Exodus 20:5

Easy To Read Version

Don’t worship or serve idols of any kind. Why? Because I, the Lord, am your God. I hate my people worshiping other gods. [125] People who sin against me become my enemies. And I will punish those people. And I will punish their children, their grandchildren, and even their great-grandchildren.

Cross References

2 Samuel 21:1

There was a famine while David was king. This time of hunger continued for three years. David prayed to the Lord, and the Lord answered. The Lord said, “Saul and his family of murderers [119] are the reason for this time of hunger. This famine came because Saul killed the Gibeonites.” (

2 Samuel 21:6

Give us seven of Saul’s sons. Saul was the Lord’s chosen king. So we will hang his sons in front of the Lord on Mount Gibeah of Saul.”

1 Kings 19:10

Elijah answered, “Lord God All-Powerful, I have always served you the best I can. But the people of Israel have broken their agreement with you. They destroyed your altars. They killed your prophets. I am the only prophet that is still living. And now they are trying to kill me!”

1 Kings 21:29

“I see that Ahab has become humble before me. So, I will not cause the trouble to come to him during his life. I will wait until his son is king. Then I will cause the trouble to come to Ahab’s family.”

2 Kings 17:35

The Lord made an Agreement with the people of Israel. The Lord commanded them, “You must not honor other gods. You must not worship them, or serve them, or offer sacrifices to them.

2 Kings 17:41

So now those other nations respect the Lord, but they also serve their own idols. Their children and grandchildren do the same thing their ancestors [214] did. They still do those things to this day.

2 Kings 23:26

But the Lord did not stop being angry at the people of Judah. The Lord was still angry at them for all the things that Manasseh had done.

2 Kings 5:18

And I now pray the Lord will forgive me for this thing: In the future, my master (the king of Aram) will go into the temple of Rimmon to worship {that false god}. The king will want to lean on me for support, so I must bow down in the temple of Rimmon. I now ask the Lord to forgive me when that happens.”

2 Kings 5:27

Now, you and your children will catch Naaman’s disease. You will have leprosy [57] forever!”

2 Chronicles 25:14

Amaziah came home after he defeated the Edomite {\cf2\super [290]} people. He brought the idol gods the people of Seir {\cf2\super [291]} worshiped. Amaziah started to worship those idol gods. He bowed down in front of those gods, and he burned incense {\cf2\super [292]} to them.

2 Chronicles 7:19

“But if you do not obey my laws and commands that I gave you, and if you worship other gods and serve them,

Job 21:19

But you say,\par ‘God punishes a child\par for his father’s sins.’\par No! Let God punish the evil person himself.\par Then that evil person will know\par he is being punished for his own sins!\par

Job 5:4

There was no one to help his children.\par No one defended them in court.\par

Psalm 109:14

I hope the Lord is reminded of the sins\par of my enemy’s father.\par And I hope his mother’s sins\par are never erased.\par

Psalm 78:58

The people of Israel built high places {\cf2\super [453]} \par and made God angry.\par They built statues of false gods\par and made God very jealous.\par

Psalm 79:8

God, please don’t punish us for the sins of our ancestors. {\cf2\super [457]} \par Hurry, show us your mercy!\par We need you so much!\par

Psalm 81:15

The Lord’s enemies would shake with fear.\par They would be punished forever.\par

Exodus 23:24

“Don’t worship the gods of those people. Don’t ever bow down to those gods. You must never live the way those people live. You must destroy their idols. [151] And you must break the stones that help them remember their gods. [152]

Exodus 34:14

Don’t worship any other god. I am YAHWEH KANAH—the jealous Lord. That is my name. I am EL KANAH—the jealous God.

Proverbs 8:36

But the person who sins against me\par hurts himself.\par All people who hate me love death!”\par

Isaiah 44:15

Then that man uses the tree to burn in his fire. The man cuts the tree into small pieces of wood. And he uses the wood to cook and keep him warm. The man starts a fire with some of the wood and bakes his bread. But the man still uses part of that wood to make a god—and the man worships that god! That god is a statue that the man made—but the man bows down before the statue!

Isaiah 44:19

Those people have not thought about these things. The people don’t understand, so they have never thought to themselves, “I burned half of the wood in the fire. I used the hot coals to bake my bread and cook my meat. Then I ate the meat. And I used the wood that was left to make this terrible thing. I am worshiping a block of wood!”

Jeremiah 2:9

The Lord says,\par “So now I will accuse you again,\par And I will also accuse your grandchildren.\par

Jeremiah 32:18

Lord, you are loyal and kind to thousands of people. But you also bring punishment to children for their fathers’ sins. Great and powerful God, your name is the Lord All-Powerful.

Ezekiel 18:19

“You might ask, ‘Why won’t the son be punished for his father’s sins?’ The reason is that the son was fair and did good things! He very carefully obeyed my laws! So he will live.

Ezekiel 18:2

“You people keep repeating this proverb. Why? You say:

Ezekiel 20:7

“I told the family of Israel to throw away their horrible idols. I told them not to become filthy with those filthy statues from Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

Ezekiel 39:25

So the Lord my Master says these things: “Now I will bring the family of Jacob back from captivity. I will have mercy on the whole family of Israel. I will show my strong feelings for my holy name.

