---
title: "Exodus 20 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/exodus/20/
description: "The ten commandments. Exodus 20 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Exodus 20

Exodus 20 is chapter 20 of 40 in the Book of Exodus. Here are all 26 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The ten commandments.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Exodus 20 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. And the Lord spoke all these words:
2. “I am the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of Egypt, out of the house of servitude.
3. You shall not have strange gods before me.
4. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, nor a likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on earth below, nor of those things which are in the waters under the earth.
5. You shall not adore them, nor shall you worship them. I am the Lord your God: strong, zealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
6. and showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my precepts.
7. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. For the Lord will not hold harmless one who takes the name of the Lord his God falsely.
8. Remember that you are to sanctify the day of the Sabbath.
9. For six days, you will work and accomplish all your tasks.
10. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. You shall not do any work in it: you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, your beast and the newcomer who is within your gates.
11. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all the things that are in them, and so he rested on the seventh day. For this reason, the Lord has blessed the day of the Sabbath and sanctified it.
12. Honor your father and your mother, so that you may have a long life upon the land, which the Lord your God will give to you.
13. You shall not murder.
14. You shall not commit adultery.
15. You shall not steal.
16. You shall not speak false testimony against your neighbor.
17. You shall not covet the house of your neighbor; neither shall you desire his wife, nor male servant, nor female servant, nor ox, nor donkey, nor anything that is his.”
18. Then all the people considered the voices, and the lights, and the sound of the trumpet, and the smoking mountain. And being terrified and struck with fear, they stood at a distance,
19. saying to Moses: “Speak to us, and we will listen. Let not the Lord speak to us, lest perhaps we may die.”
20. And Moses said to the people: “Do not be afraid. For God came in order to test you, and so that the dread of him might be with you, and you would not sin.”
21. And the people stood far away. But Moses approached toward the mist, in which was God.
22. Thereafter, the Lord said to Moses: “This you shall say to the sons of Israel: You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven.
23. You shall not make gods of silver, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.
24. You shall make an altar from the earth for me, and you shall offer upon it your holocausts and peace-offerings, your sheep and oxen, in every place where the memory of my name shall be. I will come to you, and I will bless you.
25. And if you make an altar of stone for me, you shall not build it from cut stones; for if you lift up a tool over it, it will be defiled.
26. You shall not ascend by steps to my altar, lest your nakedness be revealed.”

## Exodus 20 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Locutusque est Dominus cunctos sermones hos:
2. Ego sum Dominus Deus tuus, qui eduxi te de terra Ægypti, de domo servitutis.
3. Non habebis deos alienos coram me.
4. Non facies tibi sculptile, neque omnem similitudinem quæ est in cælo desuper, et quæ in terra deorsum, nec eorum quæ sunt in aquis sub terra.
5. Non adorabis ea, neque coles: ego sum Dominus Deus tuus fortis, zelotes, visitans iniquitatem patrum in filios, in tertiam et quartam generationem eorum qui oderunt me:
6. et faciens misericordiam in millia his qui diligunt me, et custodiunt præcepta mea.
7. Non assumes nomen Domini Dei tui in vanum: nec enim habebit insontem Dominus eum qui assumpserit nomen Domini Dei sui frustra.
8. Memento ut diem sabbati sanctifices.
9. Sex diebus operaberis, et facies omnia opera tua.
10. Septimo autem die sabbatum Domini Dei tui est: non facies omne opus in eo, tu, et filius tuus et filia tua, servus tuus et ancilla tua, jumentum tuum, et advena qui est intra portas tuas.
11. Sex enim diebus fecit Dominus cælum et terram, et mare, et omnia quæ in eis sunt, et requievit in die septimo: idcirco benedixit Dominus diei sabbati, et sanctificavit eum.
12. Honora patrem tuum et matrem tuam, ut sis longævus super terram, quam Dominus Deus tuus dabit tibi.
13. Non occides.
14. Non mœchaberis.
15. Non furtum facies.
16. Non loqueris contra proximum tuum falsum testimonium.
17. Non concupisces domum proximi tui, nec desiderabis uxorem ejus, non servum, non ancillam, non bovem, non asinum, nec omnia quæ illius sunt.
18. Cunctus autem populus videbat voces et lampades, et sonitum buccinæ, montemque fumantem: et perterriti ac pavore concussi, steterunt procul,
19. dicentes Moysi: Loquere tu nobis, et audiemus: non loquatur nobis Dominus, ne forte moriamur.
20. Et ait Moyses ad populum: Nolite timere: ut enim probaret vos venit Deus, et ut terror illius esset in vobis, et non peccaretis.
21. Stetitque populus de longe. Moyses autem accessit ad caliginem in qua erat Deus.
22. Dixit præterea Dominus ad Moysen: Hæc dices filiis Israël: Vos vidistis quod de cælo locutus sim vobis.
23. Non facietis deos argenteos, nec deos aureos facietis vobis.
24. Altare de terra facietis mihi, et offeretis super eo holocausta et pacifica vestra, oves vestras et boves in omni loco in quo memoria fuerit nominis mei: veniam ad te, et benedicam tibi.
25. Quod si altare lapideum feceris mihi, non ædificabis illud de sectis lapidibus: si enim levaveris cultrum super eo, polluetur.
26. Non ascendes per gradus ad altare meum, ne reveletur turpitudo tua.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- cf. CCC ¶ 2056: The Ten Commandments ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 2061: The Ten Commandments ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 2169: The Sabbath Day ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 2200: The Fourth Commandment ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 2214: The Duties of Family Members ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 1867: The Proliferation of Sin ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 4: All such images, or likenesses, are forbidden by this commandment, as are made to be adored and served; according to that which immediately follows, thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them. That is, all such as are designed for idols or image-gods, or are worshipped with divine honour. But otherwise images, pictures, or representations, even in the house of God, and in the very sanctuary so far from being forbidden, are expressly authorized by the word of God. See Ex. 25. 15, and etc.; chap. 38. 7; Num. 21. 8, 9; 1 Chron. or Paralip. 28. 18, 19; 2 Chron. or Paralip. 3. 10.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Sun, Feb 28, 2027: Third Sunday of Lent — First Reading, Exodus 20:1-17
- Fri, Jul 23, 2027 (computed): Friday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Exodus 20:1-17

Citations as published in the USCCB liturgical calendar (principal Mass, first option). Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).