Exodus 20:5
לֹֽא־תִשְׁתַּחְוֶה לָהֶם וְלֹא תָעָבְדֵם כִּי אָֽנֹכִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֵל קַנָּא פֹּקֵד עֲוֹן אָבֹת עַל־בָּנִים עַל־שִׁלֵּשִׁים וְעַל־רִבֵּעִים לְשֹׂנְאָֽי׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
לֹֽא־תִשְׁתַּחְוֶ֥֣ה לָהֶ֖ם֮ וְלֹ֣א תָעָבְדֵ֑ם֒ כִּ֣י אָֽנֹכִ֞י יְהוָ֤ה אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙ אֵ֣ל קַנָּ֔א פֹּ֠קֵד עֲוֹ֨ן אָבֹ֧ת עַל־בָּנִ֛ים עַל־שִׁלֵּשִׁ֥ים וְעַל־רִבֵּעִ֖ים לְשֹׂנְאָֽ֑י׃
οὐ προσκυνήσεις αὐτοῖς οὐδὲ μὴ λατρεύσῃς αὐτοῖς· ἐγὼ γάρ εἰμι κύριος ὁ θεός σου, θεὸς ζηλωτής, ἀποδιδοὺς ἁμαρτίας πατέρων ἐπὶ τέκνα ἕως τρίτης καὶ τετάρτης γενεᾶς τοῖς μισοῦσίν με,
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Non adorabis ea, neque coles: ego sum Dominus Deus tuus fortis, zelotes, visitans iniquitatem patrum in filios, in tertiam et quartam generationem eorum qui oderunt me:
No te inclinarás ante ellos ni los adorarás, porque yo, Yehová, tu Dios, soy un Dios celoso. Yo castigo la maldad de los padres en los hijos, hasta la tercera y cuarta generación de los que me odian;
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
No te inclinarás á ellas, ni las honrarás; porque yo soy Jehová tu Dios, fuerte, celoso, que visito la maldad de los padres sobre los hijos, sobre los terceros y sobre los cuartos, á los que me aborrecen,
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse prohibits bowing down to or serving images (referring back to the idols mentioned earlier in the passage), grounding this prohibition in a self-description of Yehovah as a jealous deity who responds to the "hatred" (idolatry) of generations with consequences extending to descendants.
Key words
- tish.tach.Veh ("you must bow down", H7812) — hithpael imperfect, a reflexive/self-directed verbal form indicating repeated or potential future prostration; the hithpael stem often marks ritual or bodily self-lowering.
- ta.'a.ve.De ("you must be enticed to serve", H5647H) — hophal imperfect, a causative-passive form: the subject is made to serve rather than simply serving; this stem differs from a plain active "serve."
- qanna' ("jealous", H7067H) — masculine singular adjective describing 'El ("God", H0410G) directly, forming the phrase "a jealous God."
- po.ked ("visiting", H6485I) — qal participle, masculine singular, denoting an ongoing characteristic action ("the one who visits/attends to") rather than a single event.
- so.ne.'A + i ("those who hate me", H8130 + H9030) — qal participle plural in construct with the 1st-person suffix "me," identifying the object of the divine response as those characterized by "hating."
What the text says
The sentence opens with two parallel negative commands, each built on lo' ("not", H3808) plus an imperfect verb: tish.tach.Veh ("you must bow down") and ta.'a.ve.De ("you must be enticed to serve"), both followed by the 3rd person plural suffix Hem/m ("them", H9038), referring back to the objects named earlier in the passage. The first verb is hithpael, marking a reflexive bodily posture; the second is hophal, a passive-causative form, meaning the grammatical subject is depicted as being caused into service rather than initiating it independently — a nuance not visible in translations that render both simply as "bow down" and "serve/worship."
The causal clause introduced by ki ("for", H3588A) presents a chain of construct phrases: 'Elohei-kha ("God of you", H0430G+H9021) modifies Yehovah (H3068G), followed by the appositional 'el qanna' ("a jealous God", H0410G+H7067H). The participle po.ked ("visiting", H6485I) governs the construct chain 'a.Von 'a.Vot ("iniquity of fathers", H5771G+H0001G), extended by three prepositional phrases with 'al ("on", H5921A) marking "children," "third generation" (shi.le.Shim, H8029), and "fourth generation" (ri.be.'Im, H7256). This entire construction is bound to the final phrase le-so.ne.'A-i ("of those hating me", H8130+H9030), a qal participle plural in construct with the 1st-person suffix, syntactically limiting the scope of "fathers," "children," and following generations to those characterized by this participle.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders ta.'a.ve.De ("you must be enticed to serve") with λατρεύσῃς ("you shall serve"), an active form, where the Hebrew hophal carries a passive-causative sense. The LXX also translates 'a.Von ("iniquity", H5771G) as ἁμαρτίας ("sins"), a different lexical choice than "iniquity." The Vulgate's visitans iniquitatem follows the Hebrew participle po.ked more closely in form than the LXX's ἀποδιδοὺς ("repaying").
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.