wickedness he has perpetrated, all wish to act by stealth and without
any one being aware of what thy do. Then, if any one be arraigned, the
name of God is dragged into the affair and must make the villainy look
like godliness, and the shame like honor. This is the common course of
the world, which, like a great deluge, has flooded all lands. Hence we
have also as our reward what we seek and deserve: pestilences wars,
famines, conflagrations, floods, wayward wives, children, servants, and
all sorts of defilement. Whence else should so much misery come? It is
still a great mercy that the earth bears and supports us.

Therefore, above all things, our young people should have this
commandment earnestly enforced upon them, and they should be trained to
hold this and the First Commandment in high regard; and whenever they
transgress, we must at once be after them with the rod and hold the
commandment before them, and constantly inculcate it, so as to bring
them up not only with punishment, but also in the reverence and fear of
God.

Thus you now understand what. it is to take God's name in vain, that is
(to recapitulate briefly), either simply for purposes of falsehood, and
to allege God's name for something that is not so, or to curse, swear,
conjure, and, in short, to practice whatever wickedness one may.
Besides this you must also know how to use the name [of God] aright.
For when saying: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God, in
vain, He gives us to understand at the same time that it is to be used
properly. For it has been revealed and given to us for the very purpose
that it may be of constant use and profit. Hence it is a natural
inference, since using the holy name for falsehood or wickedness is
here forbidden, that we are, on the other hand, commanded to employ it
for truth and for all good, as when one swears truly where there is