The-Ten-Words
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Remember the following truth from our beloved Torah!
“Ye shall NOT ADD TO THE WORD which
I command you, NEITHER SHALL YE DIMINISH FROM
IT, that ye may keep the commandments of אֱלֹהֵיכֶם יְהוָה - the LORD your Eloleichem,
which I command you”. Davarim - Deuteronomy 4:2. (JPS-1917).
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“The Ten Words”..
With Rabbi, Dr. Reuven Ben Avraham-Goossens, PhD.
The Hebrew phrase עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים - pronounced “Aseret HaDvarim” translates to “The Ten Commandments” – but literally it is “The Ten Utterances” or “The Ten Words”. Thus let us look further into this remarkable subject!
There is no-doubt that עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים - “Aseret HaDvarim” - the “Ten Commandments” are among the best-known scriptural texts. It appears first in Shemot - Exodus 20, and is mentioned in Exodus chapter 34, and in Deuteronomy chapter 4 and 10. A careful look at these highlights a clear window into the value of historical-critical scripturaL scholarship.
Let
us now look at Exodus 20:1-13:
Please Note: All verses are from the JPS-1917 version.
1 And אֱלֹהִים - Elohim spoke all
these words, saying:
2 I am יְהוָה
אֱלֹהֶיךָ - the LORD thy Eloheicha,
who brought thee out of the
3 Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing
that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the
water under the earth; 4 thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor
serve them; for I יְהוָה
אֱלֹהֶיךָ - the LORD thy Eloheicha
am a jealous אֱלֹהִים - Elohim, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation
of them that hate Me; 5 and showing mercy unto the thousandth
generation of them that love Me and keep My Commandments.
6 Thou shalt not take the Name of the LORD thy God in
vain; for יְהוָה - the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh His Name in vain.
7 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 8 Six days shalt thou
labour, and do all thy work; 9 but the seventh day is a Sabbath
unto יְהוָה
אֱלֹהֶיךָ - the LORD thy Eloheicha,
in it thou shalt not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy
daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy
stranger that is within thy gates; 10 for in six days יְהוָה - the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that
in them is, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore יְהוָה - the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
11 Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land
which יְהוָה
אֱלֹהֶיךָ - the LORD thy Eloheicha giveth thee.
12 Thou shalt not murder. Thou
shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against
thy neighbour.
13 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s
wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox,
nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s”.
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Besides Exodus 20 above there are other mentions re the עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים - “Aseret HaDvarim”, as we will see next.
These
should be called the עֲשֶׂרֶת
הַדְּבָרִים - “Aseret HaDvarim”.
For the “Ten Words”, appears once in full as we have seen above, but it is clearly mentioned a further three times in the Torah: 1. Is as we have read above in Exodus 20:1-13.
2.
Here is a mention of it in Exodus 34:27-28:
27 “And יְהוָה - the LORD said unto Moses: ‘Write
thou these words, for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant
with thee and with
3. Then here is Deuteronomy 4:13:
“And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to
perform, even the ten
words; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone”.
4.
And finally in Deuteronomy 10:4:
“And He wrote on the tables according to the first writing, the ten words, which יְהוָה - the LORD spoke unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and יְהוָה - the LORD gave them unto me”.
For interest, the opening phrase יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ - ‘the LORD thy Eloheicha’ is formulated as an ‘utterance’, thus it is not a ‘commandment’.
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In
conclusion:
Strikingly, the term עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים “The Ten Words” is absent from Exodus 20! However the term is clearly used in Exodus 34:28, as well as in Deuteronomy 4:13 as well as chapter and verse 10:4.
I trust that the above has been interesting, for it is not often referred to, yet in the past a certain Chabad rabbi (at shul) stated that עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים is mentioned only once”. And as we now know, it was clearly mentioned a total of four times in our beloved Torah!
Please Note: On this site, there is another study named “The-Ten-Commandments”, however, this study is different, as it covers the four times the “Ten-Words” are covered in the Torah.
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“The More Torah,
the More Life”,
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שָׁלוֹם
עֲלֵיכֶם - Shalom Aleichem - Peace be with you!
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