What Does Deuteronomy 27:22 Mean?
Cursed be he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.THE KEY
The assembly’s “Amen” makes this boundary around sex with a sister public and shared.
THE MEANING
The verse names sexual relations with one’s sister as a covenant violation under a curse. The assembly answers “Amen,” making its judgment a shared public boundary rather than a private matter.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that kinship or privacy makes this boundary permissible.
THE ROOT
אָמֵן
ʾāmēn
GROWS FROM
אמן
ʾ-m-n
To be firm, steady, or reliable.
“Amen” can sound like a closing formula, but its root carries the sense of firmness and assent. Here, the whole assembly’s response gives public weight to the judgment just spoken.
ALSO GROWS
neʾeman: Reliable or steady.
נֶאֱמָן
This form shares the root’s sense of firmness, showing the ground beneath the assembly’s assent.
heʾemin: To trust or regard as reliable.
הֶאֱמִין
The same root links assent with treating what is said as something firm.
שֹׁכֵב
shokhev
GROWS FROM
שכב
sh-k-b
To lie down.
The English phrase “lieth with” sounds indirect; שֹׁכֵב literally names lying down, while the relation with his sister gives it its sexual sense here. The same root appears in מִשְׁכָּב, “bed” or “lying place,” keeping the bodily act and its setting in one word family.
ALSO GROWS
shakhav: To lie down; in some contexts, to have sexual relations.
שָׁכַב
The verse uses this root for the act, with the kinship phrase specifying the relationship.
mishkav: A bed or place for lying down.
מִשְׁכָּב
This noun shares the root and preserves the connection between the act and the bodily posture named by the verse.
אָרוּר
ʾārūr
GROWS FROM
ארר
ʾ-r-r
To curse or pronounce a curse.
“Cursed” in this verse is ʾārūr. The curse formula places this act under a stated covenant judgment. The assembly’s “Amen” then makes that judgment something the people publicly affirm.
ALSO GROWS
ʾeʾeror: I will curse; a verb form from the same root.
אֶאֱרֹר
The root also appears in direct declarations of a curse, showing that אָרוּר belongs to a word family of pronounced judgment.
meʾērāh: A curse or imposed judgment.
מְאֵרָה
This noun shares the root and shows the curse as a condition named in the text.
THE PATTERN
A covenant boundary gains communal force when the people answer its public wording with “Amen.”
Cursed be he who bends the judgment of the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.Let the LORD God of Israel be blessed, from the age to the age, and let all the people say, Amen. Praise the LORD.Otherwise, if you speak well with the breath, how will the one who fills the place of the outsider say Amen at your giving of thanks, since he does not perceive what you say?THE THREAD
Otherwise, if you speak well with the breath, how will the one who fills the place of the outsider say Amen at your giving of thanks, since he does not perceive what you say?This verse uses the same word, Amen, and shows it as an assent that depends on understanding the words being spoken. That sheds light on the assembly here: its Amen is a public affirmation of the judgment, not a decorative ending.
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