The Daily Audio Bible

¹⁶ And now the third day was come, and the morrowtide was clear; and, lo! thunders began to be heard, and lightnings to shine, and a most thick cloud to cover the mountain; and the sounding of a clarion made noise full greatly, and the people dreaded, that was in the tents (and the sounding of a trumpet made a very great noise, and the people in their tents had great fear).

¹⁷ And when Moses had led them out into the coming of God, from the place of the tents, they stood at the roots of the hill. (And when Moses had led them out from the place of the tents to meet with God, they stood at the foot of the mountain.)

¹⁸ Forsooth all the hill of Sinai smoked, for the Lord had come down thereon in fire; and the smoke thereof went up as of a furnace, and all the hill was fearful; (And all of Mount Sinai smoked, for the Lord had come down on it in fire; and its smoke went up like that of a furnace, and all the mountain fearfully shook;)

¹⁹ and the sound of a clarion increased little and little, and it was holden forth longer (and longer). (And) Moses spake, and the Lord answered him (with a clap of thunder/by a voice),

²⁰ and the Lord came down on the hill of Sinai, in that top of the hill (and the Lord came down on Mount Sinai, onto the top of the mountain), and he called Moses (up) to the top thereof. And when he had gone up thither,

²¹ the Lord said to him, Go thou down, and witness thou to the people, lest peradventure it will pass [over] the terms to see the Lord (lest they pass over the boundary to see the Lord), and [a] full great multitude thereof perish;

²² and [the] priests, that nigh to the Lord, be they hallowed, lest I smite them (or I shall strike them down).

²³ And Moses said to the Lord, The common people may not go up into the hill of Sinai; for thou hast witnessed, and hast commanded, saying, Set thou terms about the hill, and hallow it. (And Moses said to the Lord, The common people cannot come up onto Mount Sinai; for thou hast witnessed, and hast commanded, saying, Set thou a sacred boundary all around the mountain, and hallow it, and they have heard thee.)

²⁴ To whom the Lord said, Go thou down, and (then) thou shalt go up, and (bring) Aaron with thee; forsooth the priests and the people pass not (over) the terms, neither go they up to the Lord, lest peradventure he slay them. (To whom the Lord said, Go thou down, and then come back up, and bring Aaron with thee; but the priests and the people must not pass over the boundary, nor let them come up to the Lord, lest I kill them.)

²⁵ (And so) Moses went down to the people, and told all (these) things to them.

20 And the Lord spake all these words,

² I am thy Lord God, that led thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of servage. (I am the Lord thy God, who led thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of servitude, or of slavery.)

³ Thou shalt not have alien gods before me. (Thou shalt not have foreign, or other, gods in place of me/instead of me.)

⁴ Thou shalt not make to thee a graven image, neither any likeness of (any)thing that is in heaven above, and that is in (the) earth beneath, neither of those things that be in waters under the earth; (Thou shalt not make a carved image for thyself, nor any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or on the earth beneath, or of those things that be in the waters under the earth;)

⁵ thou shalt not bow down to them, neither worship them; for I am thy Lord God, a strong(ly) jealous lover; I visit the wickedness of (the) fathers in (the) children into the third and fourth generation of them that hated me, (thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them; for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God; I punish the children for the wickedness of their fathers, unto the third and fourth generations of those who hate me,)

⁶ and I do mercy into thousands, to them that love me, and keep my behests. (but I do mercy unto thousands, to those who love me, and who keep my commandments.)

⁷ Thou shalt not take in vain the name of thy Lord God, for the Lord shall not have him guiltless, that taketh in vain the name of his Lord God. (Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord shall not hold guiltless he who taketh the name of the Lord his God in vain.)

⁸ Have thou mind, that thou hallow the sabbath day; (Remember to keep the sabbath day holy, or sacred;)

⁹ in six days thou shalt work, and do all thy works; (for six days thou shalt work, and do all thy works;)

¹⁰ forsooth in the seventh day is the sabbath of thy Lord God; thou shalt not do any work (on that day), thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thine handmaid, thy work beast, and the comeling that is within thy gates; (but on the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord thy God; thou shalt not do any work on that day, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy male slave, and thy slave-girl, and thy work beast, and the newcomer who is within thy gates;)

¹¹ for in six days God made (the) heaven(s) and (the) earth, the sea, and all things that be in those, and rested in the seventh day (and then he rested on the seventh day); therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

¹² Honour thy father and thy mother, that thou be long living on the land (so that thou can live a long life in the land), which thy Lord God shall give to thee.

