"I am God, your Lord, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 20:2). Targum Onkelos translates the Ten Commandments with almost no deviation from the Hebrew—a remarkable restraint for a translator who elsewhere reshapes nearly every verse about God's actions.
The reason is theological: these words were spoken directly by God to the entire nation. They are not narrative about God. They are God's own speech. Onkelos treats them as sacrosanct. "You must not have any other gods before My Presence"—Onkelos adds "Presence" where the Hebrew has only "before Me," but this is clarification, not alteration. "You must not make for yourself any carved image"—translated straight. "Remember the Shabbos day to sanctify it"—translated straight.
The commandment against theft receives a significant interpretive choice. "Do not steal" (Exodus 20:13)—Onkelos adds: "by kidnapping human beings." The prohibition in the Ten Commandments is not about property theft (which is covered elsewhere in the Torah). It is about stealing people. This reading follows the Talmudic interpretation (Sanhedrin 86a) that the Decalogue's "theft" refers to the capital crime of kidnapping.
After the commandments, the people's reaction is vivid in both Hebrew and Aramaic. "All the people saw the sounds" (Exodus 20:15)—they saw what is normally heard, a synesthetic experience unique in Scripture. They trembled. They stood far off. They begged Moses to mediate: "Let God not speak with us anymore, lest we die" (Exodus 20:16). Moses reassured them: "Do not be afraid. It was to exalt you that God came in this manner, so that the fear of Him be on your faces that you not sin." Onkelos preserves this without change. The fear of God is the point of the entire experience.
1. And the Lord spake all these words, saying,
2. I am the Lord thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Mizraim, out of the house of servitude.
3. Thou shalt have no other God beside Me.
4. Thou shalt not make to thee image nor likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, nor in the earth beneath, nor in the waters under the earth:
5. Thou shalt not worship them nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God; visiting the sins of the fathers upon the rebellious children, unto the third generation and to the fourth generation of those who hate Me; while the children continue (or complete) to sin after their fathers;
6. But doing good to thousands of generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
7. Thou shalt not swear in the name of the Lord thy God vainly; for the Lord will not acquit him who sweareth in His Name with falsity.
8. Remember the day of Shabbatha to sanctify it.
9. Six days shalt thou do service and do all thy work;
10. but the seventh day is Shabbath before the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not do every work; thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy servant nor thy handmaid, nor thy cattle, nor thy sojourner who is in thy city.
11. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the seas and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the day of Shabbath, and sanctified it.
12. Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be prolonged upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth to thee.
13. Thou shalt not kill life. \va 14\va* Thou shalt not commit adultery. \va 15\va* Thou shalt not steal. \va 16\va* Thou shalt not testify against thy neighbour a testimony of falsehood.
14. \va 17\va* Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour’s.
15. \va 18\va* And all the people saw the thunders, and the flames, and the voice of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and the people saw, and trembled, and stood afar off.
16. \va 19\va* And they said to Mosheh, Speak thou with us, and we will hearken; but let it not be spoken to us from before the Lord, lest we die.
17. \va 20\va* And Mosheh said to the people, Fear not; for that He may prove you He hath revealed to you the glory of the Lord, and that His fear may be before your face, that you may not sin.
18. \va 21\va* And the people stood afar off, but Mosheh drew nigh to the darkness where was the glory of the Lord.
19. \va 22\va* And the Lord said to Mosheh, Thus shalt thou speak to the children of Israel; You have seen that I have spoken to you from the heavens.
20. \va 23\va* You shall not make before Me idols of silver, neither idols of gold shall you make to you.
21. \va 24\va* An altar of earth shalt thou make before Me, and shalt sacrifice upon it thy burnt offerings and thy sanctified victims, thy sheep and thy oxen. In every place where I may cause My Shekinah to dwell, thither will I send My blessing, and will bless thee.
22. \va 25\va* And if thou wilt make Me an altar of stone before Me, thou shalt not build it with hewn stones lest thou lift up thy cutting-tool (lit. thy sword) upon it and profane it.
23. \va 26\va* And thou shalt not ascend by steps to My altar, that thy nakedness may not be discerned upon it.
