Poetry · Chapter
The New Decalogue explained
A satirical rewriting of the Ten Commandments that exposes the hypocrisy and self-interest underlying conventional morality, turning each biblical injunction into a cynical maxim for personal gain.
What happens
A satirical rewriting of the Ten Commandments that exposes the hypocrisy and self-interest underlying conventional morality, turning each biblical injunction into a cynical maxim for personal gain.
Themes in this chapter
Hypocrisy and Corruption
The poem systematically subverts each commandment to reveal the gap between professed virtue and actual practice, e.g., 'To steal were folly, for 'tis plain / In cheating there is greater gain.'
Political Satire
The decalogue is reframed as a guide to worldly success, mocking how religious and moral language is co-opted for material and social advantage, e.g., 'Adore no images save those / The coinage of thy country shows.'
Key passages
“Have but one God: thy knees were sore / If bent in prayer to three or four.”
Worship only one God, because kneeling to multiple deities would be physically uncomfortable.
The opening line reduces monotheism to a matter of bodily convenience rather than spiritual conviction.
“Kill not—death liberates thy foe / From persecution’s constant woe.”
Do not murder, because death would free your enemy from the ongoing suffering of being harassed.
The prohibition against killing is twisted into a selfish calculation about prolonging an enemy's misery.
“To steal were folly, for ’tis plain / In cheating there is greater gain.”
Stealing is foolish because cheating offers a more profitable and less risky way to take what isn't yours.
The commandment against theft is dismissed in favor of fraud, which is presented as a superior form of dishonesty.