The Third Word, "Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain," is closely connected with the former two. Although there is no God beside Jehovah, the absolute One, and His divine essence cannot be seen or conceived of under any form, He had made known the glory of His nature in His name (Exodus 3:14., Exodus 6:2), and this was not to be abused by His people. שׁם נשׁא does not mean to utter the name (נשׁא never has this meaning), but in all the passages in which it has been so rendered it retains its proper meaning, "to take up, life up, raise;" e.g., to take up or raise (begin) a proverb (Numbers 23:7; Job 27:1), to lift up a song (Psalm 81:3), or a prayer (Isaiah 37:4). And it is evident from the parallel in Psalm 24:4, "to lift up his soul to vanity," that it does not mean "to utter" here. שׁוא does not signify a lie (שׁקר), but according to its etymon שׁאה, to be waste, it denotes that which is waste and disorder, hence that which is empty, vain, and nugatory, for which there is no occasion. The word prohibits all employment of the name of God for vain and unworthy objects, and includes not only false swearing, which is condemned in Leviticus 19:12 as a profanation of the name of Jehovah, but trivial swearing in the ordinary intercourse of life, and every use of the name of God in the service of untruth and lying, for imprecation, witchcraft, or conjuring; whereas the true employment of the name of God is confined to "invocation, prayer, praise, and thanksgiving," which proceeds from a pure, believing heart. The natural heart is very liable to transgress this command, and therefore it is solemnly enforced by the threat, "for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless" (leave him unpunished), etc.

Exodus 20:13 Parallel Commentaries

Exodus 21:14,20,29 But if a man come presumptuously on his neighbor, to slay him with guile; you shall take him from my altar, that he may die...

Genesis 4:8-23 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother...

Genesis 9:5,6 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man...

Leviticus 24:21 And he that kills a beast, he shall restore it: and he that kills a man, he shall be put to death.

Numbers 35:16-34 And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death...

Deuteronomy 5:17 You shall not kill.

Deuteronomy 19:11-13 But if any man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him mortally that he die...

2 Samuel 12:9,10 Why have you despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? you have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword...

2 Kings 21:16 Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another...

2 Chronicles 24:22 Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said...

Psalm 10:8-11 He sits in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places does he murder the innocent...

Proverbs 1:11,18 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privately for the innocent without cause...

Isaiah 26:21 For, behold, the LORD comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity...

Jeremiah 26:15 But know you for certain, that if you put me to death, you shall surely bring innocent blood on yourselves, and on this city...

Matthew 5:21,22 You have heard that it was said of them of old time, You shall not kill; and whoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment...

Acts 28:4 And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom...

Romans 13:9 For this, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet...

Galatians 5:21 Contentions, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past...

1 Timothy 1:9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners...

James 2:11,13 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if you commit no adultery, yet if you kill...

1 John 3:12-15 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And why slew he him? Because his own works were evil...