Back to Exodus 20

Exodus 20:3-6

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me, and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    “You shall have no other gods before me.

    “You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

    you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,

    and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

  • KJV King James Version

    Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

    Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

    Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

    And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

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  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

    Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;

    thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me;

    and showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them that love Me and keep My commandments.

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Examined in Scripture Analysis

Contradictions (1)

Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.

  • Is it OK to make images?

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Commandments (4)

The laws of the Torah, each cited and shown as a primary source.

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Cross-references (122)

  • Deuteronomy 5:7 (v3) “You shall have no other gods before me.
  • Matthew 4:10 (v3) Then Jesus said to him, “Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’ ”
  • Deuteronomy 5:8 (v4) “You shall not make a carved image for yourself—any likeness of what is in heaven above, or what is in the earth beneath, or that is in the…
  • Deuteronomy 5:9 (v5) You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them; for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on…
  • Leviticus 26:1 (vv4–5) “ ‘You shall make for yourselves no idols, and you shall not raise up a carved image or a pillar, and you shall not place any figured stone…
Show all 100 cross-references
  • Numbers 14:18 (v5) ‘Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and he will by no means clear the guilty,…
  • Psalms 81:9 (v3) There shall be no strange god in you, neither shall you worship any foreign god.
  • Isaiah 46:9 (v3) Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me.
  • Deuteronomy 7:9 (v6) Know therefore that Yahweh your God himself is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love him and…
  • Deuteronomy 4:15-19 (v4) Be very careful, for you saw no kind of form on the day that Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire, lest you corrupt…
  • Deuteronomy 6:5 (v3) You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
  • Deuteronomy 6:14 (v3) You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you,
  • Psalms 97:7 (v4) Let all them be shamed who serve engraved images, who boast in their idols. Worship him, all you gods!
  • Jeremiah 25:6 (v3) Don’t go after other gods to serve them or worship them, and don’t provoke me to anger with the work of your hands; then I will do you no…
  • Leviticus 19:4 (v4) “ ‘Don’t turn to idols, nor make molten gods for yourselves. I am Yahweh your God.
  • Deuteronomy 27:15 (v4) ‘Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up…
  • Acts 17:29 (v4) Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design…
  • Revelation 16:2 (v4) The first went, and poured out his bowl into the earth, and it became a harmful and evil sore on the people who had the mark of the beast,…
  • Deuteronomy 4:24 (v5) For Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.
  • Joshua 24:18-24 (v3) Yahweh drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve Yahweh; for he is…
  • John 14:21 (v6) One who has my commandments and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love…
  • 1 John 5:3 (v6) For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.
  • Psalms 115:4-8 (v4) Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they don’t speak. They have eyes, but they don’t see. They…
  • Jeremiah 35:15 (v3) I have sent also to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, ‘Every one of you must return now from his…
  • 1 John 5:20-21 (v3) We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in…
  • Exodus 34:14 (v5) for you shall worship no other god; for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
  • Jeremiah 32:39-40 (v6) I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their good, and the good of their children after them. I will…
  • Joshua 24:19 (v5) Joshua said to the people, “You can’t serve Yahweh, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your disobedience nor…
  • 1 Corinthians 8:6 (v3) yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things,…
  • Exodus 15:11 (v3) Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
  • Exodus 34:6-7 (v5) Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness…
  • Deuteronomy 5:29 (v6) Oh that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and…
  • Deuteronomy 6:15 (v5) for Yahweh your God among you is a jealous God, lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the…
  • Joshua 23:7 (v5) that you not come among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by…
  • Psalms 109:14 (v5) Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered by Yahweh. Don’t let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
  • Isaiah 26:4 (v3) Trust in Yahweh forever; for in Yah, Yahweh, is an everlasting Rock.
  • Isaiah 65:6-7 (v5) “Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will repay, yes, I will repay into their bosom, your own iniquities, and the…
  • Jeremiah 10:14-16 (v4) Every man has become brutish and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is…
  • Jeremiah 32:18 (v5) You show loving kindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them. The great, the…
  • Acts 2:39 (v6) For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”
  • Ephesians 5:5 (v3) Know this for sure, that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the…
  • Philippians 3:19 (v3) whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.
  • Colossians 2:18 (v3) Let no one rob you of your prize by self-abasement and worshiping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen, vainly…
  • Revelation 19:10 (v3) I fell down before his feet to worship him. He said to me, “Look! Don’t do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers…
  • Psalms 135:15-18 (v4) The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they can’t speak. They have eyes, but they…
  • Isaiah 42:8 (v4) “I am Yahweh. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to engraved images.
  • Isaiah 45:16 (v4) They will be disappointed, yes, confounded, all of them. Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together.
  • Jeremiah 10:8-9 (v4) But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood. There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from…
  • Nahum 1:2 (v5) Yahweh is a jealous God and avenges. Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath. Yahweh takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he maintains wrath…
  • Romans 1:23 (v4) and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, four-footed animals, and…
  • Exodus 20:23 (v3) You shall most certainly not make gods of silver or gods of gold for yourselves to be alongside me.
  • Psalms 29:2 (v3) Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due to his name. Worship Yahweh in holy array.
  • Psalms 73:25 (v3) Whom do I have in heaven? There is no one on earth whom I desire besides you.
  • Isaiah 43:10 (v3) “You are my witnesses,” says Yahweh, “With my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he.…
