Deuteronomy 27:17

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Cursed be he who removes his neighbor's landmark. All the people shall say, Amen.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Download a study sheet

One document with this verse’s original text, its word-by-word gloss line, the meaning frame, cross-references with their text, attributed commentary, and full source and license credits — printable, and it pastes into notes with its structure intact.

This verse Autodidact and up

Study sheet (.html) Plain text (.txt)

A passage Seminary Student

Up to 50 verses in one chapter. A passage sheet keeps up to 6 commentary sources and 12 cross-references per verse, in the order this page ranks them, and says so on the sheet whenever that leaves anything out. Ask for a single verse and you get the Autodidact verse sheet above.

Everything on this page stays free to read, with no account — the sheet is a download of what is already on screen, not access to it.

Want to remove ads? Support Godless Engineer

Word by word

More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →

Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →

מַסִּ֖יג

nâçag

H5253

“backsliding”

Verb, Hiphil, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 9× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Deuteronomy 19:14

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 1469

to move away, backslide, move, go, turn back - (Qal) to backslide, prove recreant to - (Hiphil) - to displace, move back - to remove, carry away - (Hophal) to be driven back, be moved back

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

8: words
8: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is מַסִּ֖יג to backslide H5253 — appearing just 9 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

מַסִּ֖יג to backslide H5253 occurs in 9 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
4 nouns
1 adverb

Verb forms

אָר֕וּר Qal · Participle Passive
מַסִּ֖יג Hiphil · Participle Active
וְאָמַ֥ר Qal · Sequential Perfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 14 words from the Hebrew and 17 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 8 Hebrew tokens and 12 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Deuteronomy 27:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Deuteronomy 19:14 You shall not remove your neighbor's landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that Yahweh your God gives you to possess it.
Proverbs 22:28 Don't move the ancient boundary stone, Which your fathers have set up.
Proverbs 23:10–11 Don't move the ancient boundary stone. Don't encroach on the fields of the fatherless:

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Deuteronomy 27:17 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

אָר֕וּר מַסִּ֖יג גְּב֣וּל רֵעֵ֑הוּ וְאָמַ֥ר כָּל הָעָ֖ם אָמֵֽן

Cursed be he who removes his neighbor's landmark. All the people shall say, Amen.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 27:17 Septuagint · lemma form

ἐπικατάρατος ὁ μετατίθημι ὅριον ὁ πλησίον καί εἶπον πᾶς ὁ λαός γίγνομαι

Cursed is he that removes his neighbor's landmarks: and all the people shall say, So be it.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

לִיטּ דְיַשְׁנֵי תְּחוּמָא דְחַבְרֵהּ וְיֵימַר כָּל עַמָא אָמֵן

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

לִיט דְיַשְׁנֵי תְּחוּמָא דְחַבְרֵיהּ הֲווֹן עַנְיַין כֻּלְהוֹן כַּחֲדָא וְאָמְרִין אָמֵן

Accursed is he who shall transfer the boundary of his neighbour. And all of them shall answer together, and say, Amen.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Deuteronomy 27:17 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

27:17 Moving a boundary marker to one’s own advantage is tantamount to theft and clearly violates the eighth commandment (see 5:19; 19:14).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

He condemneth all injuries and extortions.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 17. Removeth his neighbour's landmark.] See Clarke on De 19:14, and on "Ex 20:17". And for all the rest of these curses, see the notes on Ex 20:1-26, and the observations at the end of it. See Clarke on Ex 20:26.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

17. See on Deu_29:14.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmark,.... Removes it backward, and steals ground, as Jarchi explains it; this is commonly done secretly; see Deu 19:14,

and all the people shall say Amen; See Gill on Deu 27:15; See Gill on Deu 27:16.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Landmarks, contrary to the prohibition, chap. xix. 14. The Rabbins say that Cain first adopted such distinctions. The ancient Greeks placed little pillars at the end of their fields, with the name of the owner engraven upon them. (Pollux, iii. 9.) --- All Thrace was divided in this manner. (Xenophon, Anab.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

To wit, designedly, to defraud his neighbour, or enlarge his own portion.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

cf. Deu_19:14

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Out of the way - That misleadeth simple souls, giving them pernicious counsel, either for this life, or for the next.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

מסיג גבול [CURSED BE] HE THAT REMOVES [HIS NEIGHBOUR’S] LAND-MARK — i.e. puts it further back in his neighbor’s field and thereby steals ground from him. The word מסיג has the same meaning as the verb in (Isaiah 59:14) “and he is turned backwards (הֻסַּג )".

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Deuteronomy, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 8 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is nâçag (“to backslide”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “to backslide” (nâçag) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Deuteronomy 19:14 shares the word «to backslide» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «אָר֕וּר» is Qal Participle Passive. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Tyndale Open Study Notes and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 8 Hebrew ↔ 12 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.