Deuteronomy 23:7
לֹֽא־תְתַעֵב אֲדֹמִי כִּי אָחִיךָ הוּא ס לֹא־תְתַעֵב מִצְרִי כִּי־גֵר הָיִיתָ בְאַרְצֽוֹ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
Tap a word to see its entry
✦ The same verse in five languages
לֹֽא־תְתַעֵ֣ב אֲדֹמִ֔י כִּ֥י אָחִ֖יךָ ה֑וּא ס לֹא־תְתַעֵ֣ב מִצְרִ֔י כִּי־גֵ֖ר הָיִ֥יתָ בְאַרְצֽוֹ׃
οὐ βδελύξῃ Ἰδουμαῖον, ὅτι ἀδελφός σού ἐστιν· οὐ βδελύξῃ Αἰγύπτιον, ὅτι πάροικος ἐγένου ἐν τῇ γῇ αὐτοῦ·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Non abominaberis Idumæum, quia frater tuus est: nec Ægyptium, quia advena fuisti in terra ejus.
No aborrecerás a un edomita, porque es tu hermano. No aborrecerás a un egipcio, porque viviste como extranjero en su tierra.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
No abominarás al Idumeo, que tu hermano es: no abominarás al Egipcio, que extranjero fuiste en su tierra.
Do not despise an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Deuteronomy 23:7 gives two parallel prohibitions: the addressee is told not to abhor an Edomite, because he is a "brother," and not to abhor an Egyptian, because the addressee was a ger ("sojourner") in Egyptian land. The verse uses identical grammatical structure for both cases, linking each prohibition to a stated reason.
Key words
- te.ta.'Ev ("you will abhor", H8581) — piel imperfect, second person masculine singular; the piel stem intensifies the verbal action, and the imperfect aspect frames this as an ongoing or future-oriented directive rather than a single completed act. The form is repeated verbatim in both halves of the verse.
- 'a.do.Mi ("an Edomite", H0130) — gentilic noun, masculine singular, naming the ethnic group as object of the verb.
- 'a.Chi.kha ("your brother", H0251I + H9021) — construct noun with pronominal suffix "your," literally "brother of you," stating the reason for the first prohibition.
- ger ("a sojourner", H1616) — masculine singular noun describing the addressee's former status in Egypt, the basis for the second prohibition.
- ha.Yi.ta ("you were", H1961) — qal perfect, second person masculine singular, marking the sojourning as a completed past state contrasted with the ongoing imperfect prohibition.
What the text says
The verse is built as two symmetrical clauses, each opening with the negation lo' ("not", H3808) followed by the same verb te.ta.'Ev ("you will abhor", H8581) and a gentilic noun functioning as direct object ('a.do.Mi, "an Edomite", H0130 in the first clause; mitz.Ri, "an Egyptian", H4713 in the second). Each prohibition is then justified by a clause introduced by ki ("for/that", H3588A), which can function either as a causal or conditional/subordinating particle depending on context.
In the first clause, the reason is expressed with a nominal sentence: 'a.Chi.kha Hu' ("your brother he [is]"), using the pronoun Hu' ("he", H1931) to affirm identity without a verb "to be," typical of Hebrew nominal predication. In the second clause, the reason is verbal: ger ha.Yi.ta be'ar.tzo ("a sojourner you were in his land"), using the qal perfect ha.Yi.ta ("you were", H1961) to mark a completed past state, contrasted with the imperfect verb governing the prohibition itself. The construct form 'ar.Tz ("land of...", H0776G) with the suffix -o ("his", H9023) specifies whose land is meant — that of the Egyptian people referenced in the same clause.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders te.ta.'Ev ("you will abhor", H8581) with βδελύξῃ, a verb tied to the same root family as "abomination," while the Vulgate uses abominaberis, closely matching this sense. Modern renderings such as BSB ("despise") shift the semantic field slightly from the stronger connotation of "abhor/detest as an abomination" found in the piel stem and reflected in the Greek and Latin lexical choices.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.