If we were to create a list of moral principles that most Americans would agree to try to follow in order to live more peacefully and stop barreling down the Highway to Hell at 100 mph, we would first have to recognize the current rules in effect in our society are non-existent, ineffective or are harmful to our continued existence.
So, because America was founded by Christians and we know that Christianity has flourished and prevailed or survived thousands of years with the same rules it always has, lets shop for our proposed new set or principles from what we know has worked, so we won't create something that is bound to fail because it hasn't stood the test of time.
The Ten Commandments have stood the test of time.
We aren't becoming Christians with this exercise, we are crafting a set of standards that will work for the most of us and borrowing proven ideas from the Bible to consider in populating our list of guidelines we all might can live by, for the benefit of us all.
New Living Translation NLT
Using modern English, the translators of the NLT focused on producing clarity in the meaning of the text rather than creating a literal, word-for-word equivalence. Their goal was to create a clear, readable translation while remaining faithful to original texts.
https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-versions/
Exodus Ch 20:1-17
The Ten Commandments (plus)
1 Then God gave the people all these instructions :
2 “I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.
3 “You must not have any other god but me.
4 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.
5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me.
6 But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.
7 “You must not misuse the name of the LORD your God. The LORD will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.
8 “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work,
10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the LORD your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you.
11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
12 “Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
13 “You must not murder.
14 “You must not commit adultery.
15 “You must not steal.
16 “You must not testify falsely against your neighbor.
17 “You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.”
https://www.biblestudytools.com/nlt/exodus/20.html
New Living Translation NLT
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The translators of the New Living Translation set out to render the message of the original texts of Scripture into clear, contemporary English. As they did so, they kept the concerns of both formal-equivalence and dynamic-equivalence in mind. On the one hand, they translated as simply and literally as possible when that approach yielded an accurate, clear, and natural English text. Many words and phrases were rendered literally and consistently into English, preserving essential literary and rhetorical devices, ancient metaphors, and word choices that give structure to the text and provide echoes of meaning from one passage to the next.
On the other hand, the NLT translators rendered the message more dynamically when the literal rendering was hard to understand, was misleading, or yielded archaic or foreign wording. They clarified difficult metaphors and terms to aid in the reader's understanding. The translators first struggled with the meaning of the words and phrases in the ancient context; then they rendered the message into clear, natural English. Their goal was to be both faithful to the ancient texts and eminently readable. The result is a translation that is both exegetically accurate and idiomatically powerful.
More than 90 Bible scholars, along with a group of accomplished English stylists, worked toward that goal. In the end, the NLT is the result of precise scholarship conveyed in living language.
Special thanks to Tyndale House Publishers for permission to use the New Living Translation of the Bible.
https://www.biblestudytools.com/nlt/
From the 17 verses, first pick out the ones which you feel MUST be included.
Next, pick out the ones which you feel MUST be omitted.
