What Does Exodus 20:5 Mean?
You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them, for I, the LORD your God, am a zealous God, visiting the crookedness of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “visiting” carries the force of attending to what is there, so a generation’s allegiance can have consequences that reach those who follow.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now of allegiance whose effects reach beyond the one who chooses it: bowing and serving direct a life, and the fathers’ crookedness is visited upon descendants. The sentence names this reach through the third and fourth generations of those who hate the LORD, while the LORD’s jealousy names a claim to exclusive allegiance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a parent’s choices end at the parent’s boundary: the verse names consequences that reach descendants across generations, specifically among those who hate the LORD.
THE ROOT
פֹּקֵד
pōqēd
GROWS FROM
פקד
פקד (paqad) means to attend to, take note of, inspect, or visit.
English “visiting” can suggest a brief arrival, but פקד (paqad) ranges across attending to and taking account of what is present. Here, what is attended to is the fathers’ עָוֹן (ʿāwōn, crookedness), and the verse says its consequences reach descendants who hate the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
pequddah: visitation, charge, or oversight
פְּקֻדָּה
This noun from פקד links visiting with active oversight: what is attended to is held in view.
mifqad: muster or roll call
מִפְקָד
This form names gathering and accounting for a group, adding a sense of consequential attention to “visiting.”
תָעָבְדֵם
taʿavdēm
GROWS FROM
עבד
עבד (ʿavad) means to serve or work in service.
“serve them” in this verse is taʿavdēm. The root holds service together with the servant and the labor of serving. Beside bowing, it shows allegiance as both posture and ongoing service, not merely an inward opinion.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: servant
עֶבֶד
The servant is the person whose life is organized around service, extending the verse’s concern from a bowed posture to an enduring relation.
ʿavodah: service or labor
עֲבֹדָה
This noun makes visible the work contained in serving: the verse names an active devotion, not just a moment of bowing.
קַנָּא
qannā
GROWS FROM
קנא
קנא (qana) carries the sense of zeal or jealousy, an intense claim upon what is valued.
“zealous” in this verse is qannā. This root carries zeal as well as jealousy, naming a fierce claim of exclusive allegiance. In this sentence, that claim is tied directly to rival bowing and service, so “jealous” describes the allegiance at stake rather than a passing mood.
ALSO GROWS
qinʾāh: jealousy or zeal
קִנְאָה
The noun preserves both shades of the root, revealing the intensity behind the LORD’s claim.
qannōʾ: jealous or zealous
קַנּוֹא
This related form applies the root’s intensity to a person or quality, illuminating “jealous God” as a nature of ardent regard.
THE PATTERN
What a generation practices can shape the lives and conditions of those who follow it.
For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall guard the way of the LORD, to make alignment and judgment, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham the word he has spoken concerning him.I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live.And you fathers, do not stir your children to anger, but nourish them in the training and the admonition of the Lord.THE THREAD
Go, gather the elders of Israel, and say to them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, I have surely visited you, and have seen what is done to you in Egypt.The same root, פקד (paqad, attend to or visit), appears when the LORD says, “I have surely visited you.” There it attends to suffering; here it attends to the fathers’ crookedness through descendants. The root holds attention together, while each sentence specifies what is encountered.
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