The "Ten Commandments" were commands that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai while the Israelites were living in the desert on their way to the land of Canaan. God wrote these commands on two large slabs of stone.
* God gave the Israelites many commands to obey, but the Ten Commandments were special commands to help the Israelites love and worship God and love other people.
* These commandments were also part of God's covenant with his people. By obeying what God had commanded them to do, the people of Israel would show that they loved God and belonged to him.
* The stone slabs with the commandments written on them were kept in the Ark of the Covenant, which was located in the most holy place of the tabernacle and later, the temple.
(See also: [ark of the covenant](../kt/arkofthecovenant.md), [command](../kt/command.md), [covenant](../kt/covenant.md), [desert](../other/desert.md), [law](../kt/lawofmoses.md), [obey](../other/obey.md), [Sinai](../names/sinai.md), [worship](../kt/worship.md))
* __[13:07](rc://en/tn/help/obs/13/07)__ Then God wrote these __Ten Commandments__ on two stone tablets and gave them to Moses.
* __[13:13](rc://en/tn/help/obs/13/13)__ When Moses came down the mountain and saw the idol, he was so angry that he smashed the stones on which God had written the __Ten Commandments__.
* __[13:15](rc://en/tn/help/obs/13/15)__ Moses wrote the __Ten Commandments__ on new stone tablets to replace the ones he had broken.
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