The rule books of political parties, social clubs etc contain similar usage. "-Not later than 5 calendar days after reaching an agreement with Iran relating to the nuclear program of Iran, the President shall transmit to the appropriate congressional committees and leadership".(Apologies, I don't have enough reputation to paste more than two links, so you can find this one for yourself if interested.) "No act shall be certified by the Secretary as an act of terrorism if" (.etc).Powers set out in sub-paragraphs (2) and (3)" ( ). " the CSO shall, within the relevant police area, have the."Accommodation in a children’s home shall not be used as secure.They are setting down the rules.įor example, within the last few months, Acts of Parliament have provided that: They aren't predicting the future - they are laying down the law. It's notable that Acts of the UK Parliament and Acts of the US Congress use "shall" to express rules. Still more so in formal usage, and I would expect a commandment from Heaven to be phrased in formal language when rendered in English. But I would still expect a rule or commandment to be phrased with "must", "shall" or "do not".
#Commandments thou shalt not kill free#
I understand that it is optional in the sense that we have free will. It just seems too weak - makes it sound optional, subjective or tentative. To me, "should not" (or even "ought not") would be a poor phrasing. I avoided using the prohibition on killing, because I think the word used is not just "kill" but the wrongful killing of a human being, which could allow for self-defense. Unfortunately this quality does not come though in translation, even with the use of "thou," because "thou" is an old form that is no longer used and actually sounds more formal now.Īlso I note that the origins of "shall" included "ought to" and it is related to the German "soll" meaning "should." Therefore I accept "Thou shallt not" in that sense. This is significant, because God was not speaking formally, but like a father to his own children. Thou in English corresponds to "tu" in French and Spanish, and "du" in German. I see there and elsewhere that the original Hebrew for "Thou shalt not steal" is simply two words: "Lo' tignob" which seems to translate literally as simply "no steal" and is the correct way of saying "Do not steal." Therefore, I think that "do not steal" is a more direct translation.Īdding "thou" captures the "familiar" aspect of the verb in the second person. This is territory covered by any Biblical Hebrew grammar see, e.g., Waltke & O'Connor §31.5.
However, imperfective verbs are not necessarily indicative. If applied to the decalogue, an indicative verb would entail a translation such as "you will not kill", as a statement of fact. In modern English, the use of "shall" tends to invoke an elevated register which may better accommodate the sort of nuance invoked by an absolute prohibition direct from the mouth of Yahweh.ġ. It's also the case that the use of the particle לא ( lo) rather than the alternative negative particle על ( al) indicates a more permanent and absolute sort of prohibition. This nuance is frequently neglected in modern English, and the persistence of "you shall not" in most translations of the Decalogue may in part reflect the pervasive nature of the KJV tradition.
However, the construction "you shall not." is consistent with traditional English grammar, where "shall" with second and third person verbs expresses volition (whether desire, injunction, or prohibition). Perhaps the most straightforward rendering in modern English would be, This is the case throughout the Decalogue, e.g. One simple (though not fail-safe) test for identifying volitional uses of imperfective verbs is that the verb generally comes first in its clause. Unfortunately for English translators, this can at times be confusing since the imperfective is also used to express simple present and future tense ideas. prohibitions), imperfective verbs are used. Instead, to express negative commands (i.e. However, unlike English, imperative verbs in Hebrew can not be negated. indicative 1) verbs in English, those in the Decalogue are clearly volitional - Yahweh is expressing a prohibitive injunction, not merely a statement of fact.īiblical Hebrew has imperative verb forms, similar to English ("Go and do your homework!"). Although imperfective verbs in other contexts are sometimes translated as simple future tense (i.e. That is, the negative particle לא ( lo) is followed by an imperfective verb. The syntax of the Hebrew is consistent with other prohibitions throughout the legal texts of the Torah.
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