Deuteronomy 27:24

Summary

This verse pronounces a curse on anyone who strikes his neighbor secretly, followed by the people's collective response "amen." It belongs to the series of twelve curses recited on Mount Ebal, each closed by the same communal formula.

Key words

• 'aRur ("cursed", H0779) — qal passive participle, masculine singular; describes a state imposed on the subject rather than an action performed by him.
• maKeh ("one who strikes", H5221) — hiphil participle in construct form; the hiphil stem marks a causative action ("to cause a blow"), and the construct links it directly to the following noun.
• re'Ehu ("his neighbor", H7453 + H9023) — masculine singular noun in construct with a pronominal suffix "his," identifying the object of the strike as someone close, not a stranger.
• Sater ("secrecy", H5643A) — masculine singular noun following the preposition ba ("in the", H9003), specifying the manner of the act as hidden.
• 'aMar ("it will say", H0559) — qal sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), continuing the narrative chain from the previous curses to the people's spoken response.

What the text says

The sentence opens with 'aRur ("cursed", H0779), a passive participle placed first for emphasis, before naming the offender. The offender is described through a construct chain: maKeh reEhu ("one who strikes his neighbor"), where the hiphil participle maKeh (H5221) denotes the causative act of striking, and reEhu (H7453 + H9023) specifies the victim as "his neighbor," a person within the same community. The phrase ba-Sater ("in secrecy", H9003 + H5643A) modifies the manner of the strike, marking it as concealed rather than open.

The second clause begins with the conjunction ve (H9001) attached to 'aMar (H0559), a sequential perfect form that continues the narrative sequence established by the prior curses in the chapter. The subject is kol-ha'Am ("all the people", H3605 + H9009 + H5971A), a construct phrase meaning "all of the people." The verse closes with the interjection 'aMen (H0543), the people's spoken response to the pronounced curse.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ba-Sater ("in secrecy", H5643A) as dolō ("with deceit"), shifting the nuance from concealment of location to deceptive intent. The Vulgate's clam ("secretly") aligns more closely with the Hebrew sense of hiddenness. The LXX also translates 'aMen (H0543) as Genoito ("may it be"), an optative expression rather than a transliteration of the Hebrew interjection, while the Vulgate retains Amen directly.