¹³ Thou shalt not slay. (Thou shalt not kill.)

¹⁴ Thou shalt not do lechery.

¹⁵ Thou shalt not do theft.

¹⁶ Thou shalt not speak false witnessing against thy neighbour.

¹⁷ Thou shalt not covet the house of thy neighbour, neither thou shalt desire his wife, nor his (man)servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, neither (anything of) all (the) things that be his. (Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, nor shalt thou desire his wife, or his slave, or his slave-girl, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything of all the things that be his.)

¹⁸ Forsooth all the people heard voices, (that is, the thunder,) and saw lamps, that is, shining lights, and the sound of a clarion, and the hill smoking; and they were afeared, and shaken with inward dread, and stood afar, (And all the people heard the thunder, and saw the lightening, and heard the sound of the trumpet, and saw the mountain smoking; and they were afraid, and shaken with inward fear, and stood afar off,)

¹⁹ and (they) said to Moses, Speak thou to us, and we shall hear; (but) the Lord speak not to us, lest peradventure we die.

²⁰ And Moses said to the people, Do not ye dread, for God came to prove you, and that his dread should be in you, and that ye should not do sin. (And Moses said to the people, Do not ye fear/Fear not, for God came to prove you, so that his fear would be in you, and then ye shall not sin.)

²¹ And the people stood afar (off); and Moses nighed to the darkness, wherein God was.

²² And the Lord said furthermore to Moses, Thou shalt say these things to the sons of Israel, Ye saw that from heaven I have spoken to you; (And the Lord also said to Moses, Thou shalt say these things to the Israelites, Ye have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven;)

²³ ye shall not make gods of silver, neither ye shall make to you gods of gold. (ye shall not make gods out of silver, or gods out of gold, to be worshipped in addition to me.)

²⁴ Ye shall make an altar of earth to me, and ye shall offer thereon your burnt sacrifices, and peaceable sacrifices, your sheep, and oxen; in each place in which the mind of my name shall be, I shall come to thee, and I shall bless thee. (Ye shall make an altar out of earth for me, and ye shall offer on it your burnt sacrifices, and your peace offerings, your sheep, and your oxen; and in each place where I ask thee to remember my name, I shall come to thee, and I shall bless thee.)

²⁵ That if thou shalt make an altar of stone to me, thou shalt not build it of stones hewn (And if thou make an altar out of stones for me, thou shalt not build it out of cut stones); for if thou shalt raise thy knife thereupon, or (any) other instrument wherewith blood may be shed out, it shall be polluted.

²⁶ Thou shalt not go up by degrees to mine altar, lest thy filth(hood) be showed. (Thou shalt not go up to my altar by steps, lest thy nakedness should be shown.)

21 These be the dooms, which thou shalt set forth to them. (These be the laws, which thou shalt set forth to them.)

² If thou buyest an Hebrew servant, he shall serve thee six years; in the seventh year he shall go out free, without price; (If thou buyest a Hebrew slave, he shall serve thee for six years; then in the seventh year he shall go out free, without payment of any money;)

³ with what manner cloak he entered, with such cloak go he out; if he entered having a wife, also the wife shall go out together with him.

⁴ But if the lord of a servant gave a wife to him, and she childed sons and daughters, the woman and her children shall be her lord’s; soothly the servant shall go out with his own cloth. (But if the lord of a slave gave a wife to him, and she bare him sons and daughters, the woman and her children shall be her lord’s; the slave shall go out free with only his own cloak.)

⁵ And if the servant saith, I love my lord, and my wife, and children, I will not go out free; (And if the slave saith, I love my lord, and my wife, and my children, and I shall not go out free;)

⁶ his lord shall bring him to [the] gods, that is, (to the) judges; and he shall be set to the door, and to the posts; and his lord shall pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall be servant to him till into the world. (then his lord shall bring him to the judges; and he shall put him up against the door, or the door-post; and his lord shall pierce his ear with an awl, and then he shall be his slave forevermore.)

