Three months after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt they encamped at the foot of Sinai, and “the Lord called unto Moses out of the mountain, saying, ’Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:  Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.  Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me from among all peoples:  for all the earth is Mine:  and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.’  The people answered together and said, ’All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.’  And the Lord said unto Moses, ’Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and may also believe thee for ever.’” “On the third day, when it was morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud; and all the people that were in the camp trembled.  And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the nether part of the mountain.  And Mount Sinai was altogether on smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire:  and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.  And when the voice of the trumpet waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice."*

     * Exod. xix. 3-6, 9, 16-19.

Then followed the giving of the supreme law, the conditions of the covenant which the Lord Himself deigned to promulgate directly to His people.  It was engraved on two tables of stone, and contained, in ten concise statements, the commandments which the Creator of the Universe imposed upon the people of His choice.

“I.  I am Jahveh, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.  Thou shalt have none other gods before Me.

II.  Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, etc.

III.  Thou shalt not take the name of Jahveh thy God in vain.

IV.  Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.

V. Honour thy father and thy mother.

VI.  Thou shalt do no murder.

VII.  Thou shalt not commit adultery.

VIII.  Thou shalt not steal.

IX.  Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

X. Thou shalt not covet."*

     * We have two forms of the Decalogue—­one in Exod. xx. 2-
     17, and the other in Deut. v. 6-18.

“And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking:  and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood afar off.  And they said unto Moses, ’Speak thou with us, and we will hear:  but let not God speak with us, lest we die.’"* God gave His commandments to Moses in instalments as the circumstances required them:  on one occasion the rites of sacrifice, the details of the sacerdotal vestments, the mode of consecrating the priests, the composition of the oil and the incense for the altar; later on, the observance of the three annual festivals, and the orders as to absolute rest on the seventh day, as to the distinctions between clean and unclean animals, as to drink, as to the purification of women, and lawful and unlawful marriages.**