What Does Leviticus 24:16 Mean?
And whoever pierces the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the assembly shall certainly stone him. The sojourner as well as the native of the land, when he pierces the name of the LORD, shall be put to death.
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 he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death.THE KEY
The verse makes speech against the LORD’s name a communal act of killing, because the name carries the nature of the one named.
THE MEANING
A person who blasphemes the LORD’s name is put to death by the whole congregation’s stoning. The sentence applies equally to the resident stranger and the native-born, making the community itself the agent of the killing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that a resident stranger stands outside the community’s sacred law: the same death sentence applies to stranger and native-born.
THE ROOT
נֹקֵב
nōqēv
GROWS FROM
נקב
To pierce or bore; also to designate explicitly by name.
“pierces” in this verse is nōqēv. The verb translated “blasphemeth” is nāqab, whose range includes piercing and designating explicitly by name. Alongside שֵׁם (shem, name understood as nature), it presents the offense as a pointed verbal assault on the LORD’s identity; the verse’s answer is public stoning and death.
ALSO GROWS
nāqab: To pierce or bore.
נָקַב
This physical sense supplies an image of a puncturing act; the verse’s stated penalty remains bodily death.
nāqab: To designate or express explicitly by name.
נָקַב
Numbers 1:17 uses this root for people “expressed by name”; here the verb directly takes “name” as its object.
גֵּר
gēr
GROWS FROM
גור
To dwell or sojourn as a resident alien.
The word translated “stranger” is gēr, a resident sojourner rather than someone entirely outside the land. Its inclusion beside the native-born makes the judgment reach across belonging: both are named within the same community and under the same sentence.
ALSO GROWS
lāgūr: To dwell or sojourn as a resident alien.
לָגוּר
This verbal form shows that the “stranger” is someone living among the people, not simply passing through.
megūrīm: Sojournings or places of residence.
מְגוּרִים
The related noun carries the sense of dwelling; the verse’s stranger belongs to the shared social space where the sentence is enforced.
THE PATTERN
Speech and conduct around the divine name carry public consequences beyond the speaker.
You shall not lift the name of the LORD your God into emptiness, for the LORD will not clear him who lifts his name into emptiness.For the nature of God is spoken against among the nations through you, as it stands written.THE THREAD
God also said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name for the ages, and this is my remembrance to all generations.Both verses use שֵׁם (shem, name understood as nature): Exodus presents the LORD’s name as an enduring memorial, while Leviticus places a lethal boundary around it. Together they show that the offense is framed as an attack on the one represented by the name, not merely on a spoken label.
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