Deuteronomy5:5–21

Where the English smooths the original

• אָנֹכִי Moses uses the long, emphatic pronoun אָנֹכִי (’ānōḵî), “I myself,” not the shorter ’ănî. The BSB’s plain “I” cannot carry the stress that throws the weight of the mediation onto Moses’ own person.
• עֹמֵד עֹמֵד is a participle, “standing,” a posture held open — “I (was) standing between.” The Cambridge note marks it “a circumstantial clause… I standing between Jehovah and you.” English “I was standing” reads it as past tense; the Hebrew frames an ongoing stance.
• בֵּין־ ... וּבֵינֵיכֶם The Hebrew literally says “between YHWH and-between-you” — בֵּין is repeated before the second party (ūḇênêḵem). The doubled “between” fixes Moses in the gap as go-between; English collapses it to one “between.”
• לְהַגִּיד The Hifil infinitive לְהַגִּיד (lĕhaggîd, root nāgad) is “to make-front, to announce / declare,” a herald’s word. BSB “to declare” is fair; Cambridge presses it to “to publish… to articulate what though directly declared had been… but a sound of words.”

Where the English smooths the original

• אָנֹכִי Again the long emphatic אָנֹכִי (’ānōḵî) — “I myself am YHWH.” The self-naming God leads with His own person before a single command is given. Grace precedes Law, as Cambridge notes.
• הוֹצֵאתִיךָ הוֹצֵאתִיךָ is one Hebrew word — a Hifil (causative) perfect with a 2nd-person suffix: “I-caused-thee-to-go-out / I-brought-thee-out.” The address is singular (“thee”), aimed at each Israelite, not the crowd at large.
• עֲבָדִים Literally “house of slaves” (עֲבָדִים, ‘ăḇāḏîm, plural) — Geneva and the older versions read “house of bondage”; the noun is concrete persons, “bondmen,” the very word (‘eḇeḏ) v. 15 turns back on the hearer: “thou wast a slave.”

Where the English smooths the original

• עַל־פָּנָיַ BSB “before Me” renders עַל־פָּנָיַ (‘al-pānāya), literally “upon my face / over against my presence.” Ellicott: “in addition to my presence; or… ‘in any place where I am, that is, in the whole world.’” It is the strongest of three kindred phrases — a hint of affront, gods flaunted “to His face.”
• יִהְיֶה־ The verb is יִהְיֶה (yihyeh, “there shall be / exist”), not “have.” Literally “there shall not be to thee other gods” — a flat denial of their place in Israel’s life, not a claim about whether they exist. Cambridge: “real or unreal Israel is not to have them.”
• אֲחֵרִים אֲחֵרִים (’ăḥêrîm, “other”) shares a root meaning “hinder / behind / following after.” The “other gods” are by their very name secondary, latecomers crowding in upon the One who was first.

Where the English smooths the original

• פֶסֶל פֶסֶל (pesel) is a carved / hewn image — the thing chiselled from stone or wood. BSB “an idol” is the function; the Hebrew names the craft. It is the rare word (only ~31 verses) that ties this command verbatim to Deut 4 and Exodus 20:4.
• תְּמוּנָה תְּמוּנָה (tĕmûnāh, “form / likeness / shape”) is the still rarer term (~10 verses) — the same word Deut 4:12 used for what Israel did not see at Horeb: “ye heard a voice… but saw no form.” The ban on images rests on that absence: they saw no tĕmûnāh, so they may carve none.
• מִתַּחַת לָאָרֶץ Hebrew piles three realms: heavens above, earth beneath, and the waters מִתַּחַת לָאָרֶץ — “from-under the earth.” The threefold sweep (sky, land, sub-terrestrial sea) forbids an image drawn from any tier of creation. BSB’s “waters beneath” trims the explicit “under the earth.”

Where the English smooths the original

• קַנָּא קַנָּא (qannāʼ) is rendered “jealous,” but it is a rare, intense word — used of God only a handful of times — denoting zeal for an exclusive bond, not petty envy. Geneva’s gloss: jealous “of his honour, not permitting it to be given to others.” It pairs with ʼēl, the bare word for “God / Mighty One.”
• פֹּקֵד פֹּקֵד (pōqêḏ, root pāqaḏ) is a participle, “visiting / attending to.” BSB “visiting the iniquity” is right but soft; the verb is a courtroom word — to muster, inspect, call to account. It is ongoing: God is One-who-visits.
• לְשֹׂנְאָי The phrase לְשֹׂנְאָי (“to those who hate me”) is the load-bearing limit. Ellicott: the penalty “extends only ‘to them that hate me.’” The “third and fourth generations” are not innocents punished, but a line that persists in the fathers’ hatred.

