What Does Exodus 34:14 Mean?

For you shall not bow down to another god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Exodus 34:14 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

THE KEY

The verse makes jealousy the LORD’s name, so exclusive worship is presented as the nature of the bond, not a detachable rule.

THE MEANING

The LORD’s claim is exclusive: no other god receives worship, and jealousy is named as part of the LORD’s nature. This is ardent, possessive jealousy; divided devotion is a breach of the bond, not a harmless variation.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that worship is interchangeable or divided devotion has no consequence: this verse names the LORD as jealous and the bond as exclusive.

THE ROOT

קַנָּא

qannāʾ

GROWS FROM

קנא

To be jealous or zealous.

“Jealous” in this verse is qannāʾ. The same root carries jealousy and zeal, linking the LORD’s named nature to an ardent claim on the bond. Here, exclusive worship is presented as part of that nature.

ALSO GROWS

qinʾāh: Jealousy, zeal.

קִנְאָה

This noun shares the same root and keeps both jealousy and zeal within the word’s range.

qinnēʾ: To be jealous or to act zealously.

קִנֵּא

This verb shows the root in action: the quality named in the verse can also describe an active claim.

תִּשְׁתַּחֲוֶה

tishtachaveh

GROWS FROM

שחה

To bow low or prostrate oneself.

“bow down” in this verse is tishtachaveh. The Hebrew verb describes a posture of bowing. It makes worship bodily and visible: the verse’s exclusive claim includes where the reader bows.

ALSO GROWS

lehishtachavot: To bow down, to prostrate oneself.

לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֹת

This infinitive preserves the physical posture carried by the verse’s verb.

mishtachaveh: One who bows down.

מִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה

This participle names the person taking that posture, connecting worship with enacted allegiance.

THE PATTERN

The bond with the LORD is presented as exclusive, and divided worship is treated as a breach of that bond.

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.

Exodus 20:5 · SDVThe command against bowing to other gods is joined directly to the LORD’s declaration of jealousy.

For the LORD your God is a fire that eats, a jealous God.

Deuteronomy 4:24 · SDVThe verse names the LORD as jealous and gives that claim the force of consuming fire.

Or do we stir the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

1 Corinthians 10:22 · SDVThe question carries the language of jealousy into the reader’s present relationship with the Lord.

THE THREAD

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.

Exodus 20:5 · SDV

Exodus 20:5 uses the same Hebrew title, ⁨אֵל קַנָּא⁩ (ʾEl qannāʾ, “a jealous God”), beside the command not to bow before other gods. The repeated q-n-ʾ root makes jealousy a named feature of the bond.

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