⁷ If any man selleth his daughter into a servantess, she shall not go out as handmaids were wont to go out; (If any man selleth his daughter to be a slave-girl, she shall not go out free like slaves can go out free;)

⁸ if she displeaseth in the eyes of her lord, to whom she was betaken, he shall deliver her; soothly he shall not have power, (or the right,) to sell her to an alien people, if he forsaketh her. (yea, if she displeaseth in the eyes of her lord, to whom she was delivered, then he shall sell her back to her father; and he shall not have the power, or the right, to sell her to a foreign people, if he forsaketh her.)

⁹ Forsooth if he weddeth her to his son, he shall do to her by the custom of daughters (he shall treat her like a daughter);

¹⁰ and if he take with this handmaid another woman, or wife, to his son, he shall purvey to the (first) damsel, or handmaid, weddings, and clothes, and he shall not deny her the price of (her) chastity, that is, the hour of yielding debt. (but if he get another wife, besides this woman, for his son, he shall still give this young woman her wedding, and her clothes, and he shall not deny her the rights of her marriage bed.)

¹¹ If he doeth not to her these three (things), she shall go out freely without money. (And if he giveth her not these three things, then she shall go out free without payment of any money.)

¹² He that smiteth a man, and will slay him, die he by death; (He who striketh a man, and killeth him, shall be put to death;)

¹³ forsooth if a man setteth not ambush, but God betook him into his hands, I shall ordain a place to thee (I shall ordain a place for thee), whither he oughteth to flee.

¹⁴ If any man slayeth his neighbour by before-casting, and by ambush, draw thou him away from mine altar, that he die (and put him to death).

¹⁵ He that smiteth his father, or his mother, die he by death. (He who striketh his father, or his mother, shall be put to death.)

¹⁶ He that curseth his father, or mother, die he by death. (He who curseth his father, or his mother, shall be put to death.)

¹⁷ He that stealeth a man, and selleth him, if he is convicted of the guilt, die he by death (shall be put to death).

¹⁸ If men chide, and the tother smite his neighbour with a stone, or with the fist, and he is not dead, but lieth in the bed,

¹⁹ if he riseth (up), and goeth forth on his staff, he that smote (him) shall be innocent; so nevertheless that he restore (to him for) his travails, and his costs in leaches (and his expenses for physicians).

²⁰ He that smiteth his servant, or handmaid, with a rod, and they be dead in his hands, he shall be guilty of the crime, or hideous trespass. (He who striketh his slave, or his slave-girl, with a rod, and they die by his hands, he shall be guilty of a crime, or of a hideous trespass.)

²¹ Soothly if the servant liveth over this beating one day, or twain, the smiter shall not be subject to the pain of death, for the servant is his master’s chattel.

¹³ But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, that close the kingdom of heavens before men; and ye enter not, neither suffer other men entering to enter^[a].

¹⁴ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, that eat the houses of widows, and pray by long prayer; for this thing ye shall take the more doom.

¹⁵ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, that go about the sea and the land, to make one proselyte [that compass the sea and the land, to make one proselyte, that is, converted to your order]; and when he is made, ye make him a son of hell, double more than ye be [double more than you].

¹⁶ Woe to you, blind leaders, that say, Whoever sweareth by the temple of God, it is nothing; but he that sweareth in the gold of the temple, is debtor.^[b]

¹⁷ Ye fools and blind, for what is greater, the gold, or the temple that halloweth the gold?

¹⁸ And whoever sweareth in the altar [And whoever shall swear in the altar], it is nothing; but he that sweareth in the gift that is on the altar, oweth [is debtor].

¹⁹ Blind men, for what is more, the gift, or the altar that halloweth the gift?

²⁰ Therefore he that sweareth in the altar, sweareth in it, and in all things that be thereon.

²¹ And he that sweareth in the temple, sweareth in it, and in him that dwelleth in the temple.

²² And he that sweareth in heaven, sweareth in the throne of God, and in him that sitteth thereon.

²³ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, that tithe mint, anise, and cummin, and have left those things that be of more charge of the law, doom, and mercy, and faith. And it behooved to do these things [And these things it behooved, or needed, to do], and not to leave those.

²⁴ Blind leaders, cleansing a gnat, but swallowing a camel.

²⁵ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, that cleanse the cup and the platter withoutforth [that make clean that thing of the cup and of the platter, that is withoutforth]; but within ye be full of raven and uncleanness.

²⁶ Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the cup and the platter withinforth, that that that is withoutforth be made clean.^[c]

²⁷ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, that be like to sepulchres whited [that be like to sepulchres made white], which withoutforth seem fair to men; but within they be full of bones of dead men, and of all filth.