Where the English smooths the original

• חֶסֶד BSB “loving devotion” renders חֶסֶד (ḥeseḏ) — the great covenant word. Cambridge prefers “loyal or true love… as including both affection and constancy.” It is steadfast covenant-faithfulness, far richer than the older “mercy.”
• לַאֲלָפִים לַאֲלָפִים (laʼălāp̄îm) is simply “to thousands.” BSB supplies “generations”; the Hebrew leaves it open — “thousands [of generations]” over against the “third and fourth” of v. 9. The Pulpit Commentary (on v. 8) reads it “to the thousandth generation.” Mercy outweighs judgment by orders of magnitude.
• וְעֹשֶׂה The participle וְעֹשֶׂה (wĕ‘ōśeh, “and doing / making”) matches pōqêḏ (“visiting”) in v. 9 — two ongoing participles describing the one God: He visits iniquity and He does ḥeseḏ. BSB “but showing” loses the parallel verb-form.

Where the English smooths the original

• תִשָּׂא תִשָּׂא (tiśśāʼ, root nāśāʼ) is “to lift / carry / bear,” not generically “take.” Ellicott: “Thou shalt not put the name… to vanity”; the Pulpit Commentary: “Thou shalt not take [or lift] up the Name… to vanity.” To carry God’s Name is to bear it on oneself — in oath, in worship, in witness.
• לַשָּׁוְא לַשָּׁוְא (laššāwʼ) is “to emptiness / falsehood / nothingness.” Ellicott: “to anything that is false, or hollow, or unreal.” It is the same root šāwʼ that v. 20 uses for the “false / vain” witness — emptiness applied to God’s Name and to a neighbor’s good name alike.
• יְנַקֶּה יְנַקֶּה (yĕnaqqeh, Piel) is “hold innocent / leave unpunished / acquit.” BSB “will not leave anyone unpunished” unfolds a single Hebrew verb of acquittal made negative — God will not acquit the one who empties His Name.

Where the English smooths the original

• שָׁמוֹר BSB “Observe… by keeping it holy.” The Hebrew opens with the infinitive absolute שָׁמוֹר (šāmôr, “keep!”) — emphatic, standing in for an imperative — where Exodus 20:8 has zāḵôr, “remember.” Cambridge: “In D remember is used almost exclusively of historical facts,” so here “keep / observe.”
• לְקַדְּשׁוֹ לְקַדְּשׁוֹ (lĕqaddĕšô, Piel) is “to make-it-holy / consecrate it.” The Pulpit Commentary: sanctification “always goes back to an act of the Divine will… a state in which the creature is bound to God.” The day is not holy of itself; it is set apart to the LORD.
• כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוְּךָ “כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוְּךָ — as the LORD… has commanded thee” is added here over Exodus 20:8. Poole: Moses “directs them” back to Exodus, “and therefore he here omits the argument of the creation, which is urged there.” The clause anchors the Sabbath in prior command, not novelty.

Where the English smooths the original

• תַּעֲבֹד תַּעֲבֹד (ta‘ăḇōḏ, root ‘āḇaḏ) is “labour / serve / work” — the very root of ‘eḇeḏ, “servant / slave” (vv. 6, 14, 15). The six days of ‘ăḇōḏâ are honest toil; the same root that named Egyptian bondage is here redeemed into ordered labor.
• מְלַאכְתֶּךָ מְלַאכְתֶּךָ (mĕlaḵtĕḵā, “thy work / occupation,” root behind malʼāḵ, messenger/agency) is the broad word for one’s craft or business — the labor that the seventh day will suspend. “All thy work” leaves no daily task uncommanded.

Where the English smooths the original

• וְגֵרְךָ וְגֵרְךָ (wĕgêrĕḵā, “thy gēr”) is the resident alien / sojourner — “the foreigner within your gates.” The same word will ground v. 15’s logic: Israel was itself a gēr in Egypt. The Sabbath rest reaches past kin and class to the outsider.
• כָּמוֹךָ The clause ends כָּמוֹךָ (kāmôḵā) — “as thou,” “like you.” BSB “as you do.” It is the leveling word: the manservant rests exactly as the master does. Cambridge: this addition is “an additional characteristic of the humane spirit of D.”
• וְשׁוֹרְךָ וַחֲמֹרְךָ Where Exodus 20:10 says only “thy cattle,” Deuteronomy names them — וְשׁוֹרְךָ וַחֲמֹרְךָ, “thy ox and thy donkey.” Gill: “by way of illustration and explanation the ox and the ass are particularly mentioned.” The rest is concrete, descending even to the plough-beast.

Where the English smooths the original

• וְזָכַרְתָּ וְזָכַרְתָּ (wĕzāḵartā, “and thou shalt remember”) is the verb Exodus put at the head of the command (“remember the Sabbath”); Deuteronomy reassigns it here — remember not creation but redemption. Cambridge: “In D remember is used almost exclusively of historical facts.”
• בְּיָד חֲזָקָה וּבִזְרֹעַ נְטוּיָה בְּיָד חֲזָקָה וּבִזְרֹעַ נְטוּיָה — “with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm,” the great Deuteronomic Exodus-formula. Not in Exodus 20; it imports the language of deliverance into the rest-command. The Sabbath becomes a weekly memorial of the redemption, as Matthew Henry reads it typically of Christ.
• לַעֲשׂוֹת The Sabbath is to be לַעֲשׂוֹת (la‘ăśôṯ) — literally “to do / make.” Cambridge: “lit. to do or make, i.e. to carry into effect.” BSB “to keep” is idiomatic; the Hebrew calls the Sabbath something one actively performs.

