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Answer 1  up vote 6 down vote accepted  Before we talk about "in
vain" we need to talk about "take". The passage is:  לֹא תִשָּׂא
אֶת-שֵׁם-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, לַשָּׁוְא:  The first verb, תִשָּׂא,
is literally "lift up", the same word as in, e.g. Psalm 121, "I
will lift up mine eyes". This isn't "take" as in "acquire",
probably; it seems like a different word would have been used
(lakach or kanah). We seem to be talking here about "holding God
up", so to speak.  For what? שָּׁוְא, translated here as "vain",
is also translated as "emptiness". This is consistent with not
making light of God's name, such as in the near-ubiquitous
"OMG". It's also consistent with "fake oaths", like when someone
says in anger "I swear to G... that I'll (do something awful
that he won't really do when he calms down)". Either way, you're
involving God in a joke or a false utterance, not treating God's
name with seriousness.  Rashi, informed by the targum (Onkelos),
understa