By Tom Thomas
In the all-time classical work, “The Confessions,” St. Augustine prays, “O God most high, most sweet, our lives offend against your ten-stringed harp, your commandments, the three which proclaim our duty to you and the seven which proclaim our duty to men.” Basing himself on Psalm 36:1 “Sin speaks to the sinner in the depths of his heart” and Ps. 144:9, which speaks about the impact of sin, he infers that by following the Ten Commandments we keep sin away us.
Augustine himself, understood the gravity of his sinful life, when he realised that it was not in accordance with the Ten Commandments, came his great repentance and the grace of conversion to a new renewed life based on the prompting to open and read the Scriptures and reading the single line from the first passage he saw – Romans 13:13-14: “….let us conduct ourselves as in the day.”
The Ten Commandments is given first in Exodus 20, then Exodus 34 and Deuteronomy 5:1-22. The version in Deuteronomy closely parallels the version given in Exodus 20, though there are subtle differences. We go through them in this article:
The Fourth Commandment
In Exodus
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy… you shall perform no labour, neither you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Deuteronomy
Observe the Sabbath day . . . you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant or, your ox, or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God took you out from there with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord, your God, commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
The Fifth Commandment
In Exodus
Honour your father and your mother, in order that your days be long in the land that the Lord, your God, is giving you
In Deuteronomy
Honour your father and your mother as the Lord your God commanded you that your days be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord, your God, is giving you
The Tenth Commandment
In Exodus
You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbour’s.
In Deuteronomy
And you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbour’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.
Differences in text in both the version have been highlighted in bold above.
Observance of the Sabbath day is given as a command in Deut5:15, not only for the owner of a household and his family, but for all his servants as well. This is given along with an exhortation to remember the slavery of the past and how the Lord brought out the chosen people from there with an outstretched arm.
The commandment to honour one’s parents is also embellished with the following details: “.. that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you .” (Deut 5:16)
In Deut 5:21 we also see the added details that even the desire of possessing one’s neighbour’s goods is against the Commandment. And there is a change in the order of mentioning neighbour’s wife and goods in Deuteronomy as compared to Exodus.
These subtle distinctions are worth reflecting upon. The scholars interpret that the difference arose because the first time God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses in Exodus, while in Deuteronomy; Moses was narrating this episode to the Chosen People and had therefore made further enhancements.
Regardless of time, the Ten Commandments (or ten words) have stood the test of time as a benchmark for us to live our lives by. As St Augustine did, there is a clarion call to live our lives in harmony with the ten stringed harp, and then our life will be melodious indeed achieving our full God-given potential.
“Praise the Lord with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.” Psalms 33:2