<P> The English name "Decalogue" is derived from Greek δεκάλογος, dekalogos, the latter meaning and referring to the Greek translation (in accusative) δέκα λόγους, deka logous, "ten words", found in the Septuagint (or LXX) at Exodus 34: 28 and Deuteronomy 10: 4 . </P> <P> The stone tablets, as opposed to the commandments inscribed on them, are called לוחות הברית ‎, Luchot HaBrit, meaning "the tablets of the covenant". </P> <P> The biblical narrative of the revelation at Sinai begins in Exodus 19 after the arrival of the children of Israel at Mount Sinai (also called Horeb). On the morning of the third day of their encampment, "there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud", and the people assembled at the base of the mount . After "the LORD came down upon mount Sinai", Moses went up briefly and returned and prepared the people, and then in Exodus 20 "God spoke" to all the people the words of the covenant, that is, the "ten commandments" as it is written . Modern biblical scholarship differs as to whether Exodus 19 - 20 describes the people of Israel as having directly heard all or some of the decalogue, or whether the laws are only passed to them through Moses . </P> <P> The people were afraid to hear more and moved "afar off", and Moses responded with "Fear not ." Nevertheless, he drew near the "thick darkness" where "the presence of the Lord" was to hear the additional statutes and "judgments", all which he "wrote" in the "book of the covenant" which he read to the people the next morning, and they agreed to be obedient and do all that the LORD had said . Moses escorted a select group consisting of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and "seventy of the elders of Israel" to a location on the mount where they worshipped "afar off" and they "saw the God of Israel" above a "paved work" like clear sapphire stone . </P>

Who was given the ten commandments by god