Deuteronomy 28:50

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

a nation of fierce facial expressions, that shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young,

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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עַ֣ז

ʻaz

H5794

“strong of”

Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Construct

Appears 24× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 49:3

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H5810

TWOT: 1596a

strong, mighty, fierce

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
9: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is עַ֣ז strong H5794 — appearing just 24 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

עַ֣ז strong H5794 occurs in 24 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
4 nouns
2 adjectives
3 particles

Verb forms

יִשָּׂ֤א Qal · Imperfect
יָחֹֽן Qal · Imperfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

פָּנִ֑ים face H6440 ×2
לֹא not H3808 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 21 words from the Hebrew and 20 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 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 28:50 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Isaiah 47:6 I was angry with my people, I profaned my inheritance, and gave them into your hand: you did show them no mercy; on the aged have you very heavily laid your yoke.
2 Chronicles 36:17 Therefore he brought on them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or gray-headed: he gave them all into his hand.
Proverbs 7:13 So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him:
Ecclesiastes 8:1 Who is like the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.
Daniel 7:7 After this I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, a fourth animal, awesome and powerful, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet: and it was diverse from all the animals that were before it; and it had ten horns.
Daniel 8:23 In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce face, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.
Hosea 13:16 Samaria will bear her guilt; For she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces, And their pregnant women will be ripped open."
Luke 19:44 and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn't know the time of your visitation."

Luke 21:23–24 Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this people.

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 28:50 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

גּ֖וֹי עַ֣ז פָּנִ֑ים אֲשֶׁ֨ר לֹא יִשָּׂ֤א פָנִים֙ לְזָקֵ֔ן וְנַ֖עַר לֹ֥א יָחֹֽן

a nation of fierce facial expressions, that shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Deuteronomy 28:50 Septuagint · lemma form

ἔθνος ἀναιδής πρόσωπον ὅστις οὐ θαυμάζω πρόσωπον πρεσβύτης καί νέος οὐ ἐλεέω

a nation bold in countenance, which shall not respect the person of the aged and shall not pity the young.

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)

עַם תַּקִיף אַפִּין דִי לָא יִסַב אַפִּין לְסָבָא וְעַל יָנְקָא לָא מְרַחֵם

(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)

אוּמָא חֲצוּפֵי אַפִּין דְלָא נְסִיב אַפִּין לְסָבָא וְעַל עוּלֵים לָא חַיִיס

a people hard in visage, who will not respect the old nor have pity on the young.

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 28:50 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 28:50 A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:

Ver. 50. A nation of fierce countenance.] Heb., Strong of face, i.e., bold, fierce, cruel, impudent; as was Antiochus Epiphanes. {Dan 8:23} See there.

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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Deu 28:50. A nation of a fierce countenance — Such were the Chaldeans, who, according to the historian, “slew the young men” of the Jews “in the house of the sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or him that stooped for age.” Such also were the Romans, who, Josephus says, when they entered Gadera, showed mercy to no age, out of hatred to the nation, and remembrance of former injuries. They made the like slaughter at Gamala, “not so much as sparing young children, but every one, snatching up many, cast them down from the citadel.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

28:50 The Assyrians were fierce and heartless toward their defeated enemies. A favorite instrument of torture was a stake on which they impaled their victims alive (see Isa 33:19; Nah 2:1-7).

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

Or, barbarous, cruel or impudent.

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

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

A nation of fierce countenance--a just description of the Romans, who were not only bold and unyielding, but ruthless and implacable.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(50) Which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favour to the young.—Comp. 2Ch_36:17, “The king of the Chaldecs had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or him that stooped for age; and Lam_5:12, “Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

50. fierce countenance] Lit. strong, hard or inflexible. So Dan_8:23 of Antiochus Epiphanes. Cp. Eze_2:4; Eze_3:7. On regard the person see on Deu_1:17.

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

So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate,.... Not only the rustic that has been brought up meanly, and used to hard living; but one that has been bred very tenderly, and lived in a delicate manner, like the rich man in Luk 16:19; that fared sumptuously every day:

his eye shall be evil towards his brother, and towards the wife of his bosom, and towards the remnant of his children which he shall leave; that is, he shall begrudge his brother, who is so nearly related to him, the least bit of food; yea, his wife, he dearly loved, and is one flesh with him, his other self, and even his children, which are parts of himself, such of them as were left not eaten by him; or his eye should be evil upon then, he should look with an evil eye on them, determining within himself to kill and eat them next. Though the particular instance in which his eye would be evil to them follows, yet no doubt there are other instances in which his eye would be evil towards them, as there were at the siege of Jerusalem, and have been since. Josephus (b) says,"that in every house where there was any appearance of food (or anything that looked like it, that had the shadow of it) there was a battle; and the dearest friends fought with one another, snatching away from each other, the miserable supports of life;''as the husband from his wife and children, and the wife from her husband and children; see more in Deu 28:56; and, in later times, we told by the Jewish historian (c), that wrote an account of their sufferings and distresses since their dispersion, that at Fez the Jews sold their children for slaves for bread.

(b) De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 3. sect. 3. (c) Shebet Judah, sive Hist. Jud. p. 326.

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

Insolent. Hebrew, "of a fierce countenance." It is well known how the Babylonians treated the princes of the Jews. (Calmet)

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

Of fierce countenance, Heb. strong of face or countenance, i.e. bold and impudent, hardy and undaunted, cruel and uncompassionate and inflexible, sparing no age nor sex, &c.

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

The Pulpit Commentary

A nation of fierce countenance; literally, firm or hard of face; i.e. obdurate and determined. (cf. Pro_21:29; Dan_8:23)

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

Discussion questions

The word ʻaz carries the sense “strong.” How does it shape the verse?
Genesis 49:3 shares the word «strong» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“face” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «יִשָּׂ֤א» is Qal Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 11 Hebrew ↔ 12 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 14 words in this verse.
“face” occurs 2× in this single verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 11 words in this verse.