What Are the 10 Commandments? Full Text & Explanation

The Ten Commandments are God’s foundational moral summary given to Israel — ten short directives that shape our relationship with God and with other people. If you ask, "what are the 10 commandments?" the Bible records them most clearly in Exodus 20 and again in Deuteronomy 5; they name duties toward God (the first half) and duties toward neighbors (the second half) and serve as a covenantal guide for faithful living.

Where the commands are found

The most familiar versions appear in two places: Exodus 20, where God speaks them from Mount Sinai, and Deuteronomy 5, where Moses repeats them to a new generation before entering the Promised Land. Both passages are essential: Exodus is the original moment; Deuteronomy reframes the commands with renewed emphasis and sometimes slightly different wording or rationale.

[Exodus 20:1-17]

[Deuteronomy 5:6-21]

Read together, those chapters give us the full text of the Decalogue and a helpful sense of its purpose in Israel’s story.

The Ten Commandments — list and plain-English explanation

Below I list the ten as they often appear in English summaries, then explain what each one means for ordinary life. After each explanation you'll find the primary Exodus verse referenced so you can compare translations easily.

1. No other gods. This command establishes the relationship: God is the one who has rescued Israel and therefore the one entitled to their loyalty. It rules out worshipping other deities or placing ultimate trust in anything that competes with God for first place in your heart.
[Exodus 20:3]

2. Do not make or worship idols. Closely connected to the first, this forbids making images or objects and treating them as if they were divine. The heart issue is not art or symbol itself but the temptation to reduce the living God to a manageable thing.
[Exodus 20:4-6]

3. Do not misuse God's name. This command protects the reverence due to God’s name and presence. It forbids flippant, manipulative, or insincere uses of God’s name — a reminder that language shapes the way we treat what is holy.
[Exodus 20:7]

4. Keep the Sabbath holy. God sets apart a rhythm of rest and worship. The Sabbath honors God's creative and redemptive work and guards human dignity by carving time for renewal, worship, and family. How Sabbath looks differs across cultures, but the principle resists total workaholism.
[Exodus 20:8-11]

5. Honor your father and mother. This command affirms the family as a primary context for nurture and moral formation. "Honor" includes respect, care, and support — a call to preserve intergenerational bonds that sustain communities.
[Exodus 20:12]

6. Do not murder. The command protects the sanctity of human life. Most translations render the Hebrew as a prohibition on unlawful killing rather than a blanket prohibition on all death; it condemns unjust, violent taking of life and points toward practices that preserve life and justice.
[Exodus 20:13]

7. Do not commit adultery. This protects marriage fidelity and sexual covenant. Beyond specific acts, it calls for integrity, faithfulness, and honoring commitments that form the basis for stable families and communities.
[Exodus 20:14]

8. Do not steal. This command keeps property and trust intact. It resists greed and prompts fair treatment in economic life — a call that implicates both individual behavior and just social structures.
[Exodus 20:15]

9. Do not give false testimony. Truth in legal and personal life matters. Bearing false witness undermines justice and community. The command aims to protect the courts, neighbors' reputations, and the social trust that holds daily life together.
[Exodus 20:16]

10. Do not covet. This reaches inside the heart. Unlike the other commands that forbid visible actions, this one addresses desire: unhealthy longing for another person's spouse, property, or status. It calls us to contentment and right-ordered desire.
[Exodus 20:17]

Why translations and numbering differ

Two different but related puzzles trouble readers: wording choices (kill vs. murder, covet vs. desire) and how the ten items are numbered. Both are rooted in language and in how ancient readers grouped the phrases.

Translation differences matter. For example, some English Bibles say "You shall not kill," while others read "You shall not murder." Translators choose based on the Hebrew verb and the covenant context; many scholars prefer "murder" because the law addresses unlawful killing rather than every instance of killing (such as wartime or capital punishment discussed elsewhere in Scripture). Likewise, translators render the Sabbath command with varying emphases, and Deuteronomy reframes the reason for Sabbath in light of Israel’s history of liberation, so the two accounts complement each other rather than contradict.

Numbering differences come from three historical schemes. Jewish tradition (the Talmudic or rabbinic division) treats the opening declaration "I am the Lord your God" as the first item; it then counts coveting as one command. The Augustinian scheme (used by Roman Catholics and Lutherans) combines the prohibition of other gods and the image-ban into one command and splits coveting into two separate commandments (one against coveting a neighbor’s spouse, another against coveting possessions). The Philonic or Hellenistic division (used by many Protestants and some Orthodox traditions) separates the image-ban from the command against other gods and treats coveting as a single item. The result is the same moral content, but different numbering for memorization and catechesis.

Because those divisions are ancient, you’ll often see the same command identified by different numbers depending on a Bible edition or a denominational catechism. When studying, note the text reference (Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5) rather than relying only on a number.

Reading the Decalogue today

The Ten Commandments are short, but they point wide. They begin by shaping our worship and trust, then move to the life we make with other people. They touch speech, time, family, life, marriage, property, justice, and the desires of the heart. They don’t exhaust God’s ethics, but they set the tone for faithful living.

Different translations will render the phrasing in ways that illuminate nuance. A living translation that pays attention to contemporary speech — and that also keeps close to the original meaning — can help readers hear the commands afresh. The Modern Text Bible, for example, aims to present Scripture in natural, current English while keeping fidelity to the text, and includes verse-level commentary that helps explain choices in wording and context.

Practically, the Decalogue invites two questions: Where am I tempted to make an idol of something good? And where am I allowing my desires or habits to harm others? Those two questions keep the law from being merely a list to memorize and turn it into a tool for examining the heart. The commands remain an invitation to a life shaped by love for God and love for neighbor.