Exodus 20:14

Summary

This verse consists of a single prohibition: lo' ("not", H3808) combined with tne'Af ("you must commit adultery", H5003) forms the command "You shall not commit adultery." The Hebrew text is minimal, containing only the negation and one verb, with no additional object or qualifying phrase.

Key words

• lo' ("not", H3808) — the standard negative particle used with imperfect verbs to express prohibition or durative negative commands, functioning here as an absolute prohibition rather than a simple statement of fact.
• tne'Af ("you must commit adultery", H5003) — Qal imperfect, second person masculine singular. The Qal stem indicates the simple, direct action (not causative or reflexive). The imperfect aspect conveys an ongoing or habitual prohibition rather than a single-instance command, consistent with legal/covenantal instruction addressed to an individual (masculine "you").

What the text says

The Hebrew clause is grammatically simple: negation + verb, with no explicit subject pronoun (the subject "you" is embedded in the verbal conjugation itself, as is typical in Biblical Hebrew). The second-person masculine singular form indicates the command is addressed to an individual, not a collective plural audience, which is a feature of the entire block of legal material in this section of Exodus. The Qal imperfect form of tne'Af (H5003) does not specify a particular occasion; imperfect verbs in prohibitions of this kind typically express a general, standing rule rather than a one-time event.

No object marker, prepositional phrase, or additional clause appears in the Hebrew — the verb tne'Af alone carries the full semantic weight of the prohibited action. This brevity is characteristic of the terse legal style found in this list of commands.

Differences between versions

The provided LXXSWETE text reads Οὐ κλέψεις ("You shall not steal"), which corresponds semantically to the Hebrew verb for stealing rather than to tne'Af ("commit adultery", H5003). The LXX numbering given here is also marked "(13)," differing from the Hebrew verse's position, indicating that in the Septuagint sequence supplied, this line does not occupy the same slot as the adultery prohibition in the Hebrew text. The Vulgate (Non mœchaberis) and the modern translations (RV1909, BSB, SBLIBRE) all align with the Hebrew in rendering the prohibition against adultery, matching tne'Af (H5003) rather than the LXX's "steal" wording shown here.