Exodus 20:3

20:3-11 The first four of the ten commandments, commonly called the FIRST table, tell our duty to God. It was fit that those should be put first, because man had a Maker to love, before he had a neighbour to love. It cannot be expected that he should be true to his brother, who is false to his God. The first commandment concerns the object of worship, JEHOVAH, and him only. The worship of creatures is here forbidden. Whatever comes short of perfect love, gratitude, reverence, or worship, breaks this commandment. Whatsoever ye do, do all the glory of God. The second commandment refers to the worship we are to render to the Lord our God. It is forbidden to make any image or picture of the Deity, in any form, or for any purpose; or to worship any creature, image, or picture. But the spiritual import of this command extends much further. All kinds of superstition are here forbidden, and the using of mere human inventions in the worship of God. The third commandment concerns the manner of worship, that it be with all possible reverence and seriousness. All false oaths are forbidden. All light appealing to God, all profane cursing, is a horrid breach of this command. It matters not whether the word of God, or sacred things, all such-like things break this commandment, and there is no profit, honour, or pleasure in them. The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Exodus 20:3-6 . The first commandment is concerning the object of our worship, Jehovah, and him only: Thou shalt have no other gods before me — The Egyptians, and other neighbouring nations, had many gods, creatures of their own fancy. This law was prefixed because of that transgression; and Jehovah being the God of Israel, they must entirely cleave to him and no other, either of their own invention, or borrowed from their neighbours. The sin against this commandment which we are most in danger of, is giving that glory to any creature which is due to God only. Pride makes a god of ourselves, covetousness makes a god of money, sensuality makes a god of the belly. Whatever is loved, feared, delighted in, or depended on, more than God, that we make a god of. This prohibition includes a precept, which is the foundation of the whole law, that we take the Lord for our God, accept him for ours, adore him with humble reverence, and set our affections entirely upon him. There is a reason intimated in the last words, before me. It intimates, 1st, That we cannot have any other god but he will know it; 2d, That it is a sin that dares him to his face, which he cannot, will not overlook. The second commandment is concerning the ordinances of worship, or the way in which God will be worshipped, which it is fit himself should appoint. Here Isaiah , 1 st, The prohibition; we are forbidden to worship even the true God by images, Exodus 20:4-5 .

First, The Jews (at least after the captivity) thought themselves forbidden by this to make any image or picture whatsoever. It is certain it forbids making any image of God, for to whom can we liken him? Isaiah 40:18 ; Isaiah 40:25 . It also forbids us to make images of God in our fancies, as if he were a man as we are. Our religious worship must be governed by the power of faith, not by the power of imagination. Secondly, They must not bow down to them — Show any sign of honour to them, much less serve them by sacrifice, or any other act of religious worship. When they paid their devotion to the true God, they must not have any image before them for the directing, exciting, or assisting their devotion. Though the worship was designed to terminate in God, it would not please him if it came to him through an image. The best and most ancient lawgivers among the heathen forbade the setting up of images in their temples. It was forbidden in Rome by Numa, a Pagan prince, yet commanded in Rome by the pope, a Christian bishop! The use of images in the Church of Rome, at this day, is so plainly contrary to the letter of this command, that in all their catechisms, which they put into the hands of the people, they leave out this commandment, joining the reason of it to the first, and so the third commandment they call the second, the fourth, the third, &c.; only to make up the number ten, they divide the tenth into two.

(3) Thou shalt have no other gods before me. —Heb., There shalt be to thee no other god before me. The result is the same, whether we translate Elohim by “god” or “gods;” but the singular verb shows that the plural form of the name is a mere plural of dignity. Before me—literally, before my face—means strictly, “side by side with me”—i.e., “in addition to me.” God does not suppose that the Israelites, after all that He had done for them, would discard Him, and substitute other gods in His place, but fears the syncretism which would unite His worship with that of other deities. All polytheisms were syncretic, and readily enlarged their pantheons, since, when once the principle of unity is departed from, whether the plurality be a little greater or a little less cannot much signify. The Egyptian religion seems to have adopted Ammon at a comparatively late period from Arabia; it took Bar, or Baal, Anta, or Anaïtis, Astaret, or Astarte, Reshpu, or Reseph, &c., from Syria, and it admitted Totuu from Ethiopia. Israel, in after-times, fell into the same error, and, without intending to apostatise from Jehovah, added on the worship of Baal, Ashtoreth, Moloch, Chemosh, Remphan, &c. It is this form of polytheism against which the first commandment is directed. It asserts the sole claim of Jehovah to our religious regards.

