Ten words from the mountain

Three months out of Egypt, at a mountain in smoke and thunder, God gives Israel a constitution. Notice the first sentence: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. The rescue comes first; the commands follow it. They are not the price of freedom, they are the shape of it — how a people who have just been let out of slavery keep from building slavery again among themselves. Four about God: no rivals, no images, no using his name as a weapon, and a day when nobody works, slaves and animals included. Six about each other: honour parents, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not lie in court, do not even set your heart on what is your neighbour's.