#Exodus 20:7

The third commandment

Has any translation been more abstract, compared to its original sense, than “you shall not take the Lord’s name in vain”? Take it? What does that even mean? All the technical terms here are obscured, and the whole context lost.

Briefly: the word translated as “take” here really means “lift, bear,” and is used for oath-taking; later in the verse, more crucially, the word “acquit, clear” appears, which is used regularly elsewhere as a technical term for releasing someone from the obligations of an oath.

This commandment isn’t about using curse words (as if such things existed then), or about saying God’s name in inappropriate contexts. It’s specifically about not using God’s name to take oaths you don’t plan on following through with.

You use the divine name in an oath, you’re stuck: there are consequences if you fail to follow through. The Bible contains a number of illustrations of this point, from Joshua to Jephthah. The divine name has the power to compel you - just as in a courtroom today.

By far the silliest outcome of the generalizing of this commandment to cover like any invocation of God’s name is when it’s used to condemn the use of the word “God,” as in “Goddammit” - as if “God” is God’s name.

I suspect this happened because anyone not reading the Hebrew would have never actually encountered God’s proper name. “Lord,” the common translation of YHWH since the LXX, makes a proper name into a common noun. (And the silly “Jehovah” didn’t exist until the Middle Ages.)

So God’s name and God’s title were basically elided. Which just went to undermine the authentic power of the divine name in the ancient world, and obscure the idea that the name itself is sacred and powerful. Even YHWH swears by his own name.

Long story short: saying “goddammit” or yelling “Jesus Christ” when you stub your toe aren’t violations of this commandment. Saying “I swear to YHWH I’m going to scream if my kids don’t stop singing that driver’s license song,” that’s when you’re in trouble. If you don’t scream.