(rather than the one which later editors starting calling "the ten commandments") New International version:
Then the LORD said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you. Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.(1)Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
“Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.
(2) “Do not make any idols.
(3) “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt.
(4) “The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock. Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons.
(5) “No one is to appear before me empty-handed.
(6) “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.
(7) “Celebrate the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year. Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel. I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the LORD your God.
(8) “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Festival remain until morning.
(9) “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God.
(10) “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.
I've put in my suggestions for how to make them add up to ten; one might say that "Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" is a separate commandment, but it is sandwiched by 2 "do not make a treaty" sections, so maybe that's all 1. One might say "break down their altars" is a commandment in its own right, too - interesting that possibly the first of the 10 commandments is at direct odds with the American First Amendment. Perhaps (5) is the last part of (4). It's a bit vague, otherwise.
However, it's notable this is about conquest, ethnic cleansing, and purity of religious ceremony. None of these wishy-washy things about not killing, stealing or bearing false witness - you know, the kind of things you might call
liberal.
The thing is, those given in Exodus 20 are just the first in a long series of commandments from Exodus 20 to Exodus 23. Then God tells Moses "we'll write these down, for easy reference" , and then there's a lot of blueprints for the Ark of the Covenant, fashion tips for the well-dressed priest, Abattoir 101 and a handy recipe for a fresh-smelling
house viewing sacrifice session, a basic taxation guide, and then it says this covenant law was on 2 tablets - nothing saying this stopped at the "no coveting" one.
Since there was so much of this - not a succinct "ten orders for moral living", it took so long that the Israelites broke the 'no idols' rule while they were waiting (before they'd had it explicitly said to them). And so Moses broke the original 2 tablets in a huff, gathered a posse, and killed 3000
pour encourager les autres. And commended the posse on a massacre well done. Then God followed up with a quick plague, just as a reminder of whose in charge of infectious diseases. Then He said "OK, we'll write those 2 tablets again" - and you get the Exodus 34 list. So it seems the important 10 Commandments are these religious purity/ethnic cleansing ones.
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