Exodus 34:14

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

for you shall worship no other god: for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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קַנָּ֣א

qannâʼ

H7067

“jealous”

Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 6× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 20:5

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H7065

TWOT: 2038b

jealous (only of God)

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 →

12: words
9: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is קַנָּ֣א jealous H7067 — appearing just 6 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

קַנָּ֣א jealous H7067 occurs in 5 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

1 verb
4 nouns
3 adjectives
1 pronoun
2 conjunctions
1 particle

Verb forms

תִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֖ה Hishtaphel · Imperfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

לְאֵ֣ל God H410 ×2
קַנָּ֣א jealous H7067 ×2
כִּ֛י that H3588 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 17 words from the Hebrew and 18 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 12 Hebrew tokens and 16 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 Exodus 34:14 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Deuteronomy 4:24 For Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.
Deuteronomy 32:21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; They have provoked me to anger with their vanities: I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
1 Corinthians 10:22 Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
Exodus 20:3–5 You shall have no other gods before me.
Nahum 1:2 Yahweh is a jealous God and avenges. Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath. Yahweh takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he maintains wrath against his enemies.
Matthew 4:10 Then Jesus said to him, "Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'"
Deuteronomy 29:20 Yahweh will not pardon him, but then the anger of Yahweh and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book shall lie on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under the sky.
Deuteronomy 6:15 for Yahweh your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

Exodus 34:5–7 Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Yahweh.
Deuteronomy 32:16 They moved him to jealousy with strange [gods]; With abominations provoked they him to anger.
Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be on his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Deuteronomy 5:7 You shall have no other gods before me.
Joshua 24:19 Joshua said to the people, You can't serve Yahweh; for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins.
Exodus 33:19 He said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of Yahweh before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy."
Deuteronomy 5:24 and you said, Behold, Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God does speak with man, and he lives.

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 Exodus 34:14 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

כִּ֛י לֹ֥א תִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֖ה לְאֵ֣ל אַחֵ֑ר כִּ֤י יְהוָה֙ קַנָּ֣א שְׁמ֔וֹ אֵ֥ל קַנָּ֖א הֽוּא

for you shall worship no other god: for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Exodus 34:14 Septuagint · lemma form

οὐ γάρ μή προςκυνέω θεός ἕτερος ὁ γάρ κύριος ὁ θεός ζηλωτός ὄνομα θεός ζηλωτής εἰμί

For you⌃ shall not worship strange gods, for the Lord God, a jealous name, is a jealous God;

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)

אֲרֵי לָא תִסְגוֹד לְטַעֲוַת עַמְמַיָא אֲרֵי יְיָ קַנָא שְׁמֵהּ אֵל קַנָא הוּא:

(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)

אֲרוּם לֵית לְכוֹן רְשׁוּ לְמִסְגוֹד לֶאֱלָהָא אוֹחֲרָן אֲרוּם יְיָ קַנַּאי וּפוּרְעַן שְׁמֵיהּ אֱלָהּ קַנְּאַי וּפוּרְעַן הוּא

for it is not lawful for thee to worship other gods; for the Lord is zealous and avengeful; His Name is God, the Zealous and the Avenger.

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 Exodus 34:14 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

Exo 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name [is] Jealous, [is] a jealous God:

Ver. 14. No other god.] In the Hebrew word Acher, rendered Other, there is a large R, to show the greatness of the sin of serving any other God. {Hebrew Text Note}

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.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) For thou shalt worship no other god.—The images, altars, and groves would, if retained, lead on to the worship of the gods to whom they were dedicated—indeed, they could be retained for no other purpose. Thus their destruction followed, as a corollary, from the second commandment.

Whose name is Jealous.—Comp. Exo_20:5, and see Note 2 on that passage. Many attempts have been made to show that jealousy is unworthy of the Divine Nature; but that the one Only God, if there be but one Only God, should claim and exact under severe penalties an undivided allegiance is natural, reasonable, and in harmony with the most exalted conceptions of the Divine essence. If God looked with indifference upon idolatry, it would imply that He cared little for His human creatures: that, like the Deity of Epicurus, having once created man and the world, He thenceforth paid no attention to them.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

14. thou shalt not worship any other god] Cf. the plural ‘other gods,’ in Exo_20:3. ‘Worship’ is lit. bow down (Exo_20:5), as regularly.

whose name is Jealous] on ‘name’ (= ‘character’), see on Exo_33:19.

a jealous God] as Exo_20:5, where see the note.

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

For thou shall worship no other god,.... Than the Lord their God, the one only living and true God, which was the first command given to the people of Israel, and binding upon all men:

for the Lord whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God; his name and nature answer to one another; he admits of no rival or competitor in worship; he will not give his glory to another god, or one so called, nor his praise to graven images; and in this he is distinguished from all nominal and fictitious gods, who have many joined with them, and are rivals of them, which gives them no concern, because insensible; but it is otherwise with the Lord, who knows the dishonour done him, and resents it, and is as jealous of any worship being given to another, as the husband is of the honour of his marriage bed; for idolatry is spiritual adultery, as is suggested in the following verse.

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

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Jealous. Like a husband, He will watch all your motions.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Whose name is Jealous; who hath made himself known by, and glories in that name, The jealous God, who cannot endure any competitor or corrival; whereas the false and puny gods of the heathens were contented with multitudes of partners. So this is properly said to be the name of God, whereby he is known and distinguished from all other gods.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

For thou shalt worship no other God. This is a reference to the Second Commandment. (Exo_20:5) The meaning is shalt not spare the idolatrous emblems of the Canaanite nations, for thou couldst only do so to worship them, and thou art already forbidden to worship any other god beside me." The existence of the Decalogue and its binding nature, is assumed throughout this chapter

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

קנא שמו WHOSE NAME IS קנא — Who is zealous (מקנא) to exact punishment from the sinners and is not indulgent towards idolatry. This (the above) is always the meaning of the root קנא wherever it is used in connection with God. Consequently קנא שמו His name (His characteristic) is קַנָּא that of a zealot, implies: He maintains (insists upon) his superiority over other gods, and punishes His enemies (those who worship idols).

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.

Exodus, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 12 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is qannâʼ (“jealous”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “jealous” (qannâʼ) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Exodus 20:5 shares the word «jealous» with this verse. 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 «תִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֖ה» is Hishtaphel Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 12 Hebrew ↔ 16 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 12 words in this verse.
“God” occurs 2× in this single verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 12 words in this verse.