Exodus 20:7

Thou shall not take the name of the Lord God in vain,.... Make use of the name Lord or God, or any other name and epithet of the divine Being, in a light and trifling way, without any show of

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.

Or, not carry, or not take, or lift up, to wit, in or into thy mouth, as the phrase is more fully expressed, ; 50:16. So men are said to take up a proverb, or a lamentation, . The name of the Lord; not only the proper name of the Lord, but any of his attributes, ordinances, and works, by which God hath made himself known. In vain; or unto vanity, or vainly. Either, 1. Falsely, or in a false oath; thou shalt not swear falsely by the name of the Lord, or not lift up the name of God into thy mouth in an oath to the confirmation of a lie. Or, 2. In vain, as we render it, and as the word schave is frequently used, as 15:31 89:47 . You shall not use the name of God, either in oaths or in common discourse, lightly, rashly, irreverently, or unnecessarily, or without weighty or sufficient cause. Which being a duty enjoined not only in many places of sacred Scripture, but also in the apocryphal /APC , and even by heathen authors, as Plato in his Book of Laws, and it being evident by the light of nature to man’ s reason, it were strange if it were not here understood; especially considering that it is most reasonable to take these short laws in the most comprehensive sense, such as this, not the former, is; for the prohibition of using it vainly and rashly doth certainly include that of swearing by it falsely, but this latter doth not include the former. Besides, the former exposition restrains the words to swearing, whereas the words are more general, and speak of any taking God’ s name into their mouths, either by oaths or any other way. And it becomes not us to set limits to God’ s words where God hath set none. It is also here to be observed, as well as in the other commands, that when this sin is forbidden, the contrary duty is commanded, to wit, to use the name of God, both in swearing and otherwise, holily, cautiously, and reverently. Guiltless, or, innocent, i.e. free from guilt, and the punishment of it: the meaning is, the Lord will look upon him as a guilty person, and will severely punish him. And so this or the like phrase is used . And it is a common figure, called meiosis, where more is understood than is expressed, as . And this reason is here added, because sinners of this sort are usually held innocent by men, either because they cannot discover their fault when they forswear themselves, or because they take no care to punish the abusers of God’ s name by vain and customary oaths, curses, or blasphemies: q.d. Though men spare them, I will assuredly punish them.

Exodus 20:7 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.Ver. 7. The Name of the Lord.] That "holy and reverend" Name; that Nomen Maiestativum, as Tertullian callcth it; "dreadful among the heathen." The very Turks at this day chastise the Christians that live amongst them for their oaths and blasphemies darted up against God and Christ. The Jews also are much offended thereat, and it should be no small grief to us to hear it. When one of Darius’ s eunuchs saw Alexander the Great setting his feet upon a low table that had been highly esteemed by his master, he wept. Being asked the reason by Alexander, he said, it was to see the thing that his master so highly esteemed, to be now contemned, and made his footstool. Diod. Sic., lib. xvii.

(7) Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.—The Hebrew is ambiguous, as is to some extent the English translation. Most modern critics regard the phrase used as forbidding false swearing only; but some think that it forbids also “profane” or “vain swearing.” Our Lord’s comment in the Sermon on the Mount favours the view that false swearing alone was actually forbidden by the Law, since He proceeds to condemn profane swearing on His own authority: “But I say unto you” (Matthew 5:34). False swearing is among the greatest insults that man can offer to God, and, as being such, is naturally forbidden in the first table, which teaches us our duty to God. It is also destructive of civil society; and hence it is again forbidden in the second table (Exodus 20:16), which defines our duties to our neighbour. The laws of all organised States necessarily forbid it, and generally under a very severe penalty. The Jewish Law condemned the false witness to suffer the punishment which his evidence was calculated to inflict (Deuteronomy 19:19). The Egyptians visited perjury with death or mutilation. The Greeks were content to punish it with a heavy fine, and ultimately with the loss of civil rights. The Romans, in the more ancient times, inflicted the death penalty. It was generally believed, alike in Egypt, in Greece, and in Rome, that the anger of the gods was especially provoked by this crime, and that a Divine Nemesis pursued those who committed it, and made them suffer for their sin, either in their own person or in that of their posterity. The Lord will not hold him guiltless.—Punishment will assuredly overtake the perjured man, if not in this life, then in another. Jehovah will vindicate His own honour.