Heb. There shall not be to thee another god, or other gods, to wit, idols, which others have, esteem, and worship as gods, and therefore Scripture so calls them by way of supposition, Deu 32:21 1 Samuel 12:21 1 Corinthians 8:4,5 ; but thou shalt not have them in any such reputation or veneration, but shalt forsake and abhor them, and cleave unto me alone. Before me, i.e. in my presence, in my house or Church, which you are, where I am especially present; and therefore for you to worship any other god is most impudent idolatry, even as when a woman commits adultery before her husband’s face. He may also intimate, that all the idolatry which any of them shall hereafter commit, though never so cunningly and secretly managed, is manifest to his eyes, Psalm 44:20,21 . Others translate it with me , or besides me , as it is rendered Matthew 12:30 . He forbids the worship of all others, not only in opposition to him, but also in conjunction with him, or subordination to him. See 2 Kings 17:33 Exo 32 Ac 7:41 Revelation 19:10 22:8,9 .

Before me - Literally, "before my face." The meaning is that no god should be worshipped in addition to Yahweh. Compare Exodus 20:23 . The polytheism which was the besetting sin of the Israelites did not in later times exclude Yahweh, but associated Him with false deities. (Compare the original of 1 Samuel 2:25 .)

Verse 3. - Thou shalt have . The use of the second person singular is remarkable when a covenant was being made with the people ( Exodus 19:5 ). The form indicated that each individual of the nation was addressed severally, and was required himself to obey the law, a mere general national obedience being insufficient. No one can fail to see how much the commands gain in force, through all time, by being thus addressed to the individual conscience. No other gods before me . "Before me" literally, "before my face," is a Hebrew idiom, and equivalent to "beside me," "in addition to me." The commandment requires the worship of one God alone, Jehovah - the God who had in so ninny ways manifested himself to the Israelites, and implies that there is, in point of fact, no other God. A belief in the unity of God is said to lie at the root of the esoteric Egyptian religion; but Moses can scarcely have derived his belief from this source, since the Egyptian notions on the subject were tinged with pantheism and materialism, from which the religion of Moses is entirely free. Outwardly the Egyptian religion, like that of the nations of Western Asia generally, was a gross polytheism; and it is against polytheistic notions that the first commandment raises a protest. Exodus 20:3

3 . The Covenant : esp., and probably first, in Dt. and Deuteronomic writers (cf. above, p. 175): Exodus 34:28 (?; see the note); Deuteronomy 4:13 ‘his covenant’ (cf. 23, Exodus 5:2-3 ); and in the expressions, ‘the tables of the covenant ,’ Deuteronomy 9:9 ; Deuteronomy 9:11 ; Deuteronomy 9:15 , 1 Kings 8:9 LXX. (see Skinner); and ‘the ark of the covenant (of Jehovah),’ Deuteronomy 10:8 ; Deuteronomy 31:9 ; Deuteronomy 31:25-26 ; Joshua 3:3 ; Joshua 3:6 ; Joshua 3:8 ; Joshua 3:11 ; Joshua 3:14 ; Joshua 3:17 ; Joshua 4:7 ; Joshua 4:9 ; Joshua 4:18 ; Joshua 6:6 ; Joshua 6:8 ; Joshua 8:33 (all JE or D2[173]); Numbers 10:33 ; Numbers 14:44 (both JE); Jdg 20:27 ; 1 Samuel 4:3-5 , 2 Samuel 15:14 ; 1 Kings 3:15 ; 1 Kings 6:19 ; 1 Kings 8:1 ; 1 Kings 8:6 ; and several times in Chr. (In the occurrences in JE and other pre-Deuteronomic writers, ‘the covenant of’ is probably the addition of a redactor or scribe familiar with the Deut. expression1[174].) [173] Deuteronomic passages in Josh., Jud., Kings. [174] This supposition is not arbitrary: because—at least as far as we know—until Dt. was written, the conditions for calling the ark the ‘ark of the Covenant’ did not exist: no covenant is concluded on the basis of the Decalogue in Ex.; this is first and to have been done in Dt. (cf. Chapman, Introd. to the Pent. p. 113 f.). 3 . The first commandment, against polytheism.

The fundamental principle of Israel’s faith, presupposed throughout the OT., but specially insisted on when there is any danger of other gods, esp. Canaanite gods, being preferred to Jehovah, or worshipped equally with Him. other gods ] so Exodus 23:13 ; cf. in the singular Exodus 34:14 ( אל אתר ). Very frequent in Dt. and Deuteronomic writers (compilers of Judges and Kings; and Jer.), as Deuteronomy 6:14 ; Deuteronomy 7:4 ; Deuteronomy 8:19 al. ; Jdg 2:12 ; Jdg 2:17 ; Jdg 2:19 ; 1 Kings 9:6 ; 1 Kings 9:9 ; 1 Kings 11:4 ; 1 Kings 11:10 ; Jeremiah 1:16 ; Jeremiah 7:6 ; Jeremiah 7:9 ; Jeremiah 7:18 al. Otherwise first in E ( Joshua 24:2 ; Joshua 24:16 ), 1 Samuel 26:19 , 2 Kings 5:17 , Hosea 3:1 (not in other prophets, except Jer., and never in P). before me ] or, more distinctly, in front of me ,—obliging Me (un-willingly) to behold them, and also giving them a prominence above Me.