Exodus 20:13 What does the author mean by "shall/must"?

Question

Exodus 20:13 NLT

You must not murder.

Several translations use the word "shall" in this verse yet the NLT uses "must". In conversation with a gentleman, he posits that "must" is an absolute word and the command cannot be violated. He then says that this creates a contradiction because the Israelites killed/murdered many people when conquering the Promised Land. (I am not asking about the supposed contradiction.)

I assume that the NLT is trying to stress the importance of not committing murder and thus uses "must" to make the point.

What meaning does the original Hebrew convey?

Answer 1

In modern translations of the 10 commandments in Ex 20, phrase like, "thou shalt not ...", and, "You must not ..." are all interpretive. The commandments literally read:

• V13 - no murdering
• V14 - no "adultering"
• V15 - no stealing

That is, each of these is simply two words in the Hebrew. "You" is not explicit (but implied) and "shall" and "must" are used to make them look as though they were written in the imperative mood; all such are interpretive. The actual grammatical form of the Hebrew verb in each case is simply qal-imperfect.

Now, this the most popular way to read these is as commandments from God (they are called such in the NT only, never in the OT.) However, some have suggested that, grammatically at least, one could read these as the equivalent of what Jesus said in John 14:15 -

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

In this case, Jesus uses a simply future indicative active form of the verb which essentially says that those who love Jesus will, as a matter of course, keep the commandments.

Thus, one might be tempted, emboldened by Jesus' own statement above, that the 10 "commandments" are statements of fact - those who truly love God/YHWH will keep His commandments (see appendix below). This is the reason that the prologue to the 10 commandments has this:

And God spoke all these words: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

That is, God's command to love Him has a solid basis - God's unmerited salvation of His people, by grace, whom He wants to love Him.

APPENDIX - Love in the Old Covenant

• Lev 19:18 - Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
• Deut 5:10 - but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
• Deut 6:4, 5 - Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
• Deut 11:1 - You shall therefore love the LORD your God and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.
• Deut 11:13 - So if you carefully obey the commandments I am giving you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,
• Deut 11:22 - For if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him
• Deut 13:3 - you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul
• Deut 19:9 - because you carefully follow all these laws I command you today— to love the LORD your God and to walk always in obedience to him—then you are to set aside three more cities.
• Deut 30:6 - And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
• Deut 30:16 - For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so Biblical Theology that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.
• Deut 30:20 - and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
• Josh 22:5 - But be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
• Josh 23:11 - So be very careful to love the LORD your God.
• Matt 22:36-40 - “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?” Jesus declared, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
• 1 Cor 13:8-10 - Be indebted to no one, except to one another in love. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The commandments “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and any other commandments, are summed up in this one decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.

Thus, according to Moses, Joshua, Jesus and Paul, the old covenant law was a law of love and a matter of the heart.

Answer 2

I'm an amateur at Hebrew but feel I can point the OP to an answer:-

Looking at BibleHub,

https://biblehub.com/text/exodus/20-13.htm

"You shall [not] murder" is a single word - תִּֿרְצָֽ֖ח׃=trəṣāḥ.

On the right-hand side, it explains this is V-Qal-Imperf-2ms

Verb - Qal Stem - Imperfect - 2nd Person ("you") - Masculine - Singular

Hebrew's tenses are different than English and used in different situations.

For a detailed explanation of a Qal Imperfect, there is this page

https://hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_Ten/Qal_Imperfect/qal_imperfect.html

Based on that page "shall" is pretty close to it and NLT might be avoiding it as an archaism. The important thing is that the action is incomplete.

Shall is about one-fourth as common as will in North America compared to in the United Kingdom. Lack of exposure leads many in North America to consider it formal or even pompous or archaic, best reserved for court decisions and legal contracts. North Americans mainly use it in senses two and three.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shall

ChatGPT is pretty good for explaining Ancient Hebrew.

in Exodus 20:13 please parse the word תִּֿרְצָֽ֖ח׃

The word תִּֿרְצָֽ֖ח׃ (pronounced "tirẖaḥ") is the Hebrew term found in Exodus 20:13, which translates to "You shall not murder." Let's break down and parse the word:

Root: The root of תִּֿרְצָֽ֖ח is רצח (r-tz-ḥ), which means "to murder" or "to kill."

Form: The verb form is Qal (the most basic verb form in Hebrew). It is in the imperfect aspect, indicating an ongoing action or future intention. In this context, it suggests a prohibition.

Prefix: The prefix "תִּ" (ti) indicates the second-person masculine singular form, which can be understood as "you."

Inflection: The root is inflected with vowel changes and the addition of a suffix to form the specific tense and aspect.

Meaning: The word as a whole means "you shall not murder," making it a commandment in the context of the biblical text.

Overall, תִּֿרְצָֽ֖ח׃ is a commandment addressing the act of murder, reinforcing the moral and ethical obligations regarding the sanctity of life.