Exodus 20:5

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations of those who reject 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 slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third and fourth generations.’
• Exod 34:14 : 14 For you must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
• Nah 1:2 : 2 God Takes Vengeance against His Enemies The LORD is a zealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and very angry. The LORD takes vengeance against his foes; he sustains his rage against his enemies.
• Jer 32:18 : 18 You show unfailing love to thousands. But you also punish children for the sins of their parents. You are the great and powerful God whose is name is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.
• Deut 4:24 : 24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire; he is a jealous God.
• Deut 5:9 : 9 You must not worship or serve them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God. I punish the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons for the sin of the fathers who reject me,
• Deut 6:15 : 15 for the LORD your God, who is present among you, is a jealous God and his anger will erupt against you and remove you from the land.
• Josh 23:7 : 7 or associate with these nations that remain near you. You must not invoke or make solemn declarations by the names of their gods! You must not worship or bow down to them!
• Exod 23:24 : 24 “You must not bow down to their gods; you must not serve them or do according to their practices. Instead you must completely overthrow them and smash their standing stones to pieces.
• Num 14:33 : 33 and your children will wander in the wilderness forty years and suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your dead bodies lie finished in the wilderness.
• Josh 24:19 : 19 Joshua warned the people,“You will not keep worshiping the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God who will not forgive your rebellion or your sins.
• Ps 79:8 : 8 Do not hold us accountable for the sins of earlier generations! Quickly send your compassion our way, for we are in serious trouble!
• Ps 109:14 : 14 May his ancestors’ sins be remembered by the LORD! May his mother’s sin not be forgotten!
• Isa 65:6-7 : 6 Look, I have decreed: I will not keep silent, but will pay them back; I will pay them back exactly what they deserve, 7 for your sins and your ancestors’ sins,” says the LORD.“Because they burned incense on the mountains and offended me on the hills, I will punish them in full measure.”
• Jer 2:9 : 9 The Lord Charges Contemporary Israel with Spiritual Adultery“So, once more I will state my case against you,” says the LORD.“I will also state it against your children and grandchildren.
• John 7:7 : 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I am testifying about it that its deeds are evil.
• John 15:18 : 18 The World’s Hatred“If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me first.
• John 15:23-24 : 23 The one who hates me hates my Father too. 24 If I had not performed among them the miraculous deeds that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen the deeds and have hated both me and my Father.
• Rom 1:30 : 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents,
• Lev 26:39-40 : 39 Restoration through Confession and Repentance“‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’ iniquities which are with them. 40 However, when they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, by which they also walked in hostility against me
• Jas 4:4 : 4 Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy.
• Isa 14:20-21 : 20 You will not be buried with them, because you destroyed your land and killed your people. The offspring of the wicked will never be mentioned again. 21 Prepare to execute his sons for the sins their ancestors have committed. They must not rise up and take possession of the earth, or fill the surface of the world with cities.”
• Isa 44:15 : 15 A man uses it to make a fire; he takes some of it and warms himself. Yes, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Then he makes a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it.
• Isa 44:19 : 19 No one thinks to himself, nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves:‘I burned half of it in the fire– yes, I baked bread over the coals; I roasted meat and ate it. With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol? Should I bow down to dry wood?’
• Ps 81:15 : 15 (May those who hate the LORD cower in fear before him! May they be permanently humiliated!)
• Job 5:4 : 4 His children are far from safety, and they are crushed at the place where judgment is rendered, nor is there anyone to deliver them.
• 2 Kgs 23:26 : 26 Yet the LORD’s great anger against Judah did not subside; he was still infuriated by all the things Manasseh had done.
• 2 Sam 21:1 : 1 The Gibeonites Demand Revenge During David’s reign there was a famine for three consecutive years. So David inquired of the LORD. The LORD said,“It is because of Saul and his bloodstained family, because he murdered the Gibeonites.”
