Verse Lens · Expanded explanation

Exodus 20:13 Explained in Context

Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.

Selected verse

Verse 13. Thou shalt not kill.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

In 20:13, “you will not kill” locates the verse inside “The Ten Words Address God and Neighbor” and clarifies what changes before the next line.

Read It With

  • Exodus 20:1–17

Read Exodus 20:13 with 20:1–17. In 20:13, “you will not kill” locates the verse inside “The Ten Words Address God and Neighbor” and clarifies what changes before the next line. The whole unit shows: The exodus identity of God grounds commands concerning exclusive worship, images, the name, Sabbath, parents, murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and coveting.

Why This Verse Appears Here

The Ten Words Address God and Neighbor belongs here because the exodus identity of God grounds commands concerning exclusive worship, images, the name, Sabbath, parents, murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and coveting. The placement moves Exodus from oppression and rescue toward covenant, rupture, repaired presence, and the completed dwelling. At 20:13, the wording “you will not kill” makes this verse's contribution precise. In 20:13, “you will not kill” locates the verse inside “The Ten Words Address God and Neighbor” and clarifies what changes before the next line.

Read Exodus 20:1–17 together

Why these verses belong together: The Ten Words as one covenant charter forms one grammatical or narrative sequence and should not be divided into independent slogans.

Verse 1. And God spake all these words, saying,

Verse 2. I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Verse 3. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Verse 4. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

Verse 5. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

Verse 6. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Verse 7. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Verse 8. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Verse 9. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

Verse 10. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

Verse 11. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Verse 12. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Verse 13. Thou shalt not kill.

Verse 14. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Verse 15. Thou shalt not steal.

Verse 16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Verse 17. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

Follow the Context

  1. The unit opens at 20:1 by establishing the exodus identity of God grounds commands concerning exclusive worship, images, the name, Sabbath, parents, murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and coveting.
  2. By 20:17, the narrated speech, instruction, action, or outcome has completed the movement named “The Ten Words Address God and Neighbor.”

Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation

“you will not kill”

In plain language: In 20:13, “you will not kill” locates the verse inside “The Ten Words Address God and Neighbor” and clarifies what changes before the next line.

The exodus identity of God grounds commands concerning exclusive worship, images, the name, Sabbath, parents, murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and coveting. The phrase belongs to 20:1–17.

Why it matters: Careful interpreters agree that the received text says what the exodus identity of God grounds commands concerning exclusive worship, images, the name, Sabbath, parents, murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and coveting. They disagree over source layers, date, historical recovery, archaeology, Hebrew details, ritual development, legal use, and canonical relationship in different proportions; this study treats the final form directly while marking those alternatives as probable or uncertain rather than settled fact.

How certain? probable

What This Verse Is Not Saying

The Ten Words do not authorize coercive worship, antisemitism, abusive family power, criminalizing thought, or pretending a short covenant charter answers every modern legal case.

What Remains True

Because Exodus 20:13 contributes “you will not kill” to “The Ten Words Address God and Neighbor,” its proportionate enduring truth is: The covenant charter joins loyalty to the liberating God with restrained power toward family, neighbor, labor, speech, property, sexuality, and desire.

How It Can Shape Life

  • At Exodus 20:13, the line “you will not kill” serves this contextual meaning: The exodus identity of God grounds commands concerning exclusive worship, images, the name, Sabbath, parents, murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and coveting. The bounded action is: Audit both public rules and private habits for the ways worship claims, work demands, speech, desire, and authority affect the neighbor's life and freedom.

Teach It Back

Explain why Exodus 20:13 says “you will not kill” inside 20:1–17. Name its actor and effect, one historical, Hebrew, compositional, legal, ritual, or ethical limit, one person or group bearing risk, and one conclusion the verse does not authorize.

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Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read Exodus 20:1–17 — The Ten Words Address God and Neighbor
Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? probable

Where care is needed

Exodus 20:13 remains inside this material limit: Careful interpreters agree that the received text says what the exodus identity of God grounds commands concerning exclusive worship, images, the name, Sabbath, parents, murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and coveting. They disagree over source layers, date, historical recovery, archaeology, Hebrew details, ritual development, legal use, and canonical relationship in different proportions; this study treats the final form directly while marking those alternatives as probable or uncertain rather than settled fact.

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.

Exact location: Exodus 20:1–17, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Exodus

Open Scriptures

Open Scriptures, release 2.2

Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, names, speech, law, ritual vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Exod.xml, words and morphology for 20:1–17

Open source ↗

translation and translator notes

NET Bible: Exodus with translators' notes

Biblical Studies Press

eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, PDF generated 2026-08-12

Supports: Unit-bounded Hebrew, syntax, lexical, textual, name, measure, legal, ritual, and older-English notes; silence is not evidence.

Exact location: NET Bible Exodus PDF, complete 127-page PDF, translation and verse-attached translator notes for 20:1–17

Open source ↗

open university course study guide

Sinai Study Guide

Joel S. Baden and John J. Collins

Yale Bible Study, 2019 course edition

Supports: Mountain location uncertainty, covenant and treaty comparison, source plurality, mediation, Decalogue, covenant blood, and priestly dwelling instruction.

Exact location: Yale Bible Study, 'Sinai,' complete study guide pp. 1–6, covenant, Moses and the mountain, Decalogue, Exodus 24, and tabernacle framing; applied to Exodus 20:1–17

Open source ↗

open university course study guide

The Book of the Covenant Study Guide

Joel S. Baden and John J. Collins

Yale Bible Study, 2019 course edition

Supports: Case-law form, ancient Near Eastern comparanda, social setting, slavery and gender inequality, legal restraint, and limits of direct modern transfer.

Exact location: Yale Bible Study, 'The Book of the Covenant,' complete study guide pp. 1–5, ancient Near Eastern law, slavery, lex talionis, property, justice, worship, and legal dating limits; applied to Exodus 20:1–17

Open source ↗
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