Honour thy father and thy mother
part of the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20:12)
"Honour thy father and thy mother" (Hebrew: כַּבֵּד אֶת אָבִיךָ וְאֶת אִמֶּךָ לְמַעַן יַאֲרִכוּן יָמֶיךָ, romanized: Kabbēḏ ’eṯ-’āḇîḵā wə’eṯ-’immeḵā ləma‘an ya’ăriḵûn yāmeyḵā) is one of the Ten Commandments in the Hebrew Bible. The commandment is generally regarded in Protestant and Jewish sources as the fifth in both the list in Exodus 20:1–21 and in Deuteronomy (Dvarim) 5:1–23. Catholics and Lutherans count this as the fourth.
These commandments were enforced as law in many jurisdictions, and are still considered enforceable law by some. Exodus 20:1 describes the Ten Commandments as being spoken by Yahweh, inscribed on two stone tablets by the finger of God, broken by Moses, and rewritten on replacement stones by the Lord.
Hebrew Bible
כבד את־אביך ואת־אמך למען יארכון ימיך על האדמה אשר־יהוה אלהיך נתן לך Kabbēḏ ’eṯ-’āḇîḵā wə’eṯ-’immeḵā ləma‘an ya’ăriḵûn yāmeyḵā ‘al hā’ăḏāmāh ’ăšer-Yəhwāh ’ĕlōheyḵā nōṯēn lāḵ.Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
In the Torah, keeping this commandment was associated with individual benefit and with the ability of the nation of Israel to remain in the land to which God was leading them. Dishonouring parents by striking or cursing them was punishable by death and so the clause "so that you may live long" could be interpreted as "so that you are not put to death". In the Talmud, the commandment to honour one's human parents is compared to honoring God. According to the prophet Malachi, God makes the analogy himself:
"A son honours his father, and a servant his master.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Honour thy father and thy mother” is part of the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20:12). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Honour, father and mother, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12408472. The Library of Congress control number is sh85133817. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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