Leviticus 20:9

Family Life and Sexual Prohibitions ¹ 

20:9 “‘If anyone ²  curses his father and mother ³  he must be put to death. He has cursed his father and mother; his blood guilt is on himself. ⁴ 

Deuteronomy 27:16

27:16 ‘Cursed ⁵  is the one who disrespects ⁶  his father and mother.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’

Deuteronomy 27:2

27:2 When you cross the Jordan River ⁷  to the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must erect great stones and cover ⁸  them with plaster.

Deuteronomy 16:11

16:11 You shall rejoice before him ⁹  – you, your son, your daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levites in your villages, ¹⁰  the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows among you – in the place where the Lord chooses to locate his name.

Deuteronomy 17:1-4

17:1 You must not sacrifice to him ¹¹  a bull or sheep that has a blemish or any other defect, because that is considered offensive ¹²  to the Lord your God. 17:2 Suppose a man or woman is discovered among you – in one of your villages ¹³  that the Lord your God is giving you – who sins before the Lord your God ¹⁴  and breaks his covenant 17:3 by serving other gods and worshiping them – the sun, ¹⁵  moon, or any other heavenly bodies which I have not permitted you to worship. ¹⁶  17:4 When it is reported to you and you hear about it, you must investigate carefully. If it is indeed true that such a disgraceful thing ¹⁷  is being done in Israel,

Deuteronomy 17:2

17:2 Suppose a man or woman is discovered among you – in one of your villages ¹⁸  that the Lord your God is giving you – who sins before the Lord your God ¹⁹  and breaks his covenant

Deuteronomy 19:1-2

Laws Concerning Manslaughter

19:1 When the Lord your God destroys the nations whose land he ²⁰  is about to give you and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and houses, 19:2 you must set apart for yourselves three cities ²¹  in the middle of your land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession.

Deuteronomy 32:21

32:21 They have made me jealous ²²  with false gods, ²³ 

enraging me with their worthless gods; ²⁴ 

so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, ²⁵ 

with a nation slow to learn ²⁶  I will enrage them.

Proverbs 20:20

20:20 The one who curses ²⁷  his father and his mother,

his lamp ²⁸  will be extinguished in the blackest ²⁹  darkness.

Proverbs 28:24

28:24 The one who robs ³⁰  his father and mother and says, “There is no transgression,”

is a companion ³¹  to the one ³²  who destroys.

Proverbs 30:11

30:11 There is a generation ³³  who curse their fathers

and do not bless their mothers. ³⁴ 

Proverbs 30:17

30:17 The eye ³⁵  that mocks at a father

and despises obeying ³⁶  a mother –

the ravens of the valley will peck it out

and the young vultures will eat it. ³⁷ 

Matthew 10:21

10:21 “Brother ³⁸  will hand over brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rise against ³⁹  parents and have them put to death.

[20:9]  ¹ sn Compare the regulations in Lev 18:6-23.

[20:9]  ² tn Heb “If a man a man who.”

[20:9]  ³ tn Heb “makes light of his father and his mother.” Almost all English versions render this as some variation of “curses his father or mother.”

[20:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “his blood [plural] is in him.” Cf. NAB “he has forfeited his life”; TEV “is responsible for his own death.”

[27:16]  ⁵ tn The Levites speak again at this point; throughout this pericope the Levites pronounce the curse and the people respond with “Amen.”

[27:16]  ⁶ 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).

[27:2]  ⁷ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[27:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “plaster” (so KJV, ASV; likewise in v. 4). In the translation “cover” has been used for stylistic reasons.

[16:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[16:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “gates.”

[17:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[17:1]  ¹² tn The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “an abomination”; cf. NAB) describes persons, things, or practices offensive to ritual or moral order. See M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 4:314-18; see also the note on the word “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25.

[17:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “gates.”

[17:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “does the evil in the eyes of the Lord your God.”

[17:3]  ¹⁵ tc The MT reads “and to the sun,” thus including the sun, the moon, and other heavenly spheres among the gods. However, Theodotion and Lucian read “or to the sun,” suggesting perhaps that the sun and the other heavenly bodies are not in the category of actual deities.

