Deuteronomy 27:15

Summary

The verse pronounces a curse on anyone who secretly makes and sets up a carved or cast idol, calling it an abomination to Yehovah made by human craftsmanship. The formula closes with the whole people responding "amen" as ritual confirmation of the curse.

Key words

• 'a.Rur ("[is] cursed", H0779) — passive participle placed first in the sentence, marking this as a formal curse-declaration rather than a narrative statement.
• ya.'a.Seh ("he will make", H6213H) — qal imperfect, describing the offending action as a potential or future act, defining who falls under the curse.
• to.'a.Vat ("abomination of", H8441) — feminine singular construct, linking the idol directly to Yehovah (H3068) as the one who deems it detestable.
• ma.'a.Seh ("work of", H4639G) — construct form connecting to ye.Dei ("hands of", H3027G), a dual noun stressing the object's human, handmade origin.
• Sa.ter ("secrecy", H5643A) — noun with prefixed preposition and article (ba., "in the"), specifying the concealed manner of setting up the idol.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the passive participle 'a.Rur ("cursed"), a construction typical of Hebrew curse formulas, placing the pronouncement before its subject ha.'Ish ("the person"). The relative clause introduced by 'a.Sher ("who") uses the imperfect ya.'a.Seh ("he will make") to describe the qualifying action in general or future terms — anyone who performs this act, at any time, falls under the curse. The two objects, Fe.sel ("an image", H6459) and ma.se.Khah ("a molten image", H4541A), are joined by the conjunction ve. ("and"), and both are qualified by the construct chain to.'a.Vat Yehovah ("abomination of Yehovah") and ma.'a.Seh ye.Dei cha.Rash ("work of the hands of a craftsman"), emphasizing that the object's status as forbidden stems from both its human manufacture and Yehovah's own designation.

The narrative then shifts to sequential perfect verbs (Sam, 'a.Nu, 'a.me.Ru) — a grammatical pattern that continues a chain of events following the initial curse statement: the maker "sets [it] up" ba.Sa.ter ("in secrecy"), after which "all the people" (khol-ha.'Am) respond collectively, saying 'a.Men ("amen", H0543), a formal term of ratification.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew cha.Rash ("a craftsman", H2796) is singular, while the LXX (τεχνιτῶν, "of craftsmen") and the Vulgate (artificum, "of craftsmen") render it as plural. The Hebrew 'a.Men is transliterated directly in the Vulgate (Amen) but rendered in the LXX as Γένοιτο ("may it be" or "so be it"), a translation rather than a transliteration of the term.