²⁸ So [and] ye withoutforth seem just to men [So and ye forsooth withoutforth appear rightful to men]; but within ye be full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

²⁹ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, that build [the] sepulchres of prophets, and make fair the burials of just men,

³⁰ and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we should not have been their fellows in the blood of prophets.

³¹ And so ye be in witnessing to yourselves [And so ye be into witnessing to yourselves], that ye be the sons of them that slew the prophets.

³² And full-fill ye the measure of your fathers. [And fill ye the measure of your fathers.]

³³ Ye adders, and adders' brood [Ye serpents, fruits of adders], how shall ye flee from the doom of hell?

³⁴ Therefore lo! I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes [Therefore lo! I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes, or writers]; and of them ye shall slay and crucify, and of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and shall pursue from city into city;

³⁵ that all the just blood come on [upon] you, that was shed on the earth, from the blood of just Abel [till] to the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barachias, whom ye slew betwixt the temple and the altar [whom ye slew between the temple and the altar].

³⁶ Truly I say to you, all these things shall come on [upon] this generation.

³⁷ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that slayest prophets, and stonest them that be sent to thee, how oft would I gather together thy children, as an hen gathereth together her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not.

³⁸ Lo! your house shall be left to you desert.

³⁹ And I say to you, ye shall not see me from henceforth, till ye say, Blessed is he, that cometh in the name of the Lord.

28 To David. [The psalm to this David.] Lord, I shall cry to thee; my God, be thou not still from me, be thou not still any time from me; and I shall be made like to them, that go down into the pit. (The song of David. Lord, I shall cry to thee. My God, be thou not deaf to me, and never be thou silent with me; or I shall be made like those who go down into the pit.)

² Lord, hear thou the voice of my beseeching, while I pray to thee; while I raise mine hands to(ward) thine holy temple. (Lord, hear thou the words of my plea, when I pray to thee; when I raise up my hands toward thy holy Temple.)

³ Betake thou not me together with sinners; and lose thou not me with them that work wickedness. Which speak peace to their neighbour(s); but evils be in their hearts. (Take thou me not away with the sinners; and destroy thou me not with those who do evil. Yea, those who speak peacefully to their neighbours; but evil is in their hearts.)

⁴ Give thou to them after the works of them; and after the wickedness of their findings. Give thou to them after the works of their hands; yield thou their yielding to them. (Punish thou them according to their works; yea, according to the wickedness of their deeds. Punish thou them according to the works of their hands; give thou them their just reward.)

⁵ For they understood not the works of the Lord, and by the works of his hands thou shalt destroy them; and thou shalt not build them. (Because they do not respect the works of the Lord, or the works of his hands, he shall destroy them; and he shall not build them up again.)

⁶ Blessed be the Lord; for he heard the voice of my beseeching (for he heard the words of my plea).

⁷ The Lord is mine helper and my defender; and mine heart hoped in him, and I am helped. And my flesh flowered again; and (out) of my will I shall acknowledge to him. (The Lord is my helper and my defender; and my heart trusted him, and I was helped. And my heart full out joyed, or rejoiced; and I shall praise him with my song.)

⁸ The Lord is the strength of his people; and he is the defender of the savings of his christ (The Lord is the strength of his people; and he is the defender and the saviour of his anointed king/and he is the defender and the safe place, or the refuge, for his anointed king.)

⁹ Lord, make thou safe thy people, and bless thou thine heritage; and rule thou them, and enhance thou them till into without end. (Lord, save thou thy people, and bless thou thy inheritance; and rule thou over them, and lift thou them up, yea, take good care of them, forever.)

7 My son, keep thou my words; and keep my behests to thee. (My son, remember my words; and keep my commands with thee.)

² Keep thou my behests, and thou shalt live; and my law, as the apple of thine eye. (Keep thou my commands, and thou shalt live; and my instructions, or my teaching, as the apple of thine eyes.)

³ Bind thou it in thy fingers; write thou it in the tables of thine heart. (Bind thou it to thy fingers; write thou it on the tablets of thy heart.)

⁴ Say thou to wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call thou prudence thy love (and call thou understanding, thy friend).

⁵ That it keep thee from a strange woman; and from an alien woman, that maketh her words sweet. (So that they keep thee safe from a strange woman; yea, from an unknown woman, who maketh her words sweet.)