Exodus 20:5 (DBY)

Passage

thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I, Jehovah thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and to the fourth [generation] of them that hate me,

Nearby Context

Exodus 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Exodus 20:4 Thou shalt not make thyself any graven image, or any form of what is in the heavens above, or what is in the earth beneath, or what is in the waters under the earth:

Exodus 20:5 thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I, Jehovah thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and to the fourth [generation] of them that hate me,

Exodus 20:6 and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

Exodus 20:7 Thou shalt not idly utter the name of Jehovah thy God; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that idly uttereth his name.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "thou", "shalt", "down", "thyself", "serve", "jehovah", "jealous", and "visiting". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "thou" and "shalt", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 4's "Thou shalt not make thyself any graven..." into verse 6's "and shewing mercy unto thousands of them...", so "thou" and "shalt" belong inside that flow. In Exodus context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "thou" and "shalt" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.