Leviticus 24:23
וַיְדַבֵּר מֹשֶׁה אֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיּוֹצִיאוּ אֶת־הַֽמְקַלֵּל אֶל־מִחוּץ לַֽמַּחֲנֶה וַיִּרְגְּמוּ אֹתוֹ אָבֶן וּבְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל עָשׂוּ כַּֽאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה אֶת־מֹשֶֽׁה׃ פ
✦ Hebrew interlinear
Tap a word to see its entry
✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר מֹשֶׁה֮ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵל֒ וַיּוֹצִ֣יאוּ אֶת־הַֽמְקַלֵּ֗ל אֶל־מִחוּץ֙ לַֽמַּחֲנֶ֔ה וַיִּרְגְּמ֥וּ אֹת֖וֹ אָ֑בֶן וּבְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֣ל עָשׂ֔וּ כַּֽאֲשֶׁ֛ר צִוָּ֥ה יְהוָ֖ה אֶת־מֹשֶֽׁה׃ פ
καὶ ἐλάλησεν Μωσῆς τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραήλ, καὶ ἐξήγαγον τὸν καταρασάμενον ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς καὶ ἐλιθοβόλησαν αὐτὸν ἐν λίθοις. καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραὴλ ἐποίησαν καθὰ συνέταξεν Κύριος τῷ Μβυσῇ.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Locutusque est Moyses ad filios Israël: et eduxerunt eum, qui blasphemaverat, extra castra, ac lapidibus oppresserunt. Feceruntque filii Israël sicut præceperat Dominus Moysi.
Moisés les comunicó todo esto a los israelitas, y ellos sacaron fuera del campamento al hombre que había maldecido el Nombre y lo mataron a pedradas. Así que los israelitas hicieron todo tal como Yehová se lo había ordenado a Moisés.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y habló Moisés á los hijos de Israel, y ellos sacaron al blasfemo fuera del real, y apedreáronlo con piedras. Y los hijos de Israel hicieron según que Jehová había mandado á Moisés.
Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. So the Israelites did as the LORD had commanded Moses.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Moses relays instructions to the Israelites, who then take the man who had cursed outside the camp and stone him to death. The verse closes by affirming that the Israelites acted exactly as Yehovah had commanded Moses.
Key words
- y.daBer ("he spoke", H1696G) — piel narrative verb; the intensive stem marks this as an act of formal address/proclamation, not casual speech, and the vav-consecutive form ties it directly to the preceding narrative sequence.
- yotzi'u ("they brought out", H3318H) — hiphil (causative) narrative verb; the causative stem indicates the people caused the man to go out, rather than simply "going out" themselves.
- ha-mekallel ("the one who had cursed", H7043) — piel participle with definite article; functions as a substantive ("the curser"), and the participial form frames the man by his ongoing/characterizing action rather than as a one-time event.
- yirgemu ("they stoned", H7275) — qal narrative verb; the simple stem presents the stoning as a direct, unmodified action.
- tziva ("he had commanded", H6680) — piel perfect; the perfect aspect marks this as a completed prior action, referenced back to as the standard the people followed.
What the text says
The verse is built from a chain of vav-consecutive narrative verbs (va-yedaber, va-yotzi'u, va-yirgemu), which in Biblical Hebrew narrative syntax link successive completed actions: "and he spoke... and they brought out... and they stoned." This chain creates a tight sequence of cause and effect — Moses speaks, the people act, the man is executed — without needing additional connective words in English.
The object of the stoning is introduced through the substantive participle ha-mekallel ("the one who had cursed/curses," H7043), which nominalizes the verb "to curse" into a description of the man himself; the Hebrew does not restate his specific offense here, relying on the participle to encapsulate his identity as "the curser" established earlier in the chapter. The phrase 'el-michutz la-machaneh ("to outside of the camp") uses two prepositions plus the noun chutz ("outside", H2351) in construct, spatially marking the execution as occurring beyond the camp's boundary.
The final clause shifts from narrative vav-forms to a qal perfect verb, 'asu ("they did", H6213A), followed by the comparative ka'asher ("just as", H0834D) and another perfect verb, tziva ("he had commanded", H6680). This perfect-tense construction sets up a retrospective comparison: the people's completed action matches a previously completed command, closing the chapter by tying execution of the law to the instruction Yehovah had given Moses.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders ha-mekallel ("the one who had cursed", H7043) as τὸν καταρασάμενον, a participle paralleling the Hebrew closely. The Vulgate expands this into a relative clause, qui blasphemaverat ("who had blasphemed"), using "blasphemed" rather than a more literal "cursed," a semantic shift also reflected in the Spanish RV1909 ("el blasfemo") and SBLIBRE ("el hombre que había maldecido el Nombre"), the latter adding "the Name" as an interpretive gloss not present in the Hebrew wording of this verse itself.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.