Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 20:5

"Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them, for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me," — Exodus 20:5 (ASV)

Nor serve them. —The idolatry of the ancient world was, practically, not a mere worship of celestial beings through material representations of them, but an actual veneration of the images themselves, which were regarded as possessing miraculous powers. “I myself,” says Arnobius, “not so very long ago, worshipped gods just taken from the furnace, fresh from the anvil of the smith, ivory, paintings, stumps of trees wrapped in bandages; and if I happened to cast my eyes on a polished stone smeared with olive oil, I paid reverence to it, as if a power were present in it, and I supplicated the senseless block for blessings” (Adversus Gentes, i. 29).

“People pray,” says Seneca, “to the images of the gods, implore them on bended knees, sit or stand long days before them, throw them money, and sacrifice animals to them, so treating them with deep respect” (Apud Lactantium, ii. 2).

A jealous God. —Not in the sense in which He was regarded as “jealous” by some of the Greeks, who supposed that success or eminence of any kind provoked Him (Herodotus iii. 40, 125), but jealous of His own honour, one who will not see His glory given to another (Isaiah 42:8; Isaiah 48:11), or allow rivals to dispute His sole and absolute sovereignty. (Deuteronomy 4:24; Deuteronomy 5:9; Deuteronomy 6:15; Joshua 24:19.)

Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children. —It is a fact that, under God’s natural government of the world, the iniquity of fathers is visited upon their children. Diseases caused by immoral practices are transmitted. The parents’ extravagance leaves their children beggars. To be the son of a felon is to be heavily handicapped in the race of life.

That this should be so is perhaps involved in “the nature of things”—at any rate, it is part of the scheme of Divine government by which the world is ordered. We all inherit countless disadvantages on account of our first parents’ sin. We each individually inherit special tendencies to this or that form of evil from the misconduct of our several progenitors.

The knowledge that their sins will put their children at a disadvantage is calculated to check people in their evil ways more than almost anything else; and this check could not be removed without a significant reduction of the restraints which restrain people from vice. Still, the penalty upon the children is not final or irreversible. Under whatever disadvantages they are born, they may struggle against them, lead good lives, and place themselves, even in this world, on a level with those who were born under every favourable circumstance.

It is needless to say that, regarding the next world, their parents’ iniquities will not be visited on them. Each man will bear his own burthen. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him (Ezekiel 18:20).