Ezekiel 8:3

Then I saw something that looked like an arm. The arm reached out and grabbed me by the hair on my head. Then the wind {\cf2\super [60]} lifted me into the air. And in God’s vision, {\cf2\super [61]} he took me to Jerusalem. He took me to the inner gate—the gate that is on the north side. The statue that makes God jealous is by that gate.

Daniel 1:2

The Lord allowed Nebuchadnezzar to defeat Jehoiakim king of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar took all of the dishes and other things from God’s temple. Nebuchadnezzar carried those things to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar put those things in the temple of his idol gods.

Daniel 3:18

But even if God does not save us, we want you to know, king, that we refuse to serve your gods. We won’t worship the gold idol you have set up.”

Leviticus 20:5

But I will be against that person and his family! I will separate him from his people. I will separate any person who is unfaithful to me and chases after Molech.

Leviticus 26:1

“Don’t make idols for yourselves. Don’t set up statues or memorials [440] in your land to bow down to. Why? Because I am the Lord your God!

Leviticus 26:29

{You will become so hungry that} you will eat the bodies of your sons and daughters.

Nahum 1:2

The Lord is a jealous God.\par The Lord punishes guilty people.\par The Lord punishes guilty people,\par and the Lord is very angry!\par The Lord punishes his enemies.\par He stays angry at his enemies.\par

Numbers 14:18

You said, ‘The Lord is slow to become angry. The Lord is full of great love. The Lord forgives [184] people who are guilty and break the law. But the Lord always punishes people who are guilty. The Lord punishes those people, and he also punishes their children, their grandchildren, and even their great-grandchildren for those bad things!’ [185]

Numbers 14:33

“Your children will be shepherds here in the desert for 40 years. They will suffer because you were not faithful to me. They must suffer until all of you lie dead in the desert.

Numbers 25:11

“I have strong feelings for my people—I want them to belong only to me! Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saved the people of Israel from my anger. He did this by showing those feelings for my people. So I will not kill the people like I wanted to.

Matthew 4:9

The devil said, “If you will bow down and worship me, I will give you all these things.”

John 15:18

“If the world hates you, remember that the world hated me first.

John 7:7

The world cannot hate you. But the world hates me. Why? Because I tell the people in the world that they do evil things.

John 9:2

Jesus’ followers asked him, “Teacher, this man was born blind. But whose sin made him be born blind? His own sin, or his parents’ sin?”

Romans 1:30

and say evil things about each other. Those people hate God. They are rude and conceited and boast about themselves. Those people invent ways of doing evil. They don’t obey their parents,

Romans 8:7

Why is this true? Because if a person’s thinking is controlled by his sinful self, then that person is against God. That person refuses to obey God’s law. And really that person is not able to obey God’s law.

1 Corinthians 10:22

Doing that would make the Lord jealous {\cf2\super [75]} ! And we don’t want to do that, do we? No, because he is much stronger than we are.

Deuteronomy 32:21

They made me jealous with {demons} that aren’t gods. They made me angry with those worthless idols. So I will make them jealous with people that are not a real nation. I will make them angry with people that are a foolish [213] nation.

Deuteronomy 32:41

I swear (promise), I will sharpen my flashing sword. I will use it to punish my enemies. I will give them the punishment they deserve.

Deuteronomy 4:24

Why? Because the Lord your God hates for his people to worship other gods. And the Lord can be like a fire that destroys!

Deuteronomy 5:10

But I will be very kind to people who love me and obey my commands. I will be kind to their families for thousands of generations! [27]

Deuteronomy 5:9

Don’t worship or serve idols of any kind. Why? Because I am the Lord your God. I hate for my people to worship other gods. [26] People who sin against me become my enemies. And I will punish those people. And I will punish their children, their grandchildren, and even their great-grandchildren.

Deuteronomy 6:15

The Lord your God is always with you. And the Lord hates his people worshiping other gods! So if you follow those other gods, the Lord will become very angry at you. He will destroy you from the face of the earth.

Deuteronomy 7:10

But the Lord punishes people who hate him. He will destroy them. He will not be slow to punish people who hate him.

James 4:4

So you people are not faithful to God! You should know that loving the world is the same as hating God. So if a person wants to be a part {\cf2\super [18]} of the world, then he makes himself God’s enemy.

Joshua 23:16

This will happen if you refuse to keep your agreement with the Lord your God. You will lose this land if you go and serve other gods. You must not worship those other gods. If you do, the Lord will become very angry at you. Then you will quickly be forced to leave this good land that he gave you.”

Joshua 23:7

There are still some people living among us that are not people of Israel. Those people worship their own gods. Don’t become friends with those people. Don’t serve or worship their gods.

Joshua 24:19

Then Joshua said, “{That is not true.} You will not be able to continue serving the Lord. The Lord God is holy. And God hates his people worshiping other gods. God will not forgive you if you turn against him like that.

Judges 2:19

But when each judge died, the people of Israel again sinned and started worshiping the false gods. The people of Israel were very stubborn—they refused to change their evil ways.