The Ten Commandments and the Covenant

Chapter 20

1 God spoke all these words: 2 “I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt,⁠ from the house of slavery.⁠ 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below.⁠ 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations of those who reject me,⁠ 6 and showing covenant faithfulness to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.⁠ 7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold guiltless anyone who takes his name in vain. 8 “Remember the Sabbath day to set it apart as holy. 9 For six days you may labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, or the resident foreigner who is in your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.⁠ 12 “Honor your father and your mother,⁠ that you may live a long time in the land the Lord your God is giving to you.⁠ 13 “You shall not murder.⁠ 14 “You shall not commit adultery.⁠ 15 “You shall not steal.⁠ 16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.⁠ 17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife,⁠ nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.”⁠ 18 All the people were seeing the thundering and the lightning, and heard the sound of the horn, and saw the mountain smoking—and⁠ when the people saw it they trembled with fear and kept their distance.⁠ 19 They said to Moses, “You speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak with us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you so that you do not sin.” 21 The people kept their distance, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was. 22 The Lord said to Moses, “Thus you will tell the Israelites: ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken with you from heaven.⁠ 23 You must not make gods of silver alongside me,⁠ nor make gods of gold for yourselves. 24 “‘You must make for me an altar made of earth, and you will sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I cause my name to be honored I will come to you and I will bless you.⁠ 25 If you make me an altar of stone, you must not build it of stones shaped with tools, for if you use your tool on it you have defiled it.⁠ 26 And you must not go up by steps to my altar, so that your nakedness is not exposed.’⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Exodus 20:5 and Onkelos Exodus 20:5

Hebrew Bible · Targum

Summary

Exodus 20 shows divine punishment extending to later generations, raising questions about punishing the innocent. The Aramaic translation in Targum Onkelos tries to resolve this, saying that only those who repeat their parents’ sin are punished.

Passages

Exodus 20:5

Hebrew Bible

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations of those who reject me, 6 and showing covenant faithfulness to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

Onkelos Exodus 20:5

Targum

4 You shall not make for yourself an image or likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or on the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth: 5 you shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the rebellious children for the sins of the fathers to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me, when the children continue to sin as their fathers did; 6 but doing good to thousands of generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

50–500 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Onkelos Exodus

References

"... In addition to wisdom statements directly related to collective accountability, the role of wisdom instruction in the rearing of children is also relevant. The interpreter who produced the Targum Onkelos to Exodus 20:4-6 avoided the theological problem of innocent children suffering for the sins of their fathers by describing the children as “rebellious” and continuing “to sin after their fathers.” This solution to the theological problem of collective punishment may have an analogy in wisdom literature. Several texts from non-wisdom books of the Hebrew Bible with wisdom affinities, as well as from the New Testament, suggest a widespread notion that like begets like. Is this concept also present in the Hebrew biblical wisdom tradition and does it play any role in Israel’s wisdom literature’s understanding of the origins of good and wicked children? If so, this would suggest that wicked parents who deserve punishment produce wicked children who also deserve punishment; righteous parents who deserve reward produce righteous children who also deserve reward. Collective accountability does not create a theological problem in this scenario ..."

Hilary Claire Kapfer, “Collective Accountability among the Sages of Ancient Israel” (diss., Harvard University, 2013), 19.

"... Targum Onkelos bolts from its customary literalism, when it is deemed imperative to spare the reader from misconceptions. Verse 20:5 portrays a zealous God, who regards idolatry as a heinous act, He would punish children, even unto the third or fourth generation, of a father who was guilty of such behavior. This presents the reader with a theological dilemma. Is it possible that God would punish innocent children for the sins of their fathers? The oral tradition modified the biblical statement by insisting that the punishment would befall only children who followed their parents' wicked ways. Our translator also resolved the problem by inserting this view. While this exegesis is characteristic of the ancient oral tradition, it required boldness on his part to include it in his translation. An intended reader, who was probably unable to understand the Hebrew text, would have depended upon the Onkelos rendition of the Bible. That reader might have concluded erroneously that the targumist's addition was part of the biblical text. Nevertheless, he opted, in this case and in many others, for clarity over literalism ..."

Israel Drazin and Stanley M. Wagner, Onkelos on the Torah, Exodus: Understanding the Bible Text (Jerusalem: Gefen, 2006), 130.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

The Ten Commandments and the Covenant

Exodus40 chapters

Compare Exodus 20:5 and Onkelos Exodus 20:5

Summary

Passages

Exodus 20:5

Onkelos Exodus 20:5

References

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