Éxodo 20:5

5 No te inclinarás a ellas, ni las honrarás; porque yo soy el SEÑOR tu Dios, fuerte, celoso, que visito la maldad de los padres sobre los hijos, hasta la tercera y cuarta generación, de los que me aborrecen,

Éxodo 20:5 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 20:5

Thou shall not bow down thyself to them
Perform any worship to them, show any reverence of them by any gesture of the body; one being mentioned, bowing the body, and put for all others, as prostration of it to the earth, bending the knee, kissing the hand, lifting up of hands or eyes to them, or by any outward action expressing a religious esteem of them, as if there was divinity in them:

nor serve them;
in a religious manner, internally or externally, by offering sacrifice and burning incense to them; by praying to, or praising of them; by expressing love to them, faith and trust in them, hope and expectation of good things from them, and the like. The reason of this second command, relating to the making and worshipping of images, next follows:

for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God;
jealous of his own honour and glory, and will not give it to another; even to graven images, nor suffer it to be given to them without resenting it; and jealousy is fierce and cruel, and breaks forth into great wrath, and issues in dreadful scenes oftentimes among men; as a man that has reason to be jealous of his wife, and especially if he takes her and the adulterer in the fact, it often costs them both their lives, being so enraged at such an insult upon him, and such a violation of the marriage bed; and thus the great Jehovah, the God of Israel, their head and husband, is represented, in order to deter from idolatry, or spiritual adultery, than which nothing could be more provoking to him:

visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children;
meaning chiefly, if not solely, the iniquity of idolatry; which being such an insult on his honour, "crimen laesae majestatis", is treated by him as high treason is among men; not only he punishes the authors and perpetrators of it in their own persons, which is meant by "visiting", but upon their children also, which are parts of themselves; and whatsoever is inflicted on them is the same as on themselves, and is an addition to, and a sensible aggravation of their punishment; and especially these are visited in such a manner, when they tread in their father's steps, and fill up the measure of their iniquity. So the Targum of Jonathan,

``visiting the iniquity of ungodly fathers on rebellious children:''

unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
as all idolaters must be thought to do, whatsoever love and affection they may pretend to God, by worshipping idols before him, besides him, along with him, or him in them: "the third and fourth generation" are mentioned, because sometimes parents lived to see these, and so with their eyes beheld the punishment inflicted upon their posterity for their sins, which must be distressing to them; or, however, these being but small removes from them, might impress their minds and affect them, to think what their sins would bring upon their descendants, who would quickly come after them, and share in the sad effects of their iniquities, and so be a means to deter them from them.

Éxodo 20:5 In-Context

3 No tendrás dioses ajenos delante de mí.

4 No te harás imagen, ni ninguna semejanza de cosa que esté arriba en el cielo, ni abajo en la tierra, ni en las aguas debajo de la tierra.

5 No te inclinarás a ellas, ni las honrarás; porque yo soy el SEÑOR tu Dios, fuerte, celoso, que visito la maldad de los padres sobre los hijos, hasta la tercera y cuarta generación, de los que me aborrecen,

6 y que hago misericordia en millares de generaciones a los que me aman, y guardan mis mandamientos.

7 No tomarás el Nombre del SEÑOR tu Dios en vano; porque no dará por inocente el SEÑOR al que tomare su Nombre en vano.