Pardon the intrusion but is this part of your belief system or just your explanation of the verse?
I will go with just your explanation of the verse since you have referenced “sky jockies.”
I believe that was your term.
It is part of my history. Folks who have been around a long time at this site know that I was raised in a Christian family, but early on realized I did not believe. When I told my parents of my disbelief several things happened as my parents tried to "save my soul". I was put into the (amazingly accredited) church bible college (I was 10, man), taking ASL (American Sign Language) Greek and Hebrew, I picked up languages quickly. After learning ASL I translated services, twice on Sunday, and every Thursday evening. After Learning Hebrew they placed me in a class that studied the Bible in Hebrew and Greek (thankfully no Aramaic)...
I then was placed as a translator with the Prison ministry, we would go to the prisons and I would sit there most of the time doing nothing as deaf inmates did not often come to hear the word...
During this time I was in several different "ministries", I spent almost 100% of my time outside of school at that Church, Art Ministry, Israeli Dance Team, Prison Ministry (told you about this one)...
Anyway, as part of my studies in the Bible in Hebrew, we of course covered the 10 commandments. And this was literally one of the questions I asked before we got into this. "Wouldn't that mean we could have secondary gods as they would be 'after' God?"
So: לֹא יִהְיֶה לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל־פָּנָי (Transliterated: lōʾ yihyeh lək̲ā ʾĕlōhîm ʾăḥērîm ʿal pānāi)
1.
Lōʾ yihyeh lək̲ā: "You shall not have to yourselves"
2.
ʾĕlōhîm ʾăḥērîm: "other gods"
3.
ʿal pānāi: "upon/over my face" or "before my face"
I choose "before my face" or the English idiom "In my face" as a better translation than "before me"... "before me" basically mans "in my sight" in the 13th century English of the King James Version...
Anyway, the idea is never to have any other god in "his presence", "within his sight" or "in front of his face"...