What Does Leviticus 24:11 Mean?
And the son of the Israelite woman pierced the name and cursed. And they brought him to Moses. His mother's name was Shelomith, daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.
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
And the Israelitish woman’s son blasphemed the name of the LORD, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan:)THE KEY
The Hebrew pairs “pierce/designate” with “curse/make light”: the speaker singles out the Name and then diminishes what that Name carries.
THE MEANING
Here, speech singles out the LORD’s name, his nature, and curses; the community brings the speaker before Moses, so the utterance is no longer hidden. The verse holds together a target and an action: what bears the LORD’s name is treated as light by the mouth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a name is only a label and a curse only sound: it presents the Name as nature and speech as an act with consequence.
THE ROOT
וַיִּקֹּב
vayyiqqov
GROWS FROM
נקב
n-q-b
Pierce or bore; also mark out, specify, or designate by name.
“pierced” in this verse is vayyiqqov. The verb rendered “blasphemed” comes from a root used for piercing and for naming something precisely. Beside הַשֵּׁם (ha-shem, “the Name”), it makes the utterance feel sharply directed: the Name is singled out, then the next verb shows it being treated as light.
ALSO GROWS
neqev: A hole or perforation.
נֶקֶב
The physical sense preserves the sharpness carried by the root behind “blasphemed.”
nāqab: To specify, designate, or name.
נָקַב
This sense makes the verse’s act of singling out the Name audible inside its first verb.
וַיְקַלֵּל
vayĕqallēl
GROWS FROM
קלל
q-l-l
Be light or slight; in an intensive form, treat as light, curse, or disparage.
“cursed” in this verse is vayĕqallēl. The same root carries both lightness and cursing: a curse makes what it addresses seem small or weightless. In this verse, that speech is aimed at הַשֵּׁם (ha-shem, “the Name”), understood as the nature the name bears.
ALSO GROWS
qal: Light, slight, of little weight.
קַל
The adjective sense gives the root a concrete measure: what is cursed is made light in significance.
qĕlālāh: A curse, an utterance of ill against someone or something.
קְלָלָה
This noun names the act of diminishing carried by the same root.
שְׁלֹמִית
Shelōmīt
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
Be whole, complete, or sound.
“Shelomith” in this verse is Shelōmīt. The mother’s name carries the root of wholeness, a quiet counter-image beside the verse’s language of piercing and cursing. The name does not soften the act; it leaves wholeness present in the same sentence as the attack.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
Shelomith’s name echoes this root sense of wholeness beside the curse’s diminishing force.
shalem: Whole, complete, sound.
שָׁלֵם
This adjective makes explicit the quality carried by the root in her name.
THE PATTERN
Speech can honor or diminish what it names, and scripture treats that force as consequential.
Cursed be he who makes light of his father and his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.Death and life are in the hand of the tongue, and those who love it eat its fruit.With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who have been made according to the likeness of God.THE THREAD
Cursed be he who makes light of his father and his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.Deuteronomy uses the same Hebrew root in “setteth light,” showing cursing as speech that makes something light. Leviticus directs that force toward the Name itself, whose nature the verse refuses to reduce to a mere label.
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