Deuteronomy 27:16

27:16 ‘Cursed ¹  is the one who disrespects ²  his father and mother.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’

Exodus 20:12

20:12 “Honor ³  your father and your mother, that you may live a long time ⁴  in the land ⁵  the Lord your God is giving to you.

Exodus 21:15

21:15 “Whoever strikes ⁶  his father or his mother must surely be put to death.

Exodus 21:17

21:17 “Whoever treats his father or his mother disgracefully ⁷  must surely be put to death.

Leviticus 19:3

19:3 Each of you must respect his mother and his father, ⁸  and you must keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 21:9

21:9 If a daughter of a priest profanes herself by engaging in prostitution, she is profaning her father. She must be burned to death. ⁹ 

Proverbs 15:5

15:5 A fool rejects his father’s discipline,

but whoever heeds reproof shows good sense. ¹⁰ 

Proverbs 20:20

20:20 The one who curses ¹¹  his father and his mother,

his lamp ¹²  will be extinguished in the blackest ¹³  darkness.

Ezekiel 22:7

22:7 They have treated father and mother with contempt ¹⁴  within you; they have oppressed the foreigner among you; they have wronged the orphan and the widow ¹⁵  within you.

[27:16]  ¹ tn The Levites speak again at this point; throughout this pericope the Levites pronounce the curse and the people respond with “Amen.”

[27:16]  ² tn The Hebrew term קָלָה (qalah) means to treat with disdain or lack of due respect (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV “dishonors”; NLT “despises”). It is the opposite of כָּבֵד (kaved, “to be heavy,” that is, to treat with reverence and proper deference). To treat a parent lightly is to dishonor him or her and thus violate the fifth commandment (Deut 5:16; cf. Exod 21:17).

[20:12]  ³ tn The verb כַּבֵּד (kabbed) is a Piel imperative; it calls for people to give their parents the respect and honor that is appropriate for them. It could be paraphrased to say, give them the weight of authority that they deserve. Next to God, parents were to be highly valued, cared for, and respected.

[20:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “that your days may be long.”

[20:12]  ⁵ sn The promise here is national rather than individual, although it is certainly true that the blessing of life was promised for anyone who was obedient to God’s commands (Deut 4:1, 8:1, etc.). But as W. C. Kaiser (“Exodus,” EBC 2:424) summarizes, the land that was promised was the land of Canaan, and the duration of Israel in the land was to be based on morality and the fear of God as expressed in the home (Deut 4:26, 33, 40; 32:46-47). The captivity was in part caused by a breakdown in this area (Ezek 22:7, 15). Malachi would announce at the end of his book that Elijah would come at the end of the age to turn the hearts of the children and the parents toward each other again.

[21:15]  ⁶ sn This is the same construction that was used in v. 12, but here there is no mention of the parents’ death. This attack, then, does not lead to their death – if he killed one of them then v. 12 would be the law. S. R. Driver says that the severity of the penalty was in accord with the high view of parents (Exodus, 216).

[21:17]  ⁷ tn The form is a Piel participle from קָלַל (qalal), meaning in Qal “be light,” in Piel “treat lightly, curse, revile, declare contemptible, treat shamefully.” (See its use in Lev 19:14; Josh 24:9; Judg 9:26-28; 1 Sam 3:13; 17:43; 2 Sam 16:5-13; Prov 30:10-11; Eccl 7:21-22; 10:20.) It is opposite of “honor” (כָּבֵד, kaved; Qal “be heavy”; Piel “honor,” as in 20:12) and of “bless.” This verse then could refer to any act contrary to the commandment to honor the parents. B. Jacob (Exodus, 640) cites parallels in Sumerian where people were severely punished for publicly disowning their parents. “21:15, 17 taken together evoke the picture of parents who, physically and verbally, are forcibly turned out of the house (cf. Prov. 19:26)” (C. Houtman, Exodus, 3:148).

[19:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “A man his mother and his father you [plural] shall fear.” The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and certain Targum mss reverse the order, “his father and his mother.” The term “fear” is subject to misunderstanding by the modern reader, so “respect” has been used in the translation. Cf. NAB, NRSV “revere”; NASB “reverence.”

[21:9]  ⁹ tn See the note on “burned to death” in 20:14.

[15:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “is prudent” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NCV, NLT “is wise.” Anyone who accepts correction or rebuke will become prudent in life.

[20:20]  ¹¹ tn The form is the Piel participle of קָלַל (qalal), which means “to be light”; in the Piel stem it means “to take lightly; to treat as worthless; to treat contemptuously; to curse.” Under the Mosaic law such treatment of parents brought a death penalty (Exod 21:17; Lev 20:9; Deut 27:16).

[20:20]  ¹² tn “His lamp” is a figure known as hypocatastasis (an implied comparison) meaning “his life.” Cf. NLT “the lamp of your life”; TEV “your life will end like a lamp.”

[20:20]  ¹³ tc The Kethib, followed by the LXX, Syriac, and Latin, has בְּאִישׁוֹן (bÿ’ishon), “in the pupil of the eye darkness,” the dark spot of the eye. But the Qere has בֶּאֱשׁוּן (be’eshun), probably to be rendered “pitch” or “blackest,” although the form occurs nowhere else. The meaning with either reading is approximately the same – deep darkness, which adds vividly to the figure of the lamp being snuffed out. This individual’s destruction will be total and final.

[22:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “treated lightly, cursed.”

[22:7]  ¹⁵ tn Widows and orphans are often coupled together in the OT (Deut 14:29; 16:11, 14; 24:19-21; 26:12-13; Jer 7:6; 22:3). They represented all who were poor and vulnerable to economic exploitation.