Exodus 20:5

King James Version with Strong's Numbers

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;

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

לֹֽא־תִשְׁתַּחְוֶ֥֣ה לָהֶ֖ם֮ וְלֹ֣א תָעָבְדֵ֑ם֒ כִּ֣י אֽ͏ָנֹכִ֞י יְהוָ֤ה אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙ אֵ֣ל קַנָּ֔א פֹּ֠קֵד עֲוֺ֨ן אָבֹ֧ת עַל־בָּנִ֛ים עַל־שִׁלֵּשִׁ֥ים וְעַל־רִבֵּעִ֖ים לְשֹׂנְאָֽ֑י׃

Transliteration

lōʾ-ṯishtaḥăweh lāhem wə-lōʾ ṯāʿāḇəḏēm kî ʾānōḵî YHWH ʾĕlōheḵā ʾēl qannāʾ pōqēḏ ʿăwōn ʾāḇōṯ ʿal-bānîm ʿal-shillēshîm wə-ʿal-ribēʿîm lə-śōnəʾāy

Grammar Details

• *lōʾ-ṯishtaḥăweh*: negative particle + hishtaphel imperfect, 2nd masculine singular - you shall not bow down
• *lāhem*: preposition with 3rd masculine plural suffix - to them
• *wə-lōʾ ṯāʿāḇəḏēm*: conjunction + negative particle + qal imperfect, 2nd masculine singular with 3rd masculine plural suffix - and you shall not serve them
• *kî*: conjunction - for/because
• *ʾānōḵî*: 1st person singular pronoun - I
• *YHWH*: proper name - LORD/YHWH
• *ʾĕlōheḵā*: masculine plural noun construct with 2nd masculine singular suffix - your God
• *ʾēl qannāʾ*: masculine singular noun + adjective - jealous God
• *pōqēḏ*: qal participle, masculine singular - visiting/punishing
• *ʿăwōn*: masculine singular construct - iniquity of
• *ʾāḇōṯ*: masculine plural noun - fathers
• *ʿal-bānîm*: preposition + masculine plural noun - upon children
• *ʿal-shillēshîm*: preposition + masculine plural ordinal - upon third [generation]
• *wə-ʿal-ribēʿîm*: conjunction + preposition + masculine plural ordinal - and upon fourth [generation]
• *lə-śōnəʾāy*: preposition + qal participle plural construct with 1st singular suffix - to those hating me

Word Meanings

• *ṯishtaḥăweh*: bow down/prostrate yourself/worship
• *ṯāʿāḇəḏēm*: serve them/worship them/be enslaved to them
• *ʾēl qannāʾ*: jealous God/zealous God/passionate God
• *pōqēḏ*: visiting/punishing/attending to
• *ʿăwōn*: iniquity/guilt/punishment
• *lə-śōnəʾāy*: to those who hate me/to my enemies

Referenced Verses

• Num 14:18 : 18 The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
• Exod 34:14 : 14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
• Nah 1:2 : 2 God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.
• Jer 32:18 : 18 Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name,
• Deut 4:24 : 24 For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.
• Deut 5:9 : 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 upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,
• Deut 6:15 : 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 face of the earth.
• Josh 23:7 : 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 them, neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them:
• Exod 23:24 : 24 Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.
• Num 14:33 : 33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
• Josh 24:19 : 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 transgressions nor your sins.
• Ps 79:8 : 8 O remember{H8799)} not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent{H8762)} us: for we are brought very low{H8804)}.
• Ps 109:14 : 14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
• Isa 65:6-7 : 6 Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom, 7 Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.
• Jer 2:9 : 9 Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children's children will I plead.
• John 7:7 : 7 The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.
• John 15:18 : 18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
• John 15:23-24 : 23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
• Rom 1:30 : 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
• Lev 26:39-40 : 39 And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. 40 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;
• Jas 4:4 : 4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
• Isa 14:20-21 : 20 Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned. 21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
• Isa 44:15 : 15 Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto.
• Isa 44:19 : 19 And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?
• Ps 81:15 : 15 The haters{H8764)} of the LORD should have submitted{H8762)} themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.
• Job 5:4 : 4 His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them.
• 2 Kgs 23:26 : 26 Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.
• 2 Sam 21:1 : 1 Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.
• 2 Sam 21:6 : 6 Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And the king said, I will give them.
• 1 Kgs 21:29 : 29 Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house.
• 2 Kgs 17:35 : 35 With whom the LORD had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them:
• Lev 26:1 : 1 Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.
• Deut 32:21 : 21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
• Deut 32:41 : 41 If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.
• Josh 23:16 : 16 When ye have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you.
• Deut 7:10 : 10 And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.
• Lev 26:29 : 29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
• Exod 34:6-7 : 6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
• Lev 20:5 : 5 Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.
• 2 Kgs 17:41 : 41 So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.
• 2 Chr 25:14 : 14 Now it came to pass, after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them.
• Judg 2:19 : 19 And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.
• 1 Sam 15:2-3 : 2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. 3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
• Job 21:19 : 19 God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth him, and he shall know it.
• Ps 78:58 : 58 For they provoked him to anger{H8686)} with their high places, and moved him to jealousy{H8686)} with their graven images.
• Prov 6:34-35 : 34 For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. 35 He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.
• Prov 8:36 : 36 But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
• Matt 4:9 : 9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
• Matt 23:34-36 : 34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. 36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
• Rom 8:7 : 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
• 1 Cor 10:22 : 22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
• Ezek 8:3 : 3 And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.
• Dan 1:2 : 2 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.