Bearing God's Name · Imes on the Third Commandment

Definition

The framework, articulated most clearly by Carmen Joy Imes, that the third commandment (“you shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain,” Ex 20:7) is not primarily about profanity or careless oaths but about Israel’s vocation as God’s Name-bearers. The Hebrew verb nasa’ means to lift, carry, or bear. Israel has been branded with God’s Name, like a high priest’s medallion engraved “Holy to the LORD” worn on the forehead (Ex 28:36-38), and the commandment forbids carrying that Name in emptiness: living as God’s representative people in a way that empties the Name of its weight. Israel’s whole vocation, from the segullah clause at Sinai (Ex 19:5-6) to the priestly blessing of Numbers 6 (“they shall put my name on the Israelites”), is to bear the Name well.

Key proponents

Modern

Carmen Joy Imes, Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters (IVP, 2019), and the academic precursor Bearing YHWH’s Name at Sinai (Eisenbrauns, 2018), the foundational treatment.
Daniel Block, How I Love Your Torah, O Lord! (Cascade, 2011), an earlier articulation Imes builds on.
Sandra Richter, The Epic of Eden (IVP Academic, 2008), uses related branding-and-vocation language.
Lois Tverberg, Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus (Zondervan, 2012), on kiddush hashem / hillul hashem (sanctifying or profaning the Name) as the framework’s lived ethic.

Premodern witnesses

The Jewish liturgical tradition has read the third commandment as a vocational charge for centuries, evident in the daily Aleinu prayer (“to perfect the world under the kingdom of the Almighty”) and the language of kiddush hashem / hillul hashem in the Talmud and the Mishneh Torah.
Maimonides (1138 to 1204), Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Yesodei HaTorah 5, develops the doctrine of kiddush hashem as Israel’s daily moral framework.
John Chrysostom (c. 347 to 407), in his homilies, often emphasized that Christians bear the name of Christ and that their conduct either honors or shames that Name in the watching world. His pastoral logic mirrors Imes’s exegetical reading.

See How We Read for the longer lineage of this and the other frameworks on this site.

Core insights

The verb is nasa’: to lift, carry, or bear. Most English translations render Exodus 20:7 as “you shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain,” and “take” is misleading. The Hebrew lo’ tissa’ et-shem YHWH uses the verb nasa’, which the Torah elsewhere uses for carrying things on the body or shoulders: the high priest’s breastplate (Ex 28:29), the curtains of the tabernacle (Num 4:25), the iniquity of Israel (Lev 10:17). Imes’s reading lets the verb do its normal work: the commandment forbids carrying the Name in vain, not speaking it in vain.

The high priest’s plate is the visual image. The high priest wore a gold medallion engraved with qodesh la-YHWH, “Holy to the LORD,” tied to his turban with a blue cord. Exodus 28:38 says it was so Aaron could bear (nasa’) the iniquity of Israel’s offerings. He carried the Name on his forehead, and Israel’s worship was carried by his Name-bearing. Israel as a whole lives out the same vocation: every Israelite bears the Name on the level of the nation, the way the high priest bears it on the level of the body.

Sinai is the moment of branding. When Israel agrees to the covenant at Sinai (Ex 19:8, 24:3, 24:7), they are not just receiving rules. They are being claimed by God’s Name. The segullah clause of Ex 19:5-6 (“you will be my treasured possession… a kingdom of priests, a holy nation”) is a job description: the nations who notice Israel will see YHWH’s character, or fail to. The third commandment is the rule that protects the vocation. Israel’s lived life is now a public Name-bearing assignment.

The priestly blessing seals it. Numbers 6:22-27 ends with the line, “So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” The Aaronic blessing is the formal ritual by which the Name is placed on (Hebrew sim) the people. Israel doesn’t take the Name; God gives it to them. They bear what has been placed on them. This makes the third commandment a stewardship rule, not a speech rule.

Bearing the Name in vain: lashav. The Hebrew lashav doesn’t mean “casually” or “carelessly.” It means in emptiness, to no effect, for nothing. To bear the Name lashav is to live as God’s people in a way that empties the Name of its meaning to the watching world, to be a priestly nation that lies, a holy nation that exploits, a treasured possession that mistreats the alien. The third commandment is the load-bearing rule of Israel’s witness. It is the rule that the prophets later use to indict Israel (“they have profaned my holy name,” Ezek 36:20-23) and the rule Jesus invokes in the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer (“hallowed be your name,” Matt 6:9, let your name be sanctified, the opposite of profaned).