Where the English smooths the original

• כַּבֵּד כַּבֵּד (kabbêḏ, Piel imperative, root kāḇaḏ, “to be heavy / weighty”) is “honour” — but its root is weight. To honour parents is to give them weight, gravity, substance. The Pulpit Commentary calls this command “the foundation of all social ordinances.”
• וּלְמַעַן יִיטַב לָךְ “וּלְמַעַן יִיטַב לָךְ — and that it may go well with thee” is added over Exodus 20:12. JFB: “This clause is not in Exodus, but admitted into Eph 6:3.” Paul cites the Deuteronomy form, not the Exodus one — a verbal fingerprint of which text the apostle held.
• הָאֲדָמָה BSB “in the land” renders הָאֲדָמָה (hāʼăḏāmāh) — the ground / soil / arable land, the word for the earth Adam was taken from — not ’ereṣ (territory). The promise is rootedness in the very soil the LORD “is giving” (participle, ongoing).

Where the English smooths the original

• תִּרְצָח תִּרְצָח (tirṣāḥ, root rāṣaḥ) is the specific verb for murder / unlawful killing, not all killing (which Hebrew would carry by hārag or hēmîṯ). BSB’s “murder” (correcting older “kill”) rightly narrows it: judicial execution and war are not in view; the malicious taking of life is.
• לֹא The bare prohibition לֹא + imperfect — two words only. The Sixth through Ninth Commandments are stripped to the bone; Cambridge notes Deuteronomy adds the conjunction “and” (“neither”) before adultery, theft, and false witness, binding them into a single breath.

Where the English smooths the original

• וְלֹא Deuteronomy prefixes the conjunction — וְלֹא, “and-not” / “neither” — where Exodus 20:14 has the bare “not.” Gill: “the following commands begin with the copulative ‘and’… hence the law is by some said to be one copulative,” a single linked chain (cf. James 2:10).
• תִּנְאָף תִּנְאָף (tinʼāp̄, root nāʼap̄) is the precise verb for adultery — violation of the marriage covenant — distinct from general fornication (zānāh). The covenant God guards the marriage covenant; the prophets will make adultery the very image of idolatry.

Where the English smooths the original

• תִּגְנֹב תִּגְנֹב (tiḡnōḇ, root gānaḇ) is “to steal” by stealth — secret theft, including (in the Rabbis’ reading) the kidnapping of persons. The command guards a neighbor’s goods as v. 21 will guard the very desire for them.
• וְלֹא Again the binding וְלֹא, “and-not / neither,” chaining theft to the murder and adultery before it. Deuteronomy’s conjunctions present the second table as one indivisible obligation to the neighbor.

Where the English smooths the original

• שָׁוְא Deuteronomy reads שָׁוְא (šāwʼ, “vain / empty / groundless”) where Exodus 20:16 has šeqer (“false”). Cambridge: “the wider term shav’ = vain, groundless… as in the Third Commandment.” The same emptiness forbidden against God’s Name (v. 11) is now forbidden against a neighbor’s.
• תַעֲנֶה תַעֲנֶה (ta‘ăneh, root ‘ānāh) is “to answer / respond / testify” — courtroom speech. BSB “bear [false witness]” is idiomatic; the Hebrew pictures the witness answering in the gate, the formal setting where a life could hang on a word.
• בְרֵעֲךָ בְרֵעֲךָ (ḇĕrê‘ăḵā, “against thy neighbour,” rēa‘) — the same word that anchors all of vv. 20-21. The ninth and tenth commandments turn entirely on the rēa‘: his name, his wife, his house, his field.

Where the English smooths the original

• תַחְמֹד ... תִתְאַוֶּה Deuteronomy uses two verbs where Exodus 20:17 repeats one: תַחְמֹד (taḥmōḏ, “covet / delight in”) for the wife, then תִתְאַוֶּה (tiṯʼawweh, “desire / lust after”) for the house. Ellicott: “The idea of the one is to ‘delight in,’ and the other to ‘lust after.’” The wife is lifted out of the property-list into a class of her own.
• אֵשֶׁת רֵעֶךָ Deuteronomy puts אֵשֶׁת רֵעֶךָ (“thy neighbour’s wife”) first, before the house — the reverse of Exodus, where the house leads and the wife ranks among the goods. Cambridge calls this “a fundamental distinction of far-reaching moral consequence,” the elevation of the wife above mere chattel.
• שָׂדֵהוּ שָׂדֵהוּ (śāḏêhū, “his field”) is added here, absent from Exodus 20:17. Barnes: “very natural in one who was speaking with the partition of Canaan among his hearers directly in view.” A people about to hold land is warned against coveting a neighbor’s acre.