Deuteronomy 5:11

5:11 You must not make use of the name of the Lord your God for worthless purposes, ¹  for the Lord will not exonerate anyone who abuses his name that way. ² 

Deuteronomy 12:5

12:5 But you must seek only the place he ³  chooses from all your tribes to establish his name as his place of residence, ⁴  and you must go there.

Deuteronomy 16:2

16:2 You must sacrifice the Passover animal ⁵  (from the flock or the herd) to the Lord your God in the place where he ⁶  chooses to locate his name.

Deuteronomy 25:6

25:6 Then ⁷  the first son ⁸  she bears will continue the name of the dead brother, thus preventing his name from being blotted out of Israel.

¹ tn Heb “take up the name of the Lord your God to emptiness”; KJV “take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” The idea here is not cursing or profanity in the modern sense of these terms but rather the use of the divine Name for unholy, mundane purposes, that is, for meaningless (the Hebrew term is שָׁוְא) and empty ends. In ancient Israel this would include using the Lord’s name as a witness in vows one did not intend to keep.

² tn Heb “who takes up his name to emptiness.”

³ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

⁴ tc Some scholars, on the basis of v. 11, emend the MT reading שִׁכְנוֹ (shikhno, “his residence”) to the infinitive construct לְשָׁכֵן (lÿshakhen, “to make [his name] to dwell”), perhaps with the 3rd person masculine singular sf לְשַׁכְּנוֹ (lÿshakÿno, “to cause it to dwell”). Though the presupposed nounשֵׁכֶן (shekhen) is nowhere else attested, the parallel here with שַׁמָּה (shammah, “there”) favors retaining the MT as it stands.

⁵ tn Heb “sacrifice the Passover” (so NASB). The word “animal” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.

⁷ tn Heb “and it will be that.”

⁸ tn Heb “the firstborn.” This refers to the oldest male child.