The Ten Commandments in (Exodus 20) are a list in the Hebrew Bible. In the Targum Jonathan, they are a spectacle. Each commandment is a living entity of storm and flame that flies through the air, reveals itself to Israel, and then carves itself into stone.

The Targum describes the first commandment emerging "from the mouth of the Holy One" as "storms, and lightnings, and flames of fire, with a burning light on His right hand and on His left." It "winged its way through the air of the heavens" to the Israelite camp, then returned and "was engraven on the tables of the covenant," where it "was turned in them from side to side." Each word literally flew, displayed itself, and then inscribed itself from both directions into the stone tablets. The second commandment followed the identical pattern.

The Targum expands each commandment with direct addresses: "My people of the house of Israel." Where the Hebrew simply says "you shall not murder," the Targum adds: "you shall not be companions of or partakers with murderers; in the congregations of Israel there shall not be seen a murderous people." Each prohibition extends to association, complicity, and even the behavior of future generations.

The consequences are also expanded. Murder brings "the sword" upon the world. Adultery brings death. Theft brings famine. False testimony causes "the clouds go up and the rain cometh not down." Covetousness causes "the government breaketh in upon the possessions of men." Each sin is cosmically linked to a specific punishment that affects the entire world, not just the sinner.

When the people heard the thundering commandments, they "drew back and stood twelve miles off." Moses alone approached "the height of the darkness where was the glory of the Lord." The Targum then adds that God explicitly prohibited making images of "the sun or the moon or the stars, or the planets, or the angels who minister before Me"—a far more detailed prohibition than the Hebrew text provides, specifically targeting the astral worship common in the ancient Near East.