The: God’s Word Translation
Exodus 20:1-17

Then God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of slavery in Egypt.
  1. Never have any other god.
  2. Never make your own carved idols or statues that represent any creature in the sky, on the earth, or in the water. Never worship them or serve them, because I, the Lord your God, am a God who does not tolerate rivals. I punish children for their parents’ sins to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. But I show mercy to thousands of generations of those who love me and obey my commandments.
  3. Never use the name of the Lord your God carelessly. The Lord will make sure that anyone who carelessly uses his name will be punished
  4. Remember the day of rest by observing it as a holy day. You have six days to do all your work. The seventh day is the day of rest—a holy day dedicated to the Lord your God. You, your sons, your daughters, your male and female slaves, your cattle, and the foreigners living in your city must never do any work on that day. In six days the Lord made heaven, earth, and the sea, along with everything in them. He didn’t work on the seventh day. That’s why the Lord blessed the day he stopped his work and set this day apart as holy.
  5. Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live for a long time in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
  6. Never murder.
  7. Never commit adultery.
  8. Never steal.
  9. Never lie when you testify about your neighbor.
  10. Never desire to take your neighbor’s household away from him.
    Never desire to take your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox, his donkey, or anything else that belongs to him.
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1995

History

This translation, which is the work of God's Word to the Nations Bible Society, fills the need to communicate clearly to contemporary Americans without compromising the Bible's message. It employed full-time Bible scholars and full-time English editorial reviewers. It uses natural grammar, follows standard punctuation and capitalization rules, and is printed in a single column.

The theory followed by the Bible Society's translators is closest natural equivalent translation. The first consideration was to find equivalent English ways of expressing the meaning of the original text. The second consideration was readability. The third consideration was to choose the natural equivalent that most clearly reflects the style of the Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek text.

In prose, this translation looks like other works of literature. Poetry is instantly recognized by its format. It capitalizes the first letter in proper nouns and sentences and in all letters of the word LORD when it represents Yahweh. It does not capitalize any pronouns (except I and unless they begin sentences). In passages that apply to all people, it tries to use gender-neutral language so that all readers will apply these passages to themselves. If a passage focuses upon an individual, it does not use plural nouns and pronouns to avoid the gender-specific pronouns he, him, and his. It avoids using difficult theological terms, substituting words that carry the same meaning in common English. However, some traditional theological words are contained in footnotes the first time they occur in a chapter.

World Publishing (1995)

[Tyndale House, Cambridge, United Kingdom]