Exodus Exodus 20:1-21
Scripture never calls them 'ten commandments' — it calls them the Ten Words (עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים), the only law God speaks audibly to a whole nation. They open not with a demand but with a recital of redemption already accomplished, are summed up by Jesus in two commands of love, and provoke a terror so great the people beg for a mediator — the very longing YHWH approves and Christ answers.
Genesis 2:1–3
Day 7 breaks the pattern: no 'let there be,' no 'and it was so,' no evening and morning. Four unprecedented verbs — finished, ceased, blessed, sanctified — describe a day that is the first holy thing in the Bible. The rest is still open.