[17:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “which I have not commanded you.” The words “to worship” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[17:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “an abomination” (תּוֹעֵבָה); see note on the word “offensive” in v. 1.

[17:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “gates.”

[17:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “does the evil in the eyes of the Lord your God.”

[19:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[19:2]  ²¹ sn These three cities, later designated by Joshua, were Kedesh of Galilee, Shechem, and Hebron (Josh 20:7-9).

[32:21]  ²² sn They have made me jealous. The “jealousy” of God is not a spirit of pettiness prompted by his insecurity, but righteous indignation caused by the disloyalty of his people to his covenant grace (see note on the word “God” in Deut 4:24). The jealousy of Israel, however (see next line), will be envy because of God’s lavish attention to another nation. This is an ironic wordplay. See H. Peels, NIDOTTE 3:938-39.

[32:21]  ²³ tn Heb “what is not a god,” or a “nondeity.”

[32:21]  ²⁴ tn Heb “their empty (things).” The Hebrew term used here to refer pejoratively to the false gods is הֶבֶל (hevel, “futile” or “futility”), used frequently in Ecclesiastes (e.g., Eccl 1:1, “Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher, “Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!”).

[32:21]  ²⁵ tn Heb “what is not a people,” or a “nonpeople.” The “nonpeople” (לֹא־עָם, lo’-’am) referred to here are Gentiles who someday would become God’s people in the fullest sense (cf. Hos 1:9; 2:23).

[32:21]  ²⁶ tn Heb “a foolish nation” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV); NIV “a nation that has no understanding”; NLT “I will provoke their fury by blessing the foolish Gentiles.”

[20:20]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ 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.

[28:24]  ³⁰ sn While the expression is general enough to cover any kind of robbery, the point seems to be that because it can be rationalized it may refer to prematurely trying to gain control of the family property through some form of pressure and in the process reducing the parents’ possessions and standing in the community. The culprit could claim what he does is not wrong because the estate would be his anyway.

[28:24]  ³¹ sn The metaphor of “companion” here means that a person who would do this is just like the criminally destructive person. It is as if they were working together, for the results are the same.

[28:24]  ³² tn Heb “man who destroys” (so NASB); TEV “no better than a common thief.”

[30:11]  ³³ sn The next four verses all start with the Hebrew expression translated “There is a generation.” This is a series of denunciations of things that are dangerous in society without mentioning specific punishments or proscriptions. The word “generation” as used in this passage refers to a class or group of people.

[30:11]  ³⁴ sn The first observation is that there is a segment in society that lacks respect for parents. This uses the antonyms “curse” and [not] “bless” to make the point. To “curse” a parent could include treating them lightly, defaming them, or showing disrespect in general. To “bless” would mean to honor, respect, or enrich in some way, which is what should be done (e.g., Exod 21:17; Prov 20:20).

[30:17]  ³⁵ sn The “eye” as the organ that exhibits the inner feelings most clearly, here represents a look of scorn or disdain that speaks volumes (a metonymy of cause or of adjunct). It is comparable to the “evil eye” which is stinginess (28:22).

[30:17]  ³⁶ tn The Hebrew word לִיקֲּהַת (liqqahat, “obeying”) occurs only here and in Gen 49:10; it seems to mean “to receive” in the sense of “receiving instruction” or “obeying.” C. H. Toy suggests emending to “to old age” (לְזִקְנַת, lÿziqnat) of the mother (Proverbs [ICC], 530). The LXX with γῆρας (ghra", “old age”) suggests that a root lhq had something to do with “white hair.” D. W. Thomas suggests a corruption from lhyqt to lyqht; it would have read, “The eye that mocks a father and despises an aged mother” (“A Note on לִיקֲּהַת in Proverbs 30:17,” JTS 42 [1941]: 154-55); this is followed by NAB “or scorns an aged mother.”

[30:17]  ³⁷ sn The sternest punishment is for the evil eye. The punishment is talionic – eye for eye. The reference to “the valley” may indicate a place where people are not be given decent burials and the birds of prey pick the corpses clean. It is an image the prophets use in judgment passages.

[10:21]  ³⁸ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[10:21]  ³⁹ tn Or “will rebel against.”