Deuteronomy 23:15

Summary

This verse establishes a prohibition against handing over a slave to his master when that slave has sought refuge with the addressee. The Hebrew structure emphasizes the act of "surrendering" (tasgir) and the slave's own act of "escaping" (yinnatzel) using contrasting verb forms.

Key words

• tasGir ("you will deliver up", H5462) — Hiphil (causative) imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular; expresses a prohibited future/ongoing action performed by the addressee upon the slave.
• 'Eved ("a slave", H5650) — masculine singular noun, the direct object of the prohibited action.
• 'adoNav ("his masters", H0113) — masculine plural construct noun with 3rd person masculine singular suffix; appears twice (positions 5 and 13), plural form used for a single master (a common honorific/intensive plural pattern), each time bound to "his."
• yinnaTzel ("he will deliver himself", H5337) — Niphal (passive/reflexive) imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular; describes the slave's own action of escaping, grammatically distinct from the causative verb used for the addressee's forbidden action.
• 'asher ("who", H0834A) — relative particle introducing the clause that identifies which slave is protected: one who has fled to the addressee.

What the text says

The verse opens with the negation lo' ("not", H3808) attached to the Hiphil imperfect tasGir, forming a direct second-person prohibition: "you shall not deliver up." The object is 'Eved ("a slave", H5650), and the preposition 'el ("to", H0413) connects this object to 'adoNav ("his masters", H0113) — a plural construct form with a singular referent, marked by the suffix -v ("his", H9023).

The relative clause beginning with 'asher ("who", H0834A) specifies which slave is covered by this prohibition: one described by the Niphal verb yinnaTzel ("he will deliver himself", H5337). The Niphal stem here carries a passive/reflexive sense, contrasting grammatically with the Hiphil tasGir used for the addressee's action — the text distinguishes between the causative act of "handing over" and the reflexive act of "delivering oneself" through escape. The phrase 'eLeikha ("to you", combining H0413 and H9031) marks the destination of that escape, followed by me'im ("from with", combining H9006 and H5973B) and a repetition of 'adoNav ("his masters", H0113), indicating separation from the original master.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Swete) renders the clause with παραδώσεις παῖδα τῷ κυρίῳ ("you will deliver up the servant to the lord") and uses προστέθειταί ("has been added/attached") where the Hebrew has the reflexive-passive yinnaTzel ("he will deliver himself"). The Vulgate uses confugerit ("has fled for refuge"), which conveys a fleeing action comparable to the Hebrew's reflexive sense but with different verbal imagery. The Hebrew's plural construct 'adoNav ("his masters") appears in both instances of the verse but is rendered as singular ("his master," "domino suo") in the Vulgate and Swete LXX texts.