The: Contemporary English Version
Exodus 20:1-17

I am the Lord your God, the one who brought you out of Egypt where you were slaves
  1. Do not worship any god except me
  2. Do not make idols that look like anything in the sky or on earth or in the ocean under the earth. 5 Don’t bow down and worship idols. I am the Lord your God, and I demand all your love. If you reject me, I will punish your families for three or four generations. 6 But if you love me and obey my laws, I will be kind to your families for thousands of generations
  3. Do not misuse my name.[a] I am the Lord your God, and I will punish anyone who misuses my name
  4. Remember that the Sabbath Day belongs to me. 9 You have six days when you can do your work, 10 but the seventh day of each week belongs to me, your God. No one is to work on that day—not you, your children, your slaves, your animals, or the foreigners who live in your towns. 11 In six days I made the sky, the earth, the oceans, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested. That’s why I made the Sabbath a special day that belongs to me
  5. Respect your father and your mother, and you will live a long time in the land I am giving you
  6. Do not murder
  7. Be faithful in marriage
  8. Do not steal
  9. Do not tell lies about others
  10. Do not want anything that belongs to someone else. Don’t want anyone’s house, wife or husband, slaves, oxen, donkeys or anything else
Download a copy of Contemporary English Version

Attachments


Known details

1992

History

It was translated with the attempt that the text be faithful to the meaning of the original and that it can be read with ease and understanding by readers of all ages. It was made directly from the original languages of the Scriptures and is not an adaptation of any existing translation.

Some nouns (e.g., "salvation") of traditional translations are not used as they describe actions. Every word, phrase, and of the original was carefully studied by the translators. Then, they tried to find the best way to translate the verse so that it could be easily read and understood.

Poetic sections were expected not only to sound good but also to look good. Poetic lines were carefully measured to avoid awkwardly divided phrases and words that run over to the next line in clumsy ways.

The New Testament was translated directly from the Greek text and published by the United Bible Societies (third edition, corrected, 1983). Psalms and Proverbs were translated directly from the Masoretic Hebrew text printed in Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (fourth edition, 1990) and published by the German Bible Society.

Drafts in their early stages were sent for review and comment to a number of Biblical scholars, theologians, and educators representing a wide variety of denominations, also to all English-speaking Bible Societies and to over forty United Bible Societies translation consultants around the world. Final approval was given by the American Bible Society's Board of Trustees upon recommendation of its Translation Subcommittee.