Deuteronomy 21:16

Summary

The verse addresses the situation of a man with two wives—one described as "loved" and one as "hated"—when he distributes his inheritance to his sons. It states that he cannot legally designate the son of the loved wife as firstborn in preference to the son of the hated wife, who holds the actual status of firstborn.

Key words

• hanchilo ("causes to inherit", H5157) — hiphil infinitive with pronominal suffix "his"; the causative form indicates the father actively assigning inheritance to sons, not simply sons receiving it.
• yukhal ("he will be able", H3201) — qal imperfect; expresses future/modal capacity, negated here to state legal incapacity rather than mere prohibition.
• levaker ("to treat as firstborn", H1069) — piel infinitive of a root related to bekhor ("firstborn"); the piel (intensive) stem denotes the act of formally designating or making someone firstborn, distinct from simply being born first.
• 'ahuvah ("loved [one]", H0157G) — qal passive participle, feminine; describes the wife as the object of love, marked by the definite article as a known/specific referent.
• senu'ah ("hated [one]", H8130) — qal passive participle, feminine; parallels 'ahuvah in form, creating a grammatical contrast between the two wives.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav on ha.Yah ("it will be", H1961), linking it to the preceding case law about the two wives. The temporal clause "on the day of hanchilo his sons" uses the infinitive construct with a pronominal suffix, a common Hebrew construction meaning "on the day when he causes [them] to inherit"—describing the moment of legal distribution rather than a specific calendar day. The core prohibition uses yukhal ("he will be able") negated by lo' ("not", H3808), followed by the infinitive levaker: the father lacks legal ability to perform the act of "treating as firstborn." The direct object is "the son of the 'ahuvah," and the phrase 'al-penei ("on the face of", H5921A + H6440H) functions idiomatically to mean "in preference to" or "ahead of." The clause ends by identifying "the son of the senu'ah" as habbekhor ("the firstborn", H1060) with the definite article, clarifying that this son already holds firstborn status by birth order, which the father cannot override through preference.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate adds et praeferre ("and to prefer"), a second verb not present as a separate infinitive in the Hebrew, where the single piel infinitive levaker already carries the sense of formal preferential designation. The LXX renders the Hebrew idiom 'al-penei with a direct object construction (τὸν υἱὸν τῆς μισουμένης τὸν πρωτότοκον), lacking an explicit Greek preposition equivalent to "over/in preference to," making the comparative relationship between the two sons less explicit than in the Hebrew's 'al-penei phrase.