![]() The New Testament asserts that God brings consequences to those who worship other gods. ![]() Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only'." Jesus quotes Deuteronomy when tempted to worship Satan in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world. The covenant logic establishes an exclusive relationship in which the subject population may have only one sovereign, as expressed explicitly in thou shalt have no other gods before me. Yahweh thus establishes his position relative to the Israelites, who are expected to render complete submission, allegiance, and obedience to him. The text follows an ancient royal treaty pattern, where the speaking monarch begins by identifying himself by name and notable deeds. This verse also serves as the motive clause for the following imperatives. The implicit imperative is to believe that God exists and that his proper name is “Yahweh.” By invoking the exodus from Egypt, it also suggests the archetype of God as the redeemer and intervener in history. ![]() “I am the L ORD your God” occurs a number of other times in the Bible also.īy saying, "I am the L ORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery", it introduces him by name to establish his authority behind the stipulations that follow. So distinguished, Yahweh demands exclusive allegiance from the Israelites. Įstablishing his identity through the use of the proper name, Yahweh, and his mighty acts in history distinguishes Yahweh from the gods of Egypt which were judged in the killing of Egypt's firstborn (Exodus 12) and from the gods of Canaan, the gods of the gentile nations, and the gods that are worshipped as idols, starry hosts, or things found in nature, and the gods known by other proper names. The language and pattern reflects that of ancient royal treaties in which a great king identified himself and his previous gracious acts toward a subject king or people. The introduction to the Ten Commandments establishes the identity of God by both his personal name and his historical act of delivering Israel from Egypt. The translation "God" renders אֱלֹהִים (transliterated " Elohim"), the normal biblical Hebrew word for " god, deity". ![]() The conventional "the L ORD" in English translations renders יהוה in the Hebrew text (transliterated " YHWH"), the proper name of the God of Israel, reconstructed as Yahweh. You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, YHWH your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me, and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. I am YHWH your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. The text of the Ten Commandments according to the Book of Exodus begins: egṓ eimi ho Kúrios ho Theós sou) is the opening phrase of the Ten Commandments, which are widely understood as moral imperatives by ancient legal historians and Jewish and Christian biblical scholars.
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