Deuteronomy 5:17

Summary

Deuteronomy 5:17 consists of a single prohibition: the negation lo' ("not", H3808) combined with the verb tirtzach ("you must murder", H7523). The clause forbids the act of killing a human being, expressed in the second person masculine singular.

Key words

• lo' ("not", H3808) — the standard Hebrew negative particle used with imperfect verbs to form an absolute, durative prohibition rather than a single-instance command.
• tirtzach ("you must murder", H7523) — Qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, from the root r-tz-ch. The imperfect aspect conveys an ongoing or habitual prohibition ("you shall not [ever] murder"), not merely a one-time instruction.

What the text says

The verse is grammatically minimal: only two words make up the entire clause, lo' tirtzach. In Biblical Hebrew, the combination of the negative particle lo' with an imperfect verb form is the standard construction for a permanent, general prohibition — distinct from a construction using an imperative or a jussive negation ('al + jussive), which would suggest a more immediate or situational command. This grammatical choice signals that the text presents the prohibition as a standing rule rather than an instruction limited to a particular moment.

The root r-tz-ch (from which tirtzach derives) refers in the Hebrew Bible to killing a human being; the form itself does not specify manner, intent, or legal category — those distinctions, where relevant, are established elsewhere in the text through context or additional vocabulary. Here, the verse gives only the bare verb, so the grammatical data alone indicates a general act of killing a person, addressed to a singular male subject ("you").

Differences between versions

The Hebrew verb tirtzach (H7523) denotes killing/murder. The Septuagint (LXX) here reads Οὐ μοιχεύσεις ("you shall not commit adultery"), which corresponds instead to the Hebrew verb for adultery (na'af) rather than to ratzach. This represents a lexical divergence between the LXX text as given and the Hebrew wording of this verse. The Vulgate (Non occides, "you shall not kill") and the modern translations provided (RV1909 "No matarás", BSB "You shall not murder", SBLIBRE "No matarás") align with the Hebrew sense of killing rather than the LXX's rendering concerning adultery.