What Does Deuteronomy 5:10 Mean in the King James?
And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The “mercy” here is chesed, faithful love whose reach to thousands dwarfs the few generations of consequence named just before it.
THE MEANING
God’s faithful love reaches to thousands; it is not a passing reprieve. The verse presents love for God as taking shape in guarding the instruction entrusted to the reader, joining devotion with attentive care.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God’s response to human failure stops at punishment: the surrounding words set a few generations of consequence beside faithful love reaching thousands.
THE ROOT
חֶסֶד
ḥesed
GROWS FROM
ח־ס־ד
Faithful love, loyalty, or kindness expressed in relationship.
The verse’s “mercy” carries the sense of faithful love: a durable bond, not merely a moment of leniency. Its reach to thousands makes that fidelity the larger horizon of the passage.
ALSO GROWS
ḥasadim: Deeds or expressions of faithful love.
חֲסָדִים
This plural form shows chesed as love made visible in what is done.
ḥasid: A faithful or devoted person.
חָסִיד
The related word describes someone marked by the same quality of fidelity named in the verse.
שֹׁמְרֵי
shomrei
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ר
To keep watch over, guard, or preserve.
The word rendered “keep” evokes guarding and watchfulness. The commandments are held as something entrusted to care, giving love a form of attentive fidelity.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: A keeper, guard, or watchman.
שֹׁמֵר
It shows the watchful sense still present in “keep.”
mishmeret: A guard, charge, or duty entrusted to someone.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
It connects keeping the commandments with faithfully tending what has been placed in one’s care.
לְאֹהֲבַי
le’ohavai
GROWS FROM
א־ה־ב
To love or hold dear.
The verse places love beside guarding, so affection is not left as an inward feeling: it is paired with watchful care. The two distinct roots meet in one picture of lived devotion.
ALSO GROWS
ahav: To love.
אָהַב
This is the verb behind “them that love me.”
ahavah: Love or affection.
אַהֲבָה
The noun form names the love that this verse joins with guarded practice.
THE PATTERN
Covenant love becomes visible in lived fidelity, while God’s faithful love reaches beyond a single generation.
But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;If ye love me, keep my commandments.He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?THE THREAD
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.“Mercy” in both verses translates חֶסֶד (ḥesed), faithful love. Hosea shows this quality as central to lived relationship with God, opening the phrase here as steadfast relational fidelity.
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