THE THIRD COMMANDMENT Against false swearing, blasphemy, and irreverent use of the name of God. Verse 7. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain] This precept not only forbids all false oaths, but all common swearing where the name of God is used, or where he is appealed to as a witness of the truth. It also necessarily forbids all light and irreverent mention of God, or any of his attributes; and this the original word לשוא lashshav particularly imports: and we may safely add to all these, that every prayer, ejaculation, c., that is not accompanied with deep reverence and the genuine spirit of piety, is here condemned also. In how many thousands of instances is this commandment broken in the prayers, whether read or extempore, of inconsiderate, bold, and presumptuous worshippers! And how few are there who do not break it, both in their public and private devotions! How low is piety when we are obliged in order to escape damnation, to pray to God to "pardon the sins of our holy things!" Even heathens thought that the names of their gods should be treated with reverence. Παντωςμενδηκαλονεπιηδευμα, θεωνονοματαμηχραινεινῥᾳδιως, εχονταὡςεχουσινἡμωνἑκαστοτεταπολλαοἱπλειστοικαθαροτητοςτεκαιἁγνειαςταπεριτουςθεους. "It is most undoubtedly right not easily to pollute the names of the gods, using them as we do common names but to watch with purity and holiness all things belonging to the gods." The Lord will not hold him guiltless, c.] Whatever the person himself may think or hope, however he may plead in his own behalf, and say he intends no evil, &c. if he in any of the above ways, or in any other way, takes the name of God in vain, God will not hold him guiltless - he will account him guilty and punish him for it. Is it necessary to say to any truly spiritual mind, that all such interjections as O God! my God! good God! good Heavens! &c., &c., are formal positive breaches of this law? How many who pass for Christians are highly criminal here!

7. The third commandment. The name of God to be treated with reverence. take … in vain] properly, take up (viz. upon the lips, as Exodus 23:1, Psalms 15:3; Psalms 16:4) … for unreality (Di. ‘zur Nichtigkeit’)—i.e. make use of it for any idle, frivolous, or insincere purpose. The root idea of shâw’, is what is groundless or unsubstantial: hence in a material sense it means unreal, vain (Psalms 60:11); and in a moral sense it denotes what is empty, frivolous, or insincere: cf. Exodus 23:1 ‘Thou shalt not take up a groundless report’; Psalms 24:4 ‘hath not lifted up his soul (i.e. directed his desires) unto unreality’ (i.e. to what is either frivolous or insincere): in the Psalms it is generally rendered vanity, but it often really means what we should call insincerity, as Psalms 12:3, Psalms 41:6 (see the Glossary in the writer’s Parallel Psalter, p. 464). God’s name is to be treated with reverence; it is not to be desecrated either by false swearing (Leviticus 19:12 (H), Jeremiah 5:2; Jeremiah 7:9, Zechariah 5:4, Malachi 3:5), or by being used disrespectfully for any other frivolous or idle purpose, as in cursing or reviling, or to support false pretensions of being able to use magic or divination, or to predict the future (Jeremiah 27:15). hold … guiltless] i.e. leave unpunished, as 1 Kings 2:9 shews is implied and as the word is sometimes actually rendered, e.g. Proverbs 6:29 Jeremiah 25:29. Cf. Jeremiah 34:7, with the note.

THE THIRD , Exodus 20:7. 7. Thou shalt not take the name — If Jehovah is God alone, and if all artificial attempts to produce a likeness of him deserve such fearful visitations as the preceding