Ten Commandments, the. Deuteronomy 4:13. Or, more exactly, the Ten Words. Exodus 34:28, margin; Deuteronomy 10:4, margin. They were proclaimed from Sinai, amid mighty thunderings and lightnings, Exodus 20:1-22, and were graven on tablets of stone by the finger of God. Exodus 31:18; Exodus 32:15-16; Exodus 34:1; Exodus 34:28. Ten was a significant number, the symbol of completeness; and in these ten words was comprised that moral law to which obedience forever was to be paid. On these, summed up as our Lord summed them up, hung all the law and the prophets. Matthew 22:36-40. There were two tables, the commandments of the one more especially respecting God, those of the other, man. These are usually divided into four and six. Perhaps they might better be distributed into five and five. The honor to parents enjoined by the fifth commandment is based on the service due to God, the Father of his people. Paul, enumerating those which respect our neighbor, includes but the last five. Romans 13:9.