Jon Collins

You will not worship them.

You will not serve them.

because I, Yahweh your Elohim, am a passionate Elohim, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the threes and the fours for those who hate me, but showing loyal love to thousands for those who love me and keep my commands.

So we're looking at my translation and the opening words of the Ten Commands are, I am Yahweh your Elohim.

What's interesting is these two commands are bundled together.

There will not be any other Elohim.

You will not make for yourself an idol.

So two negatives.

Then you get a list of what the idols might represent, skies above, land beneath, waters in the land.

Then you get two more negatives.

You will not worship them.

You will not serve them.

Then you get, because I, Yahweh, your Elohim, am a passionate Elohim.

And then you're back to this description of Yahweh Elohim, and you're like, oh, I'm looking at a symmetrical paragraph.

I see.

And at the center are three lines describing what idols might represent in the skies above, the land beneath, the waters under the land.

It's what you call a symmetry or a chiasm.

Yeah.

So part of the...

The reasoning for no other Elohim and no idols both comes at the beginning and the end.