Deuteronomy 5:7
Thou shalt not have strange gods in my sight.
Open Deuteronomy 5:7 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Non habebis deos alienos in conspectu meo.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Οὐκ ἔσονταί σοι θεοὶ ἕτεροι πρὸ προσώπου μου.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- לֹא יִהְיֶ֥ה לְךָ֛ אֱלֹהִ֥ים אֲחֵרִ֖ים עַל פָּנָֽיַ
Haydock's commentary
Sight. Chaldean, "Thou shalt not have any other god but me." Elohim often designates the true God. (Calmet)
See the decalogue explained, (Exodus xx.) where we have observed, that pictures are only forbidden when they are the objects of sovereign worship, as the context here plainly shews, ver. 9. Other images God himself authorized, (Worthington) even in the old law, and in the most sacred place, where people were ordered to fall prostrate before the ark, to adore his footstool, Psalm xcviii. 5. If, therefore, a people so prone to idolatry as the Jews were, might have pictures in the temple of God without danger, how can any one suppose that the images of Jesus Christ, and of his saints, are necessary incentive to idolatry among Christians, who all know that God will allow of no rival! (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Letter LV
22. It is also for this reason, that of all the ten commandments, that which related to the Sabbath was the only one in which the thing commanded was typical; the bodily rest enjoined being a type which we have received as a means of our instruction, but not as a duty binding also upon us. For while in the Sabbath a figure is presented of the spiritual rest, of which it is said in the Psalm, “Be still, and know that I am God,” and unto which men are invited by the Lord Himself in the words, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: so shall ye find rest unto your souls;” as to all the things enjoined in the other commandments, we are to yield to them an obedience in which there is nothing typical. …