Exodus 20:12

Summary

The verse commands honoring one's father and mother, with a stated purpose: the prolongation of days upon the land that Yehovah is giving. The Hebrew frames this as a cause-and-effect relationship expressed through a subordinating particle and a causative verb form.

Key words

• kaBed ("honor", H3513G) — piel imperative, masculine singular addressee. The piel stem is intensive, suggesting a weighty or repeated act rather than a single gesture of respect.
• le.Ma'an ("so that", H4616) — a subordinating particle introducing purpose or result; it links the command to its stated consequence.
• ya'ariKhun ("they may be long", H0748) — hiphil jussive, third person plural, referring to yamekha ("your days"). The hiphil (causative) stem indicates that days are made long, not simply that they happen to be long; the jussive mood expresses a wish or intended outcome rather than a flat prediction.
• noTen ("is about to give", H5414G) — qal participle, masculine singular, describing Yehovah as the one presently/continually giving the land, not as a completed past action.
• 'adaMah ("land", H0127G) — feminine singular noun with definite article, the object upon which the "days" are to be long.

What the text says

The sentence opens with a single piel imperative, kaBed ("honor"), governing two objects joined by the conjunction ve ("and"): 'et-'aVikha ("your father") and 'et-'iMekha ("your mother"), each marked by the untranslated direct object marker 'et. Both "father" and "mother" appear in construct form with the pronominal suffix kha ("your"), a standard construction for possessed nouns in Hebrew.

The clause introduced by le.Ma'an ("so that") sets up a purpose structure: ya'ariKhun yaMeikha ("your days may be long"), using a hiphil jussive verb with a paragogic nun (an emphatic ending) attached to yaMeikha ("your days"). The hiphil stem is causative, so the construction implies that days are caused to be long, connected to the preceding imperative rather than standing as an independent guarantee.

The final clause identifies the land with a relative clause: 'asher Yehovah 'eloHeikha noTen lakh ("which Yehovah your God is giving to you"). The verb noTen is a qal participle, portraying the giving as an ongoing or imminent action rather than something already finished.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the purpose clause with two coordinated ἵνα-clauses ("so that it may go well with you, and so that you may be long-lived"), adding "ἵνα εὖ σοι γένηται" ("that it may be well with you"), an element not present in the Hebrew text given here. The Vulgate's ut sis longaevus ("that you may be long-lived") condenses the Hebrew's "your days may be long" into a single adjective applied to the person rather than to "days" as the grammatical subject. The LXX also adds the qualifier "τῆς ἀγαθῆς" ("good") to describe the land, an addition not present in the Hebrew 'adaMah.