Exodus 20:2
“I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →God grounds every command that follows in the love that already rescued His people.
Context
The opening words of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, spoken to Israel just months after the exodus. Before God asks anything of them, He reminds them who He is and what He has already done.
What Does Exodus 20:2 Mean?
Notice what comes first. Before a single thou shalt, God says I am the LORD thy God, and then He points to what He has done: I brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. The commandments do not open with a list of demands but with a rescue already accomplished. The God giving the law is the God who heard their groaning, sent the plagues, opened the sea, and walked them out of slavery on dry ground. He has the right to speak because He has already proven His love. Obedience here is the grateful answer of a people who have been set free.
This is the pattern of the whole gospel. God acts to save us first, and only then calls us to live as His own. Long before we could obey anything, Christ brought us out of a deeper Egypt, the house of bondage to sin and death. We do not keep His words to earn His rescue. We keep them because we have already been rescued, by the One who loved us first.
In the Original Language
avadim (עֲבָדִים), 'bondage' -- literally "slaves" or "the house of slaves," naming the cruel servitude God broke when He freed Israel.
Application
Whatever God asks of us rests on what He has already done for us. He rescued first and commands second, so that obedience becomes gratitude rather than a way to earn His favor. In Christ we have been brought out of our own house of bondage, and we live for Him because He loved us first.