Leviticus 19:14

Summary

The verse prohibits cursing a deaf person and placing an obstacle before a blind person, then commands fearing God, closing with a self-identification formula "I am Yehovah." The two prohibitions target vulnerable people who cannot detect or respond to certain harms (an insult unheard, an obstacle unseen).

Key words

techalLel ("you will curse", H7043) — piel imperfect, second person masculine singular; the piel stem gives the verb an intensive or effective sense (to curse/treat with contempt), and the imperfect marks an ongoing prohibition addressed to "you."

cheResh ("a deaf [person]", H2795) — masculine singular adjective used substantively, naming the object of the first prohibition without specifying context, making the command general.

mikhShol ("a stumbling block", H4383) — masculine singular noun, the object of titTen ("you will put", H5414), describing a physical or situational obstacle placed in someone's path.

yaReta ("you will fear", H3372) — qal sequential perfect, second person masculine singular; the vav-consecutive construction ties this clause to the preceding prohibitions, shifting from negative commands to a positive one within the same sequence.

'ani YHWH ("I [am] Yehovah", H0589 + H3068) — personal pronoun plus the divine name, forming a self-declarative formula that closes the verse without a linking verb (absent in Hebrew, supplied in translation).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built from two parallel prohibitions using lo' ("not", H3808) plus an imperfect verb — first lo' techalLel ("you will not curse") aimed at the cheResh ("deaf", H2795), then lo' titTen ("you will not put") aimed at placing a mikhShol ("stumbling block", H4383) lifnei ("before", H6440) the 'iVer ("blind", H5787). Both objects — deaf and blind — are grammatically simple adjectives functioning as nouns, without further qualification (no "your neighbor" or similar), leaving the prohibition unrestricted in scope within the verse itself.

The third clause shifts construction: ve-yaReta uses a vav-consecutive with the perfect (H3372), which continues the sequence of commands but changes polarity from negative to positive — "you will fear" rather than "you will not." The object of this fear, 'eloHeicha ("your God", H0430), is a construct plural noun with pronominal suffix, syntactically parallel to how fnei 'iVer was constructed. The verse ends with 'ani YHWH, a nominal clause with no copula in the Hebrew text, functioning as a self-standing formula rather than a full sentence with "am" as translations supply.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'eloHeicha ("your God", H0430) as Τύριον τὸν θεόν σου — a rendering that inserts an additional descriptive term not present in the Hebrew construct phrase, then adds ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν ("your God," plural) after κύριος, expanding the closing formula beyond the Hebrew's simple 'ani YHWH. The Vulgate similarly expands the ending with quia ego sum Dominus ("because I am the Lord"), adding the causal conjunction quia ("because") not present in the Hebrew, which juxtaposes the two clauses without a connector.