• 2 Sam 21:6 : 6 let seven of his male descendants be turned over to us, and we will execute them before the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, who was the LORD’s chosen one.” The king replied,“I will turn them over.”
• 1 Kgs 21:29 : 29 “Have you noticed how Ahab shows remorse before me? Because he shows remorse before me, I will not bring disaster on his dynasty during his lifetime, but during the reign of his son.”
• 2 Kgs 17:35 : 35 The LORD made a covenant with them and instructed them,“You must not worship other gods. Do not bow down to them, serve them, or offer sacrifices to them.
• Lev 26:1 : 1 Exhortation to Obedience“‘You must not make for yourselves idols, so you must not set up for yourselves a carved image or a pillar, and you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down before it, for I am the LORD your God.
• Deut 32:21 : 21 They have made me jealous with false gods, enraging me with their worthless gods; so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, with a nation slow to learn I will enrage them.
• Deut 32:41 : 41 I will sharpen my lightning-like sword, and my hand will grasp hold of the weapon of judgment; I will execute vengeance on my foes, and repay those who hate me!
• Josh 23:16 : 16 If you violate the covenantal laws of the LORD your God which he commanded you to keep, and follow, worship, and bow down to other gods, the LORD will be very angry with you and you will disappear quickly from the good land which he gave to you.”
• Deut 7:10 : 10 but who pays back those who hate him as they deserve and destroys them. He will not ignore those who hate him but will repay them as they deserve!
• Lev 26:29 : 29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.
• Exod 34:6-7 : 6 The LORD passed by before him and proclaimed:“The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, 7 keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”
• Lev 20:5 : 5 I myself will set my face against that man and his clan. I will cut off from the midst of their people both him and all who follow after him in spiritual prostitution, to commit prostitution by worshiping Molech.
• 2 Kgs 17:41 : 41 These nations are worshiping the LORD and at the same time serving their idols; their sons and grandsons do just as their fathers have done, to this very day.
• 2 Chr 25:14 : 14 When Amaziah returned from defeating the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people of Seir and made them his personal gods. He bowed down before them and offered them sacrifices.
• Judg 2:19 : 19 When a leader died, the next generation would again act more wickedly than the previous one. They would follow after other gods, worshiping them and bowing down to them. They did not give up their practices or their stubborn ways.
• 1 Sam 15:2-3 : 2 Here is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies has said:‘I carefully observed how the Amalekites opposed Israel along the way when Israel came up from Egypt. 3 So go now and strike down the Amalekites. Destroy everything that they have. Don’t spare them. Put them to death– man, woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey alike.’”
• Job 21:19 : 19 You may say,‘God stores up a man’s punishment for his children!’ Instead let him repay the man himself so that he may be humbled!
• Ps 78:58 : 58 They made him angry with their pagan shrines, and made him jealous with their idols.
• Prov 6:34-35 : 34 for jealousy kindles a husband’s rage, and he will not show mercy when he takes revenge. 35 He will not consider any compensation; he will not be willing, even if you multiply the compensation.
• Prov 8:36 : 36 But the one who misses me brings harm to himself; all who hate me love death."
• Matt 4:9 : 9 And he said to him,“I will give you all these things if you throw yourself to the ground and worship me.”
• Matt 23:34-36 : 34 “For this reason I am sending you prophets and wise men and experts in the law, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, 35 so that on you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 I tell you the truth, this generation will be held responsible for all these things!
• Rom 8:7 : 7 because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so.
• 1 Cor 10:22 : 22 Or are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we really stronger than he is?
• Ezek 8:3 : 3 He stretched out the form of a hand and grabbed me by a lock of hair on my head. Then a wind lifted me up between the earth and sky and brought me to Jerusalem by means of divine visions, to the door of the inner gate which faces north where the statue which provokes to jealousy was located.
• Dan 1:2 : 2 Now the Lord delivered King Jehoiakim of Judah into his power, along with some of the vessels of the temple of God. He brought them to the land of Babylonia to the temple of his god and put the vessels in the treasury of his god.