Deuteronomy 27:16

Summary

Deuteronomy 27:16 pronounces a curse formula against a person who dishonors father or mother, followed by the people's collective response confirming the curse. The verse belongs to a series of twelve curses recited by the Levites on Mount Ebal.

Key words

• 'a.Rur ("cursed", H0779) — qal passive participle, masculine singular; expresses a fixed state of being under a curse rather than an action being performed.
• mak.Leh ("one who dishonors", H7034) — hiphil participle, masculine singular; the hiphil stem is causative, so the word denotes someone who causes dishonor or treats a parent with contempt, not merely one who fails to honor.
• 'a.Vi ("father", H0001G) — masculine singular construct with pronominal suffix v ("his"), forming "his father."
• 'i.M...o ("mother", H0517) — feminine singular construct with pronominal suffix o ("his"), forming "his mother," joined to the previous noun by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002).
• 'a.Mar ("it will say", H0559) — qal sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), linking this clause to the preceding curse as the next event in the ritual sequence: after the curse is pronounced, the people respond.

What the text says

The verse opens with the participle 'a.Rur standing alone, functioning as a declarative curse formula: "cursed [is]..." The subject of this curse is identified by the second participle, mak.Leh, in the hiphil stem, which frames the dishonoring as a causative act — actively bringing about disrespect toward the parents, rather than a passive omission. The object of this dishonoring is expressed through two construct nouns, 'a.Vi ("his father") and 'i.Mo ("his mother"), joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002), meaning both parents are named together as recipients of the dishonoring act.

The second half of the verse shifts grammatical mode: ve'a.Mar uses the vav-consecutive perfect, a construction that continues a narrative or ritual sequence — here indicating that after the curse is spoken, "all the people" (kol ha'am, H3605 + H9009 + H5971A) respond. The final word, 'a.Men ("amen", H0543), is an interjection of affirmation, marking the people's formal agreement with the curse just pronounced.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew joins father and mother with ve ("and"), producing "his father and his mother." The LXX (Swete) instead uses ἢ ("or"), rendering "father... or mother." The Vulgate renders mak.Leh not as "dishonors" but as "non honorat" ("does not honor"), a negated verb of honoring rather than a distinct causative verb of dishonoring as in the Hebrew hiphil form. For the closing response, the Hebrew 'a.Men ("amen") is kept as a transliterated interjection in the Vulgate and Spanish/English versions, while the LXX translates it semantically as Γένοιτο ("may it be so").