sentence, telling the people to fear not and then saying God came so that his fear would be before their faces. The first is terror at the noise on the mountain and the second is the reverence that keeps a man from sinning. Hebrews 12:18 to 12:21 looks back at this scene and reports that even Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake, which quotes Deuteronomy 9:19.

Exodus 20:21

The people stand back and Moses walks toward the darkness, and the verse puts both movements in one line. Thick darkness is where God is said to be, which Psalm 18:11 and 1 Kings 8:12 repeat, so the nearer approach at Sinai runs into less light rather than more. Hebrews 12:22 sets this mountain against the mount Sion its readers are said to have come to.

Exodus 20:22-23

God grounds the next word on what the people have just been through, that they have seen him talk with them from heaven. The second commandment is then applied straight to their own metal, gods of silver and gods of gold, before any silver or gold has been gathered for anything. Chapter 32 breaks this line first, where the gold of the earrings becomes a molten calf, and molten occurs there for the first time in Scripture at Exodus 32:4.

Exodus 20:24

The first thing commanded after the ten words is an altar, and it is made of earth. Sacrifice on it is older than the priesthood and older than the tabernacle, and it belongs to the line of altars Noah builds at Genesis 8:20 and Abram at Genesis 12:7. The promise attached is that in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee, which ties the blessing to the name rather than to the site.

Exodus 20:25-26

A stone altar is allowed and a tool taken to the stone pollutes it, so the one thing that would turn it into a work of craftsmanship is what disqualifies it. Deuteronomy 27:5 and 27:6 repeat the rule, and Joshua 8:31 reports it kept on mount Ebal with whole stones over which no man lifted up any iron. Steps are forbidden for the sake of modesty, and Exodus 28:42 meets the same concern for the priests with linen breeches, which is why Jewish tradition describes the later temple altar as reached by a ramp.