The Ten Commandments Bible list — What are the Ten Commandments?
Printable versions of the Ten Commandments
Select one of the following for a printable version of the Ten Commandments from the King James Version Bible. These documents are designed to be printed as a full A4 size printout that you can frame or just hang as a poster somewhere. Printing these posters on glossy white paper gives a very professional finish. The last two can be used as post cards.
Note that KJV uses the word “shewing” in the second commandment and that this is not an error and is true to the original translation. Some supposed Christians have also sent hateful emails condemning me because the King James Version uses the words “Thou Shalt not kill” when they felt that “Thou shalt not murder” was more correct. I am not responsible for the words used by the translators of the most accurate translation available so please do not attack me for the words they used which technically are not incorrect anyway.
Comparison of both readings of the Ten Commandments
Below is a comparison of both readings of the Ten Commandments. The first as personally spoken and written by the finger of God and is found in Exodus 20:2-17 and the second which was written down and spoken by Moses and is found in Deuteronomy 5:6-21. Deuteronomy literally means “second law,” and is the last of the five books (the Pentateuch or Torah). Both books are given from the King James Bible in modern English.
The Jews call these first five books “Torah” which means “teaching,” “instruction,” or “law”. It is also called the Law of Moses (Torat Moshe). Torah however, can mean different things in different contexts. Torah primarily refers to the first section of the Tanakh which is an acronym that identifies the Hebrew Bible and is based on the initial Hebrew letters of each of the text's three parts. The first five books of the Tanakh or books of Moses are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The word Torah can also be used to refer to the entire Jewish bible which to non-Jews is called the Old Testament. To the Jews there is no Old Testament. The books that Christians call the New Testament are not part of Jewish scripture, so what Christians call the Old Testament is known to the Jews as Written Torah or the Tanakh.
This is a list of the books of Written Torah, in the order in which they appear in Jewish translations. The Hebrew names of the first five books are derived from the first few words of the book. The text of each book is fairly similar in Jewish translations as what you see in Christian bibles, although there are some occasional slight differences in the numbering of verses and there are some significant differences in the translations.
Torah (The Law):
Bereishith (In the beginning...) - Genesis
Shemoth (The names...) - Exodus
Vayiqra (And He called...) - Leviticus
Bamidbar (In the wilderness...) - Numbers
Devarim (The words...) - Deuteronomy
No. | Exodus 20:2-17 | Deuteronomy 5:6-21 |
1 | 2 I am the LORD your God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 You shall have no other gods before me. | 6 I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 7 You shall have none other gods before me. |
2 | 4 You shall not make unto you any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 You shall not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my Commandments. | 8 You shall not make you any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: 9 You shall not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, 10 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandments. |
3 | 7 You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. | 11 You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. |
4 | 8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shall you labour, and do all your work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates: 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. | 12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labour, and do all your work: 14 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates; that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you. 15 And remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD your God brought you out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day. |
5 | 12 Honour your father and your mother: that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God giveth you. | 16 Honour your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you; that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you, in the land which the LORD your God giveth you. |
6 | 13 You shall not kill. | 17 You shall not kill. |
7 | 14 You shall not commit adultery. | 18 Neither shall you commit adultery. |
8 | 15 You shall not steal. | 19 Neither shall you steal. |
9 | 16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour. | 20 Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbour. |
10 | 17 You shall not covet your neighbour's house, you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is your neighbour's. | 21 Neither shall you desire your neighbour's wife, neither shall you covet your neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is your neighbour's. |
The Jewish and Hebrew Ten Commandments
For the Jews, the Ten Commandments are a special set of spiritual laws that the LORD Himself wrote on two stone tablets (luchot) that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai. In the Scriptures these laws are called the “aseret hadevarim,” the “ten words” or “ten utterances”. In rabbinical writings, they are usually referred to as “Aseret haDiberot,” and in Christian theological writings they are called the Decalogue which is derived from the Greek name “dekalogos” (ten statements) found in the Septuagint (Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 10:4), which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew name.
To the Jews the Torah has a total of 613 commandments which includes the ten from the Decalogue. Traditional Rabbinical Jewish belief is that these commandments apply solely to the Jewish people. Many of these laws were instituted because of sin (example Passover) and hence were in fact only for the Jews because the Gospel did not go to the Gentiles until after the sacrificial law ended at the cross. But the Ten Commandments of course are very much a standalone law for all mankind. They were written by the finger of God, personally spoken by God and were stored in the inside of the Ark of the Covenant under the mercy seat, which represented the very presence of God. Clearly the Ten Commandments are extremely important to God. Most of these other laws have now ended but not so with the Ten Commandments. Some examples of the other laws were unclean (unhealthy) foods, laws to prevent the spread of leprosy, mold in houses or a woman being unclean once a month. Lately I have begun to see attempts to diminish the importance of the Ten Commandments by saying there are 613 laws. But it is obviously not wisdom to compare laws to stop the spread of disease for example to the Ten Commandments that God wrote in stone!
No. | Hebrew Ten Commandments | Jewish Ten Commandments |
Aleph | I am the Lord your G-d who has taken you out of the land of Egypt. |
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Bet | You shall have no other gods but me. |
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Gimmel | You shall not take the name of the Lord your G-d in vain. |
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Dalet | You shall remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy. |
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Hey | Honor your mother and father. |
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Vav | You shall not murder. |
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Zayin | You shall not commit adultery. |
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Chet | You shall not steal. |
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Tet | You shall not bear false witness. |
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Yod | You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor. |