“Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the Lord.”
Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord. The respect for the elderly is grounded in the reverence for God: the community that reveres God expresses that reverence in its treatment of those who have lived long under God's care. The physical act of standing in the presence of the aged is the embodied expression of honor. The pairing of elderly respect and God-reverence communicates the connection between horizontal and vertical honor: the community that honors God honors those made in God's image, including the aged.