Deuteronomy 27:22

Summary

The verse pronounces a curse formula against a man who lies sexually with his sister, whether she is his father's daughter or his mother's daughter (i.e., a full or half-sister). The formula closes with the people's collective response "Amen."

Key words

• 'a.Rur ("[is] cursed", H0779) — qal passive participle; opens the verse as a fixed formula, naming the state of being cursed rather than describing an action of cursing.
• sho.Khev ("[one who] lies", H7901I) — qal active participle; functions as the subject of the curse, identifying "the one who lies" as a category of person rather than a specific narrated event.
• 'a.cho.T-o ("his sister", H0269 + H9023) — feminine singular construct with pronominal suffix; establishes the direct object of the relationship described by sho.Khev.
• bat-'a.Vi-v ("daughter of his father", H1323G + H0001G + H9023) — construct chain specifying one path of kinship (paternal line) that defines "sister" in this context.
• 'a.Mar ("it will say", H0559) — qal sequential perfect; continues the narrative chain, marking the people's spoken response as the next link in the sequence of curses.

What the text says

The verse follows the pattern used throughout this section of Deuteronomy 27: a passive participle ('a.Rur) stands first, functioning almost as a title or heading ("cursed [is]"), followed by a second participle (sho.Khev) that names the offender by his action. This participle-plus-participle construction allows the Hebrew to state a general legal category — "the one who lies with..." — without placing the sentence in a specific past or future tense; it describes a standing condition applicable whenever the described act occurs.

The kinship specification is built through two parallel construct chains: bat-'a.Vi-v ("daughter of his father") and bat-'i.M-o ("daughter of his mother"), joined by 'o ("or", H0176A). This construction clarifies that the sister in view may be related through either the father or the mother, covering both full and half-sibling relationships under a single term, 'a.cho.T-o ("his sister").

The closing clause shifts from participial to verbal syntax: ve-'a.Mar uses the sequential perfect form of 'a.Mar ("to say", H0559), tying this verse into the larger narrative sequence of curses pronounced in this chapter. The phrase kol-ha-'Am ("all the people", H3605 + H9009 + H5971A) identifies the collective speaker, and the closing word 'a.Men ("amen", H0543) is a formulaic interjection of affirmation, not a full sentence.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the kinship phrase as "ἀδελφῆς πατρὸς ἢ μητρὸς αὐτοῦ" ("the sister of his father or of his mother"), which describes a father's or mother's sister rather than the man's own sister as constructed in the Hebrew ('a.cho.T-o... bat-'a.Vi-v 'o vat-'i.M-o, "his sister, daughter of his father or daughter of his mother"). The Vulgate's "sorore sua, filia patris sui, vel matris suæ" ("his sister, daughter of his father or of his mother") follows the Hebrew construct-chain structure more closely than the LXX phrasing does.