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4You saw what I did in Egypt, and you know how I brought you here to me, just as a mighty eagle carries its young. 5Now if you will faithfully obey me, you will be my very own people. The whole world is mine, 6but you will be my holy nation and serve me as priests.
Moses, that is what you must tell the Israelites.
7After Moses went back, he reported to the leaders what the LORD had said, 8and they promised, " We will do everything the LORD has commanded." So Moses told the LORD about this.
9The LORD said to Moses, " I will come to you in a thick cloud and let the people hear me speak to you. Then they will always trust you." Again Moses reported to the people what the LORD had told him.
10Once more the LORD spoke to Moses:
Go back and tell the people that today and tomorrow they must get themselves ready to meet me. They must wash their clothes 11and be ready by the day after tomorrow, when I will come down to Mount Sinai, where all of them can see me.
12Warn the people that they are forbidden to touch any part of the mountain. Anyone who does will be put to death, 13either with stones or arrows, and no one must touch the body of a person killed in this way. Even an animal that touches this mountain must be put to death. You may go up the mountain only after a signal is given on the trumpet.
14After Moses went down the mountain, he gave orders for the people to wash their clothes and make themselves acceptable to worship God. 15He told them to be ready in three days and not to have sex in the meantime.
18Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the LORD had come down in a flaming fire. Smoke poured out of the mountain just like a furnace, and the whole mountain shook. 19The trumpet blew louder and louder. Moses spoke, and God answered him with thunder.
20The LORD came down to the top of Mount Sinai and told Moses to meet him there. 21Then he said, " Moses, go and warn the people not to cross the boundary that you set at the foot of the mountain. They must not cross it to come and look at me, because if they do, many of them will die. 22Only the priests may come near me, and they must obey strict rules before I let them. If they don't, they will be punished."
23Moses replied, " The people cannot come up the mountain. You warned us to stay away because it is holy."
24Then the LORD told Moses, " Go down and bring Aaron back here with you. But the priests and people must not try to push their way through, or I will rush at them like a flood!"
25After Moses had gone back down, he told the people what the LORD had said.
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2I am the LORD your God, the one who brought you out of Egypt where you were slaves.
3Do not worship any god except me.
4Do not make idols that look like anything in the sky or on earth or in the ocean under the earth. 5Don't bow down and worship idols. I am the LORD your God, and I demand all your love. If you reject me, I will punish your families for three or four generations. 6But if you love me and obey my laws, I will be kind to your families for thousands of generations.
7Do not misuse my name. I am the LORD your God, and I will punish anyone who misuses my name. 8Remember that the Sabbath Day belongs to me. 9You have six days when you can do your work, 10but the seventh day of each week belongs to me, your God. No one is to work on that day--not you, your children, your slaves, your animals, or the foreigners who live in your towns. 11In six days I made the sky, the earth, the oceans, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested. That's why I made the Sabbath a special day that belongs to me.
12Respect your father and your mother, and you will live a long time in the land I am giving you.
13Do not murder.
14Be faithful in marriage.
15Do not steal.
16Do not tell lies about others.
17Do not want anything that belongs to someone else. Don't want anyone's house, wife or husband, slaves, oxen, donkeys or anything else.
20" Don't be afraid!" Moses replied. " God has come only to test you, so that by obeying him you won't sin." 21But when Moses went near the thick cloud where God was, the people stayed a long way off.