How Moses Received the Commandments

• The Book of Exodus tells that Moses led the Jewish people out of Egypt and into the desert. There he went up Mount Sinai, where God spoke to him. God told Moses that he would make a covenant with the Jewish people, and that if they obeyed his laws and kept the covenant, they would become his "holy nation." According to Exodus, God wrote on two stone tablets a list of 10 rules for the people to obey. After 40 days and 40 nights on Mount Sinai, Moses carried the tablets down the mountain to the Israelites.
  
  

The Text of the Commandments

• The 10 Commandments that appeared on the tablets have been translated differently over time. The are slightly different for each religious group using them. The meaning of the Commandments remains the same across all groups. This is the version of the Commandments presented to most Protestants:
  
  1. You shall have no other God besides me.
  
  2. You shall not worship any graven images.
  
  3. You shall not take the name of God in vain.
  
  4. Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.
  
  5. Honor thy father and they mother.
  
  6. You shall not murder.
  
  7. You shall not commit adultery.
  
  8. You shall not steal.
  
  9. You shall not bear false witness.
  
  10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, wife, servants or anything else he owns.
  
  

Appearance of the Tablets

• In most religious art, the tablets are depicted as large, flat stones with rounded tops, although they sometimes appear rectangular. However, according to the Talmud (the Jewish sacred text), the tablets were actually square.
  
  The actual wording on the original tablets is believed to have been in Hebrew. According to the Bible, the tablets were inscribed on both sides. Jewish tradition holds that there were five Commandments on each tablet.
  
  

The Second Set of Tablets

• According to the Bible, when Moses came down from the mountain with the original tablets, he discovered the Israelites worshiping a golden calf. In anger he smashed the tablets. Moses then went back up the mountain, where he asked God's forgiveness. God forgave the people and wrote down the Commandments down a second time, on a new set of tablets. God also commanded Moses to make a wooden ark in which the tablets would be kept. This is known as the Ark of the Covenant.