In Ex. 20:4-6, this commandment is rendered,
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, or serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.
And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
Except for a few changes in wording, the translations of the Ten Commandments found in the Bible and the Book of Mormon agree. The main difference is found in the 5th verse, where the Book of Mormon has the word iniquity, translated into the plural, iniquities. To recognize this difference is important to the thoughtful student because it warns all mankind that suffering is the lot of those who break any of God's commands. Not only does this commandment denounce and forbid any form of idolatry, but it threatens by some outward sign or expression, the children of them who willfully choose to do evil when good is placed before them. Sacred history is replete with such examples. The Book of Mormon reader need go no further than the account of the Lamanites. At first they were a "white and delightsome people," but their fathers refused to worship God in the manner in which they had been taught. Slothfulness and iniquities of every nature turned their children into dark-skinned haters of God. We cannot deny that the Lord visited the children of Laman with the outward sign of, not an inward grace, but, His displeasure. He caused a dark skin to mark them and their children for many generations, but with this promise that they will again become a "white and delightsome people."
Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children. If the children continue to walk in the steps of their fathers, and here idolatry is particularly intended, they will be visited with the judgments of the Lord. We take this to mean "national judgments."