What Does Deuteronomy 5:11 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
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 command concerns carrying God’s nature into emptiness: the name on your lips and the life beneath it cannot be separated.
THE MEANING
You carry the LORD’s name as nature, so its weight reaches beyond what you say to the truth or falsehood your life bears under it. The LORD does not clear the one who carries that name into emptiness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that the command concerns only a forbidden sound or careless speech: the verse also holds the bearer accountable for carrying God’s name into falsehood.
THE ROOT
תִּשָּׂא
tissa from nasa
GROWS FROM
נשׂא
To lift, carry, or bear.
English “take” can sound like merely uttering a word; נשׂא (nasa, lift or carry) makes this an act of bearing. The name is carried toward שָׁוְא (shav, emptiness or falsehood), so the question is what the name is made to carry.
ALSO GROWS
massa: A burden or load; also an oracle.
מַשָּׂא
A name borne is not weightless: this branch makes the image of carrying a burden tangible.
nasi: A chief or prince, traditionally connected with one lifted up.
נָשִׂיא
The raised-up sense echoes the act of bearing: what is lifted carries a nature and a public presence.
יְנַקֶּה
yenaqqeh
GROWS FROM
נקה
To be clean or clear; to acquit or leave unpunished.
“hold him guiltless” in this verse is yenaqqeh. The closing phrase uses the language of clearing: the one who bears the name into falsehood is not cleared of that bearing. English “guiltless” preserves the consequence, while the root also carries the image of being made clean or free.
ALSO GROWS
naqi: Clean, innocent, or free from guilt.
נָקִי
This branch shows the state the verse says the bearer does not simply receive.
niqqayon: Cleanness or innocence.
נִקָּיוֹן
It keeps the verse’s closing warning connected to the idea of being clear, rather than treating the name-bearing as a weightless phrase.
THE PATTERN
A name carried into public action makes its nature visible or brings it into disrepute.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.THE THREAD
Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.Exodus 23:1 uses נשׂא (nasa, carry or bear) with שָׁוְא (shav, emptiness or falsehood) for “raise a false report.” The echo makes this command concrete: what you carry under a name can become a false witness to the nature that name holds.
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