Deuteronomy 27:25

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Cursed be he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person. All the people shall say, Amen.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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שֹׁ֔חַד

shachad

H7810

“present”

Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 23× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 23:8

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H7809

TWOT: 2359a

present, bribe

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 →

11: words
11: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is שֹׁ֔חַד present H7810 — appearing just 23 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

שֹׁ֔חַד present H7810 occurs in 21 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

4 verbs
5 nouns
1 adjective
1 adverb

Verb forms

אָרוּר֙ Qal · Participle Passive
לֹקֵ֣חַ Qal · Participle Active
לְהַכּ֥וֹת Hiphil · Infinitive Construct
וְאָמַ֥ר Qal · Sequential Perfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 18 words from the Hebrew and 23 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 11 Hebrew tokens and 15 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 27:25 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 23:7–8 "Keep far from a false charge, and don't kill the innocent and righteous: for I will not justify the wicked.
Deuteronomy 10:17 For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn't regard persons, nor takes reward.
Psalms 15:5 He who doesn't lend out his money for usury, Nor take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be shaken.
Deuteronomy 16:19 You shall not wrest justice: you shall not respect persons; neither shall you take a bribe; for a bribe does blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.
Proverbs 1:11–29 If they say, "Come with us, Let's lay in wait for blood; Let's lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;
Ezekiel 22:12–13 In you have they taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me, says the Lord Yahweh.
Micah 3:10–11 They build up Zion with blood, And Jerusalem with iniquity.
Micah 7:2–3 The godly man has perished out of the earth, And there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; Every man hunts his brother with a net.

Matthew 26:15 and said, "What are you willing to give me, that I should deliver him to you?" They weighed out for him thirty pieces of silver.
Matthew 27:3–4 Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, felt remorse, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
Acts 1:18 Now this man obtained a field with the reward for his wickedness, and falling headlong, his body burst open, and all his intestines gushed out.

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 27:25 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

אָרוּר֙ לֹקֵ֣חַ שֹׁ֔חַד לְהַכּ֥וֹת נֶ֖פֶשׁ דָּ֣ם נָקִ֑י וְאָמַ֥ר כָּל הָעָ֖ם אָמֵֽן

Cursed be he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person. All the people shall say, Amen.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 27:25 Septuagint · lemma form

ἐπικατάρατος ὅς ἄν λαμβάνω δῶρον πατάσσω ψυχή αἷμα ἀθῷος καί εἶπον πᾶς ὁ λαός γίγνομαι

Cursed is he whoever shall have taken a bribe to kill an innocent man: 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 דִי מְקַבֵּל שׂחֲדָא לְמִקְטַל נְפַשׁ דַם זַכַּי 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 דִמְקַבֵּל שׁוֹחֲדָא לְמִיקְטוֹל בַּר נַשׁ לְמִשְׁדֵי אֲדַם זַכַּאי הֲווֹן עַנְיַין כּוּלְהוֹן כַּחֲדָא וְאָמְרִין אָמֵן

Accursed is he who receiveth hire to kill and to shed innocent blood. And all 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 27:25 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 →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Deu 27:25 Cursed [be] he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say, Amen.

Ver. 25. Cursed be he that taketh reward.] Among the Romans, by the law of the twelve tables, it was death without any deliverance. The psalmist doometh this sin with exclusion out of heaven. {Psa 15:5} That king of this land that was called St Edmund, was wont oft to say, There is not much difference betwixt those two words, prendere and pendere, to take gifts and to hang, and that the latter was the desert of the former. A bribing judge wants but a hurdle, a horse, and a halter, to do him right; as Belknap once said in another case.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

25. Cp. Deu_16:19, and E, Exo_23:8, both against all bribes; Eze_22:1-2, bribes to shed blood.

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 taketh reward to slay an innocent person,.... As an assassin, to murder him privately; or as a judge, that takes a bribe to condemn to death an innocent person: so Aben Ezra observes, that according to the sense of some a judge is meant; but, says he, in my opinion a false witness; one that swears a man's life away for the sake of a reward given him:

and all the people shall say Amen; at so detestable a crime.

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

The Pulpit Commentary

cf. Exo_23:7, 8

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

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 11 words (11 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is shachad (“present”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “present” (shachad) contribute to the verse as a whole?
How does Exodus 23:8, which shares the word «present», read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«אָרוּר֙» is a Qal Participle Passive verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 11 Hebrew ↔ 15 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 12 words in this verse.
11 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 11 words in this verse.