  • Isaiah 44:8 (v3) Don’t fear, neither be afraid. Haven’t I declared it to you long ago, and shown it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me?…
  • Ezekiel 8:10 (v4) So I went in and looked, and saw every form of creeping things, abominable animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed…
  • Exodus 23:24 (v5) You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor follow their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow them and demolish their…
  • Numbers 14:33 (v5) Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies are consumed in…
  • Deuteronomy 4:23-25 (v4) Be careful, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make yourselves a carved image in the form of…
  • 2 Kings 17:29-35 (v3) However every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in…
  • Psalms 79:8 (v5) Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, for we are in desperate need.
  • Jeremiah 10:3-5 (v4) For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the ax. They…
  • John 14:15 (v6) If you love me, keep my commandments.
  • Acts 19:26-35 (v4) You see and hear that not at Ephesus alone, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying…
  • Romans 11:28-29 (v6) Concerning the Good News, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake. For the…
  • Deuteronomy 4:37 (v6) Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their offspring after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power,…
  • Isaiah 44:9-20 (v4) Everyone who makes a carved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that…
  • Isaiah 46:5-8 (v4) “To whom will you compare me, and consider my equal, and compare me, as if we were the same? Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh…
  • Jeremiah 2:9 (v5) “Therefore I will yet contend with you,” says Yahweh, “and I will contend with your children’s children.
  • Matthew 23:34-36 (v5) Therefore behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge…
  • Revelation 9:20 (v4) The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn’t repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn’t worship demons,…
  • Revelation 14:9-11 (v4) Another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his…
  • Revelation 22:9 (v3) He said to me, “See you don’t do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the…
  • Exodus 32:1 (v4) When the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him,…
  • Exodus 34:17 (v4) “You shall make no cast idols for yourselves.
  • Leviticus 26:39-40 (v5) Those of you who are left will pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers they shall…
  • 1 Kings 12:28 (v4) So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look and behold…
  • 2 Chronicles 33:7 (v4) He set the engraved image of the idol, which he had made, in God’s house, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this…
  • Job 5:4 (v5) His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,
  • Isaiah 14:20-21 (v5) You will not join them in burial, because you have destroyed your land. You have killed your people. The offspring of evildoers will not be…
  • Isaiah 40:18-20 (v4) To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him? A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with…
  • Isaiah 42:17 (v4) “Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, ‘You are our gods,’ will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed.
  • Romans 8:7 (v5) because the mind of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.
  • 1 Corinthians 8:4 (v3) Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other…
  • James 4:4 (v5) You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a…
  • Revelation 13:14-15 (v4) He deceives my own people who dwell on the earth because of the signs he was granted to do in front of the beast, saying to those who dwell…
  • Exodus 32:8 (v4) They have turned away quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and have worshiped it, and…
  • Exodus 32:23 (v4) For they said to me, ‘Make us gods, which shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we…
  • Leviticus 20:5 (v5) then I will set my face against that man and against his family, and will cut him off, and all who play the prostitute after him to play…
  • Leviticus 26:29 (v5) You will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters.
  • Deuteronomy 7:10 (v5) and repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack to him who hates him. He will repay him to his face.
  • Deuteronomy 32:21 (v5) They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy…
  • Joshua 23:16 (v5) when you disobey the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down yourselves to them.…
  • Judges 2:19 (v5) But when the judge was dead, they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and to bow…
  • 1 Samuel 15:2-3 (v5) Yahweh of Armies says, ‘I remember what Amalek did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way, when he came up out of Egypt. Now…
  • 2 Samuel 21:1 (v5) There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. Yahweh said, “It is for…
  • 2 Samuel 21:6 (v5) let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to Yahweh in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Yahweh.” The king said,…
  • 1 Kings 21:29 (v5) “See how Ahab humbles himself before me? Because he humbles himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but I will bring the…
  • 2 Kings 17:35 (v5) with whom Yahweh had made a covenant, and commanded them, saying, “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve…
  • 2 Kings 17:41 (v5) So these nations feared Yahweh, and also served their engraved images. Their children did likewise, and so did their children’s children.…

100 distinct cross-references across this passage (122 total citations).

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

Explain this passage (18 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 5, 6 To whose eyes all things are open.

To whose eyes all things are open.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.

John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv3–6 Exo 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv3–6 There shall not be to thee another god, or…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv3–6 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. This…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v3 The first commandment is concerning the object of our…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv3–6 Verse 3. Thou shalt have no other gods before…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v3 Exo 20:3-6. The first commandment is concerning the object…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv3–5 Before me, or in my presence. I shall not…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3–4 Thou shalt have no other gods before me--in My…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv3–6 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT, Exo_20:3.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–6 3. The Covenant: esp., and probably first, in Dt.…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–6 (3) Thou shalt have no other gods before me.—Heb.,…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv3–6 Thou shalt have. The use of the second person…
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv3–4 Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v4 MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_20:4-6
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v4 shalt not make
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v4 nor the likeness
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3–5 20:3-17 The terms of the covenant specify the behavior…
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