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About this book

Exodus

About this book

The Ten Commandments and the Covenant

Chapter 20

1 God spoke all these words: 2 “I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt,⁠ from the house of slavery.⁠ 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below.⁠ 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations of those who reject me,⁠ 6 and showing covenant faithfulness to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.⁠ 7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold guiltless anyone who takes his name in vain. 8 “Remember the Sabbath day to set it apart as holy. 9 For six days you may labor and do all your work, 10 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, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, or the resident foreigner who is in your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.⁠ 12 “Honor your father and your mother,⁠ that you may live a long time in the land the Lord your God is giving to you.⁠ 13 “You shall not murder.⁠ 14 “You shall not commit adultery.⁠ 15 “You shall not steal.⁠ 16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.⁠ 17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife,⁠ nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.”⁠ 18 All the people were seeing the thundering and the lightning, and heard the sound of the horn, and saw the mountain smoking—and⁠ when the people saw it they trembled with fear and kept their distance.⁠ 19 They said to Moses, “You speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak with us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you so that you do not sin.” 21 The people kept their distance, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was. 22 The Lord said to Moses, “Thus you will tell the Israelites: ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken with you from heaven.⁠ 23 You must not make gods of silver alongside me,⁠ nor make gods of gold for yourselves. 24 “‘You must make for me an altar made of earth, and you will sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I cause my name to be honored I will come to you and I will bless you.⁠ 25 If you make me an altar of stone, you must not build it of stones shaped with tools, for if you use your tool on it you have defiled it.⁠ 26 And you must not go up by steps to my altar, so that your nakedness is not exposed.’⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Exodus 20:2 and 1 Kings 12:28

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

In Exodus 20, God introduces himself to Israel as the one who brought them out of Egypt. Jeroboam says almost the same words over the two golden calves in 1 Kings 12, changing God to gods, so the calves take the credit for the rescue.

Passages

Exodus 20:2

Hebrew Bible
1 God spoke all these words: 2 “I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

1 Kings 12:28

Hebrew Bible
27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem, their loyalty could shift to their former master, King Rehoboam of Judah. They might kill me and return to King Rehoboam of Judah.” 28 After the king had consulted with his advisers, he made two golden calves. Then he said to the people, “It is too much trouble for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look, Israel, here are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” 29 He put one in Bethel and the other in Dan.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Kings

References

"... the presentation formula in 1 Kings 12:28bα can be explained without any difficulty as a purposeful allusion to the preamble of the Decalogue in Exodus 20:2 and Deuteronomy 5:6, in which Yhwh introduces himself to Israel as “your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” The author, it should be assumed, had Jeroboam cite this text during the presentation of the two calves as a deliberate allusion to the Decalogue, the central commandments of which he was so glaringly violating. By using this literary means, he put into the king’s mouth words of open revolt against the divine commandment. One might object that 1 Kings 12:28bβγ deviates from the widespread form of the exodus-formula as found in Exodus 20:2 and Deuteronomy 5:6, as it does not speak of “bringing out” but instead of “bringing up.” Yet, this deviation only apparently contradicts the thesis of this paper and, when examined more closely, seems to support it. ..."
Christoph Berner, “‘I am Yhwh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt’ (Exodus 20:2),” in The Origins of Yahwism, ed. Jürgen van Oorschot and Markus Witte (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2017), 188.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Exodus 20:2 and 1 Kings 12:28

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