Deuteronomy 27:21

Summary

The verse pronounces a curse formula against a man who lies with any animal, using the passive participle 'arur ("cursed", H0779). It closes with the collective response of the people, who are to answer 'amen ("amen", H0543) after hearing the curse recited.

Key words

• 'a.Rur ("[is] cursed", H0779) — qal passive participle, masculine singular; functions as a fixed formulaic opening for each curse in this list, not a finite verb with tense.
• sho.Khev ("[one who] lies", H7901I) — qal active participle, masculine singular; describes the doer of the act, syntactically the subject of the curse, standing in apposition to 'a.Rur.
• kol ("any/all", H3605) — construct noun appearing twice (v. 5, "any animal"; v. 8, "all the people"); a construct form that binds to the following noun to express totality or indefiniteness.
• 'a.Mar ("it will say", H0559) — qal sequential perfect, third person; this verb form continues a narrative or instructional chain begun earlier in the passage, here introducing the people's response.
• 'a.Men ("amen", H0543) — interjection; the fixed liturgical reply confirming the curse just spoken.

What the text says

The verse has two syntactic halves joined by the vav on ve'amar. The first half is a nominal-participial clause: 'arur ("cursed") stands first, followed by its subject shokhev ("one who lies"), which itself governs a prepositional phrase 'im-kol-behemah ("with any animal"). This construction — participle + participle + prepositional phrase — is typical of the curse formulas in this chapter and lacks a finite verb tense; the participles express a state or characterization rather than a specific time.

The second half shifts to narrative sequence: ve'amar kol-ha'am 'amen ("and all the people will say, Amen"). The verb 'amar is a sequential (vav-consecutive) perfect, a form that continues a chain of expected actions rather than marking a single past event; grammatically it reads as "and [then] shall say." The subject kol-ha'am ("all the people", using kol in construct with ha'am, H5971A with definite article H9009) is grammatically singular, matching the singular verb 'amar, even though it refers to a collective group. The interjection 'amen is the people's spoken confirmation, not a translated statement but a direct transliterated response.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'amar (singular "it will say") with the plural verb ἐροῦσιν ("they will say"), matching the collective sense of "all the people" with plural grammar rather than the Hebrew's singular verb form. The Vulgate's dicet ("he/it will say") and the Spanish RV1909's dirá preserve the Hebrew's singular verb agreement. The BSB renders this same clause as a jussive command, "let all the people say," rather than as a straightforward future statement, which shifts the grammatical mood implied by the Hebrew sequential perfect. The LXX also translates the response 'amen with Γένοιτο ("may it be so") rather than transliterating it, unlike the Vulgate, BSB, and RV1909, which retain "Amen" as a loanword.