Deuteronomy 6:14

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are round about you;

World English Bible · Public Domain

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אֲחֵרִ֑ים

ʼachêr

H312

“other”

Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute

Appears 166× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 4:25

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H309

TWOT: 68a

another, other, following - following, further - other, different

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

9: words
8: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

1 verb
4 nouns
1 adjective
1 preposition
2 particles

Verb forms

תֵֽלְכ֔וּן Qal · Imperfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

אֱלֹהִ֣ים God H430 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 18 words from the Hebrew and 15 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 9 Hebrew tokens and 13 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Deuteronomy 6:14 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Jeremiah 25:6 and 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; and I will do you no harm.
Deuteronomy 13:7 of the gods of the peoples who are round about you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth;
1 John 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Deuteronomy 8:19 It shall be, if you shall forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.
Deuteronomy 11:28 and the curse, if you shall not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which you have not known.
Exodus 34:14–16 for you shall worship no other god: for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Deuteronomy 6:14 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

לֹ֣א תֵֽלְכ֔וּן אַחֲרֵ֖י אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֲחֵרִ֑ים מֵאֱלֹהֵי֙ הָֽעַמִּ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֖ר סְבִיבוֹתֵיכֶֽם

You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are round about you;

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 6:14 Septuagint · lemma form

οὐ πορεύομαι ὀπίσω θεός ἕτερος ἀπό ὁ θεός ὁ ἔθνος ὁ περικύκλῳ σύ

Go you⌃ not after other gods of the gods of the nations round about you;

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

לָא תְהָכוּן בָּתַר טַעֲוַת עַמְמַיָא מִטַעֲוַת עַמְמַיָא דִי בְסַחֲרָנֵיכוֹן

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

לָא תַהֲכוּן בָּתַר טַעֲוַות עַמְמַיָא מִנַּחֲלַת עַמְמַיָא דִּבְחִזְרָנֵיכוֹן

You shall not go after the idols of the Gentiles, the idols of the peoples who are round about you:

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Deuteronomy 6:14 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Deu 6:14 Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which [are] round about you;

Ver. 14. Thou shalt not go] {See Trapp on "Exo 34:14"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Biblical Illustrator

Joseph S. Exell

Deu_6:14-15

Thou shalt not go after other gods.

The forbidden path

In all our hearts there is a tendency to depart from God, to forget what He commands, to go after what He forbids. This forbidden path is described.

1. It is entered by many. The path of the people, the gods of the age. Idolatry of every kind is the root and nourisher of error and superstition--the expression and epitome of human nature--the foul dishonour to God and His supremacy. Go not after other gods to serve them and to worship them (Jer_25:6).

2. It is offensive to God. It stirs up Gods anger and rouses His jealousy. Bishop Patrick observes that we never find in law or prophets, anger, or fury, or jealousy, or indignation attributed to God, but upon occasion of idolatry.

3. It is destructive in its end. Destroy thee from off the face of the earth. Idolatry corrupts the body and petrifies the heart. Like a withering mildew it overspreads the earth and blights the nations. The warning voice from above should be heard: Ye shall bear the sins of your idols, and ye shall know that I am the Lord God. (J. Wolfendale.)

Jealousy the shadow of love

All sin is a caricature of virtue, and sin never looks so shameful as when we put it beside the virtue which it caricatures. The Bible seems to attribute human passions to God. He is a jealous God, an angry God. But jealousy and anger are distortions of virtue, as the face of the man in anger is a distortion of the same face in repose. The very passions of men, rightly inspired and rightly guided, are Divine. For this very reason, wrongly caused, wrongly inspired, wrongly guided, they are the more detestable. What is worse than jealousy? Read of it in Othello. But is jealousy always wicked? Was it wicked in Elijah when, looking out upon a devastated and desolate kingdom, with Israels allegiance swept away from God, he cried out in agony of prayer to Him, I have been jealous for Thy name, O Lord of Hosts? Was it wicked in Paul when, writing to the Corinthians, who had at one time held firmly to their love for Christ, and had been swept away from their allegiance, the apostle cries out, I am filled with a godly jealousy for you? Jealousy is the shadow love casts; and the greater the love the greater the possibility of the shadow. Jealousy is the revulsion of feeling against that which assails love. And as the musician, full of keenness of ear and ecstasy of pleasure in fine music, revolts against a discord, so the soul that is rich in love and sensitive to all the pulsations of love revolts against whatsoever impinges upon and violates love. (Lyman Abbott.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 14. Ye shall not go after other gods] The object of religious worship among every people, whether that object be true or false, is ever considered as the pattern or exemplar to his worshippers. Christians are termed the followers of God; they take God for their pattern, and walk - act, as he does. Hence we see the meaning of the terms in this verse: Ye shall not go after - ye shall not take false gods for your patterns. The Canaanites, Greeks, Romans, c., were a most impure people, because the objects of their worship were impure, and they went after them, i. e., were like their gods. This serves to show us that such as our Redeemer is, such should we be and indeed this is the uniform language of God to man: Be ye holy, for I am holy, Le 21:8; Be ye perfect, as your Father who is in heaven is perfect, Mt 5:48.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

14. Ye shall not go after other gods, etc.] only states explicitly what is implicit in the preceding verses. As it is superfluous and introduces the Pl. form into a Sg. context, it may be confidently regarded as an editorial addition. Other gods, specially characteristic of D and deuteronomic passages in the Hexateuch, occurs some 20 times; for go after other gods see Deu_8:19, Deu_11:28, Deu_13:2, Deu_28:14, etc.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Ye shall not go after other gods,.... To serve and worship them, and swear by them; and which indeed are no gods, only nominal and fictitious ones; idols which are nothing in the world, and ought to have no veneration and adoration given them; to go after them is to worship them, and this is to depart from the true God, and go a whoring after false deities:

of the gods of the people which are round about you; the gods of the Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, Philistines, and Egyptians; all of which had their peculiar deities.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Keil & Delitzsch

C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch

The worship of Jehovah not only precludes all idolatry, which the Lord, as a jealous God, will not endure (see at Exo 20:5), but will punish with destruction from the earth ("the face of the ground," as in Exo 32:12); but it also excludes tempting the Lord by an unbelieving murmuring against God, if He does not remove any kind of distress immediately, as the people had already sinned at Massah, i.e., at Rephidim (Exo 17:1-7).

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

מאלהי העמים אשר סביבותיכם OF THE GODS OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE AROUND YOU — The same prohibition applies respecting the gods of those peoples who are distant from you; but, just because you see those who are around you going astray after them, it felt the necessity specially to warn your about them.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Deuteronomy, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 9 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʼachêr (“other”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “other” (ʼachêr) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Jeremiah 25:6 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
“God” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «תֵֽלְכ֔וּן» is Qal Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and The Biblical Illustrator read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 13 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
“God” occurs 2× in this single verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.