Deuteronomy 23:1

Summary

The verse states a prohibition: someone described by two participial phrases relating to crushing injury and to a cut-off penis may not enter the assembly of Yehovah (H3068G). The Hebrew constructs a technical, euphemistic description of physical condition rather than using a single generic term.

Key words

• lo' ("not", H3808) — the negation governing the entire clause, placed before the verb as is standard in Hebrew prohibitions.
• yavo ("he will go/enter", H0935G) — qal imperfect, third person masculine singular; the imperfect aspect gives the sentence an ongoing or general-rule force ("[no one] enters/shall enter"), not a one-time past event.
• fetzua-dakka ("wounded of crushing", H6481+H1795) — a qal passive participle in construct with a feminine noun; the construct chain literally reads "one-wounded of crushing," describing a condition rather than naming an isolated word for "eunuch."
• kerut shofkhah ("cut off of penis", H3772G+H8212) — parallel structure to the previous phrase, another passive participle construct plus noun, describing severance of the organ named by shofkhah (H8212).
• qehal Yehovah ("assembly of Yehovah", H6951+H3068G) — construct chain naming the specific body from which the described person is barred; qehal (H6951) is governed by the proper name.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built entirely around one negated verb, yavo (H0935G), with the subject expressed through two parallel construct-participle phrases joined by the conjunction u- ("and", H9002). Each phrase follows the same grammatical pattern: a passive participle in construct form followed by a noun that specifies the nature of the injury — "wounded of crushing" and "cut off of penis." This construct-participle structure is compact and somewhat clinical in Hebrew, describing a physical state through two coordinated but distinct expressions rather than through a single word equivalent to "eunuch."

The final phrase, bi-qehal Yehovah ("in the assembly of Yehovah", H9003+H6951+H3068G), uses the preposition bi (H9003, "in") attached to the construct noun qehal (H6951), which is itself bound to the divine name. This construct chain identifies the specific communal body being restricted, distinguishing it from any general population.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the verb in the plural (εἰσελεύσονται, "they will not enter") where the Hebrew yavo (H0935G) is singular, and it replaces the Hebrew's two participial construct phrases with two direct substantive nouns, θλαδίας ("castrated one") and ἀποκεκομμένος ("cut-off one"), rather than preserving the "wounded of X / cut of Y" construct pattern. The Vulgate uses a past-tense verb, "intravit" ("he has entered"), diverging from the imperfect aspect of the Hebrew yavo (H0935G), and it introduces the explicit term "eunuchus" not present as a single lexical unit in the Hebrew text, which instead builds the description through the two participial phrases fetzua-dakka (H6481+H1795) and kerut shofkhah (H3772G+H8212).