Exodus 20:5 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Exodus 20:5
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
to depress · verb, hithpael imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
serve
תָעָבְדֵ֑ם֒ta.'a.ve.Dem
H5647
to work (in any sense) · verb, hophal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
LORD
יְהוָ֤הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
God
אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙'e.lo.Hei.kha
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
jealous
קַנָּ֔אka.Na'
H7067
jealous · adjective, masculine singular absolute
God
אֵ֣ל'el
H410
strength · noun, common masculine singular absolute
visiting
פֹּ֠קֵדPo.ked
H6485
to visit (with friendly or hostile intent) · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
iniquity
עֲוֹ֨ן'a.Von
H5771
perversity · noun, common masculine singular construct
fathers
אָבֹ֧ת'a.Vot
H1
father · noun, common feminine plural absolute
children
בָּנִ֛יםba.Nim
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
third
שִׁלֵּשִׁ֥יםshi.le.Shim
H8029
a descendant of the third degree · noun, common masculine plural absolute
fourth
רִבֵּעִ֖יםri.be.'Im
H7256
a descendant of the fourth generation · noun, common masculine plural absolute
hate
לְשֹׂנְאָֽ֑יle.so.ne.'Ai
H8130
to hate (personally) · preposition + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 5:9 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upo…
Numbers 14:18 The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniqu…
Deuteronomy 4:24 For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.
Exodus 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
Joshua 24:19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressio…
Deuteronomy 6:15 (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the…
Exodus 34:6-7 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness an…
Joshua 23:7 That ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by the…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Exodus 20:1-11
Here is, I. The preface of the law-writer, Moses: God spoke all these words, Exo 20:1. The law of the ten commandments is, 1. A law of God's making. They are enjoined by the infinite eternal Majesty of heaven and earth. And where the word of the King of kings is surely there is power. 2. It is a law of his own speaking. God has many ways of speaking to the children of men (Job 33:14); once, yea twice - by his Spirit, by conscience, by providences, by his voice, all which we ought carefully to attend to; but he never spoke, at any time, upon any occasion, as he spoke the ten commandments, which therefore we ought to hear with the more earnest heed. They were not only spoken audibly (so he own…
Thou shalt not make . . . any graven image . . . thou shalt not bow down thyself to them--that is, "make in order to bow." Under the auspices of Moses himself, figures of cherubim, brazen serpents, oxen, and many other things in the earth beneath, were made and never condemned. The mere making was no sin--it was the making with the intent to give idolatrous worship.
Adam Clarke on Exodus 20:5
Jealous God - This shows in a most expressive manner the love of God to this people. He felt for them as the most affectionate husband could do for his spouse; and was jealous for their fidelity, because he willed their invariable happiness.
Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children - This necessarily implies - if the children walk in the steps of their fathers; for no man can be condemned by Divine justice for a crime of which he was never guilty; see Ezekiel 18. Idolatry is however particularly intended, and visiting sins of this kind refers principally to national judgments. By withdrawing the Divine protection the idolatrous Israelites were delivered up into the hands of the…
Thou shall not bow down thyself to them,.... Perform any worship to them, show any reverence of them by any gesture of the body; one being mentioned, bowing the body, and put for all others, as prostration of it to the earth, bending the knee, kissing the hand, lifting up of hands or eyes to them, or by any outward action expressing a religious esteem of them, as if there was divinity in them:
nor serve them; in a religious manner, internally or externally, by offering sacrifice and burning incense to them; by praying to, or praising of them; by expressing love to them, faith and trust in them, hope and expectation of good things from them, and the like. The reason of this second command, r…
The Church Fathers
Christians and Jews are led to avoid temples and altars and images by the command "You shall fear the Lord your God and him only shall you serve." … And not only do they avoid them, but when necessary they readily come to the point of death to avoid defiling their conception of the God of the universe by any act of this kind contrary to his law.
[God] warns a man inclined to idolatry not to practice it. But when a man who is not so inclined but yet through cowardice, which he calls "accommodation," pretends to worship idols as the masses do, he does not, it is true, worship idols, but he does bow before them. And I would say that they who abjure Christianity in the courtroom or even before they are brought there do not worship idols, but they do bow down before them; for they apply to inanimate and unheeding matter the name of the Lord God, namely "God".
Now Christ is especially jealous for the house of God in each of us, not wishing it to be a house of merchandise or that the house of prayer become a den of thieves, since he is Son of a jealous God. This is the case if we understand such words from the Scriptures in a reasonable manner, which were spoken metaphorically from the human viewpoint to set forth the fact that God wishes nothing alien to his will to be mingled with the soul of any, but especially with the soul of those who wish to receive [the teachings of the] most divine faith.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Church — Derived probably from the Greek kuriakon (i.e., “the Lord’s house”), which was used by ancient authors for the place of worship. In the New Testament it is the translation of the Greek word ecclesia,…
Decalogue — The name given by the Greek fathers to the ten commandments; “the ten words,” as the original is more literally rendered (Ex. 20:3-17). These commandments were at first written on two stone slabs…
Law of Moses — Is the whole body of the Mosaic legislation (1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 23:25; Ezra 3:2). It is called by way of eminence simply “the Law” (Heb. Torah, Deut. 1:5; 4:8, 44; 17:18, 19; 27:3, 8). As a written…
Exodus 20:4-6
4. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
4. Non facies tibi sculptlie, neque ullam imaginem eorum quae sunt in coelo sursum, neque eorum qae in terra deorsum, neque eorum quae in aquis sunt subter terram.
5. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
5. Non adorabis ea, neque coles ea, ego enim Jehova Deus tuus, Deus zelotes, visitans iniquitatem patrum super filios, in te…
The Second Word. - To the prohibition of idolatrous worship there is linked on, as a second word, the prohibition of the worship of images. "After declaring in the first commandment who was the true God, He commanded that He alone should be worshipped; and now He defines what is His lawful worship" (Calvin). "Thou shalt not make to thyself a likeness and any form of that which is in heaven above," etc. עשׂה is construed with a double accusative, so that the literal rendering would be "make, as a likeness and any form, that which is in heaven," etc. פּסל, from פּסל to carve wood or stone, is a figure made of wood or stone, and is used in Jdg 17:3. for a figure representing Jehovah, and in oth…
jealous God: God is passionately opposed to our prostituting ourselves with false gods (see Josh 24:19-20). • in the third and fourth generations . . . for a thousand generations: It is important to keep both sides of this equation together. God does not punish children for their parents’ sins. Rather, he is saying that our sins affect future generations of descendants. But he is also restricting the natural effects of those sins to three or four generations, while graciously extending the effects of obedience to a thousand generations (see also 34:6-7; Deut 7:9). • reject (literally hate): The Hebrew words commonly translated “love” (Exod 20:6) and “hate” are difficult to translate into Eng…
אל קנא A JEALOUS GOD — He is jealous to exact punishment, and does not pass over His rights by pardoning idolatry (Mekhilta). Wherever: the expression קנא occurs it signifies in old French emportement, English zeal, — determining to exact punishment.
לשנאי OF THEM THAT HATE ME — This must be explained in the same sense as the Targum takes it: when they retain in their hands (follow the example of) the evil doings of their ancestors (Sanhedrin 27b);
Judgments · Inflicted upon: Posterity of sinners — Inflicted upon: Posterity of sinners
Law · .Engraved on stone — .Engraved on stone
Law Of God, The · Given: To the Israelites — Given: To the Israelites
Parents · Curses entaile — Curses entaile
Reasoning · God rea — God rea
Table · .The commandments engraved upon — .The commandments engraved upon
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