Implications. This framework reshapes the ethical heart of the Old Testament. The Decalogue is not an arbitrary set of rules; it is the rule of life for a people carrying God’s Name. It reshapes the church’s vocation in the New Testament: when Paul writes that the Gentiles are now grafted into Israel (Rom 11) and that believers are temples of the Spirit (1 Cor 6:19), he is saying that the Name-bearing vocation has been extended. It reshapes daily Christian ethics: every action is either kiddush hashem (sanctifying the Name) or hillul hashem (profaning it).

In the wilderness camp: the priestly blessing (Numbers 6)

Numbers 6:22-27 is the framework’s clearest ritual enactment, and it rewards a closer look. The Aaronic blessing is built as an ascending crescendo, three lines that grow in Hebrew from three words to five to seven (fifteen, then twenty, then twenty-five letters), widening like arms opening further: from protection (bless and keep), to favor (the shining face), to peace (shalom). But the interpretive key is the line that follows it: So they shall put my name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them (6:27). The verb is sim, “to place, set, put.” The priests do not manufacture the blessing; they place the Name on the people, and God himself does the blessing. Israel does not take the Name, the misreading the third commandment so often receives; the Name is laid on them as a gift, and the blessing comes with it.

This makes the priestly blessing the positive counterpart to the third commandment. Exodus 20:7 forbids bearing the Name in emptiness; Numbers 6:27 shows the Name being placed full, freighted with God’s own intent to bless. The same high priest who wears qodesh la-YHWH on his forehead (Exodus 28:36-38) now places that Name on the whole people. What the gold plate does for the priest, the blessing does for the nation: it marks them as belonging to YHWH.

The archaeology lands directly on the theology. The two silver Ketef Hinnom amulets (c. seventh century BCE), inscribed with versions of this blessing and worn against the body, are the oldest known fragments of biblical text. Israelites did not only hear the Name placed on them; they wore it. The trajectory completes at Revelation 22:4, where the redeemed see God’s face and his name will be on their foreheads: the high priest’s plate, the wilderness blessing, and the silver amulet converge in a single people who carry the Name and stand in the light of the face that shines fully on them at last.

Where it shows up in Scripture

Exodus 19:5-6, segullah, kingdom of priests, holy nation: the vocational charge.
Exodus 20:7, the third commandment, the rule that protects the vocation.
Exodus 28:36-38, the high priest’s qodesh la-YHWH medallion.
Leviticus 18:21; 19:12; 20:3; 22:32, do not profane my holy name.
Numbers 6:22-27, the priestly blessing puts the Name on the people.
Deuteronomy 12:5, 11; 14:23, the central sanctuary as the place where God causes his Name to dwell.
2 Samuel 7:13, the temple is built for my name.
Isaiah 43:7, 21, Israel is called by my name, formed for my praise.
Ezekiel 36:20-23, Israel profanes the Name among the nations; God will sanctify the Name through them.
Daniel 9:18-19, Daniel’s prayer is for your name’s sake.
Matthew 6:9, hallowed be your name: the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer.
John 17:6, 11, 26, Jesus manifests the Father’s Name and asks to keep the disciples in your name.
Acts 15:14, God takes from the Gentiles a people for his name.
Romans 2:24 (citing Ezekiel and Isaiah), the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.
Revelation 22:4, the eschaton: his name will be on their foreheads. The high priest’s plate becomes the standard issue of the redeemed.

Common misreadings to avoid

The third commandment is not primarily about profanity. It is not “do not say God damn it.” Read narrowly as a speech rule, the commandment is trivially easy and morally light. Read as a vocation rule, it is the heaviest commandment in the Decalogue.
It is not about pronouncing the Tetragrammaton wrongly. Jewish reverence for the Name (refusing to pronounce YHWH, substituting Adonai or Hashem) is a downstream protective custom; it is not what the commandment originally required.
It is not Israel-only. Jesus, Paul, and Revelation all extend the Name-bearing vocation to the church (Matt 6:9; Acts 15:14; Rev 22:4). The commandment’s logic continues; the people who carry the Name expands.
It is not separable from the other commandments. The first table of the Decalogue (commandments 1 to 4) governs the relationship between Israel and YHWH; the second table (5 to 10) governs Israel’s life among itself and the nations. Failing the second table empties the Name on the first table, which is precisely the prophets’ indictment.

Bearing God’s Name