You shall not take the name of the LORD is literally “Not you [singular] will lift the name of Yahweh.” To “lift” a name means to utter or pronounce it, and since it is the name of your God, it may mean to “invoke” a deity by calling out that deity’s name. In vain is literally “to emptiness,” or “to empty purpose” (Durham). Since the name of any deity was considered sacred, any careless use of that name was to “misuse” it (New Jerusalem Bible, Contemporary English Version), or “abuse” it (Childs). Good News Translation interprets it to mean “for evil purposes,” and New Revised Standard Version has “make wrongful use of.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh gives it an even narrower meaning, in the sense of invoking the name in an oath: “you shall not swear falsely by the name.” It is better, however, to give it the broader meaning of “abuse” or “misuse.”

For the LORD will not hold him guiltless is literally “Yahweh will not leave unpunished.” In many languages this will be stated positively in the active voice; for example, “I, Yahweh your God, will punish anyone” (so also Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version). The object of the verb is literally “the lifter of the name to emptiness,” so Revised Standard Version has him … who takes his name in vain. But New Revised Standard Version now has “for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.” Note that in this verse Yahweh refers to himself in the third person. So Good News Translation changes to first person: “my name” and “I, the LORD your God.”

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .