Deuteronomy 21:20

Summary

Deuteronomy 21:20 records the words that parents are instructed to say to the elders of their city about a son: he is described as stubborn, rebellious, disobedient to their voice, and given to gluttony and drunkenness. The verse consists entirely of the direct speech formula and its content.

Key words

• sorer ("stubborn/the one turning aside", H5637) — qal participle, masculine singular; describes an ongoing characteristic rather than a single act, "the one who turns aside/is stubborn."
• moreh ("rebellious/the one defying", H4784) — qal participle, masculine singular, paired with sorer by the conjunction u ("and", H9002), forming a fixed two-word description.
• eineNU ("he is not", H0369 + H9043) — construct noun ein with 3ms suffix, functioning as a negative existential ("there is not to him") that negates the following participle shome'a.
• shome'a ("listening/obeying", H8085H) — qal participle, masculine singular, negated by eineNU, giving "he is not one who listens/obeys."
• zolel ("glutton", H2151B) and sove ("drunkard", H5433B) — both qal participles, masculine singular, joined by ve ("and", H9002), each naming a habitual behavior rather than a single instance.

What the text says

The verse opens with the sequential form ve-'ameru ("and they will say", H0559), continuing the narrative sequence from the preceding verses and indicating that the parents' speech follows the action described earlier (bringing the son to the elders). The addressees are zikNei ir-o ("the elders of his city", H2205G + H5892B), a construct chain meaning "elders belonging to his city."

The core of the speech is built entirely on participles, a grammatical form in Hebrew that expresses ongoing or habitual states rather than single completed actions. Sorer ("stubborn", H5637) and moreh ("rebellious", H4784) are joined by the conjunction u to form a pair describing persistent behavior. The clause eineNU shome'a be-koleNU ("he is not listening to our voice") uses the negative existential construction ein + suffix + participle, a common Hebrew way to negate an ongoing state — literally "there is not to him [the state of] listening." The phrase be-koleNU ("to our voice", H6963A + H9025) uses "voice" idiomatically for the parents' instruction or authority.

The final pair, zolel ve-sove ("glutton and drunkard", H2151B + H5433B), again uses two participles joined by ve, describing habitual conduct rather than isolated incidents. The repeated use of participles throughout the verse builds a cumulative picture of settled character traits rather than a single infraction.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the son's behavior with peithe kai erethizei ("disobeys and provokes"), differing in verb choice from the Hebrew participles sorer ("stubborn") and moreh ("rebellious"). The LXX also uses symbolokopōn oinophlygei ("carousing, he is drunk with wine"), a single compound description, where the Hebrew has two separate participles, zolel ("glutton") and sove ("drunkard"). The Vulgate's protervus et contumax ("insolent and obstinate") and comessationibus vacat, et luxuriae atque conviviis ("given to feasting, and luxury and banquets") expand the terse Hebrew participles into fuller descriptive phrases not present as separate lexical items in the Hebrew text.