Unit 2(J): What Did Moses Write? Alternative Models, Part 3 "Two Versions"

1. (2) I am Adonai your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery.
2. (3) You shall have no other gods besides me. (4) You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. (5) You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, Adonai your God, am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of parents upon their children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject me, (6) but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
3. (7) You shall not swear falsely by the name of Adonai your God, for Adonai will not treat as innocent one who swears falsely by his name.
4. (8) Remember the Sabbath Day to make it holy. (9) Six days you shall labor and do all your work, (10) but the seventh day is a Sabbath of Adonai your God: you shall not do any work—you, your son, or your daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements. (11) For in six days Adonai made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, Adonai blessed the Sabbath Day and he made it holy.
5. (12) Honor your father and your mother so that you live long on the land that Adonai your God is giving you.
6. (13) You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. (14) You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female slave, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

1. (6) I am Adonai your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery.
2. (7) You shall have no other gods beside me. (8) You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters below the earth. (9) You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, Adonai your God, am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of parents upon their children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject me, (10) but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
3. (11) You shall not swear falsely by the name of Adonai your God, for Adonai will not treat as innocent one who swears falsely by his name.
4. (12) Keep the Sabbath Day to make it holy, as Adonai your God has commanded you. (13) Six days you shall labor and do all your work, (14) but the seventh day is a Sabbath of Adonai your God: you shall not do any work—you, your son, or your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox, or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the stranger in your settlements, so that your male and female slave may rest as you do. (15) Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Adonai your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, Adonai your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath Day.
5. (16) Honor your father and your mother, as Adonai your God has commanded you, so that you live long, and so that you live well, in the land that Adonai your God is giving you.
6. (17) You shall not murder.
7. And you shall not commit adultery.
8. And you shall not steal.
9. And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. (18) And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not crave your neighbor’s house, or his field, or his male or female slave, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

Keep:

But in the first version of the Ten Commandments (Exod 20) it says, “Remember [the Sabbath Day]"! Both of them were said in one utterance and with one word; and in one hearing they were heard (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 20:8).

I will now speak about [the discrepancy between] "Remember" and "Keep." Know that [often in human communication] the meanings, not the [exact] words, are preserved. Note [for example] how our father Isaac said to Esau, "So that my soul may bless you before I die" (Gen 27:4). But Rebekah told Jacob that she heard him [Isaac] say, "And I will bless you, in the presence of the Lord, before my death (Gen. 27:7)--[the expression] "before I die" being the same [in meaning] as "before my death." But if so, what reason was there [for Rebekah] to add, "in the presence of the Lord?" The answer is that Rebekah knew that Isaac was a prophet of the Lord, and that the blessing he would give would be by means of prophecy. Therefore, she said to Jacob, "in the presence of the Lord," and it was like she was interpreting the nature of the blessing.

This is how Moses acted. For the Ten Commandments that are written in this portion [Yitro, in Exod 20] are the words of God without any addition or subtraction, and they alone were written on the Tablets of the Covenant...But the Ten Commandments written in the portion Va'etchanan [Deut 5] are the words of Moses. Definitive proof is that there [in the Deut version] twice it is written, "as the Lord your God commanded you"....

And Moses did not need to mention the rationale, "for in six days the Lord made [the heavens and the earth]" (Exod 20:11) in the second version [in Deut] because earlier [in that same Shabbat commandment] he had said, "as the Lord your God commanded you" (Deut 5:13), as if he were saying, "as it is written in your Torah in the commandment "Remember [the Sabbath Day, in Exod 20]" [which continues] until [the words] "and he made it holy."

And since God commanded that male and female servants rest, but God didn't explain why, Moses explained the reason and said that God commanded that servants should rest so that you should remember you were a servant like him in Egypt, but God redeemed you.

First Stanza

"Keep" and "Remember" in one utterance, the unique God made us hear.

The Lord is one and his name is one, for fame and beauty and glory.