19. “You must not steal.
20. “You must not tell lies about your neighbor in court.
21. “You must not want to take your neighbor’s wife. You must not want to take your neighbor’s house or land. You must not want to take his men or women slaves. You must not want to take his ox or his donkey. You must not want to take anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
22. The Lord gave these commands to all of you on the mountain. He spoke them in a loud voice out of the fire. He spoke from the cloud and the deep darkness. He did not say anything else. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets. And he gave them to me.
23. You heard the voice from the darkness. The mountain was blazing with fire. Then all the leaders of your tribes and your elders came to me.
24. And you said, “The Lord our God has shown us his glory and majesty. We have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks to him.
25. But now, we will die! This great fire will burn us up. And we will die if we hear the Lord our God speak anymore.
26. No human being has ever heard the living God speaking from a fire and still lived. But we have.
27. Moses, you go near and listen to everything the Lord our God says. Then you tell us what the Lord our God tells you. We will listen and obey.”
28. The Lord heard what you said to me. And he said to me, “I have heard what the people said to you. Everything they said was good.
29. I wish their hearts would always respect me. I wish they would always obey my commands. Then things would go well for them and their children forever!
30. “Go and tell the people to return to their tents.