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Friday, July 18th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Read the Bible

New Revised Standard

Deuteronomy 27:23

"Cursed be anyone who lies with his mother-in-law." All the people shall say, "Amen!"

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Adultery;   Amen;   Curse;   Incest;   Instruction;   Law;   Mother-In-Law;   Responsive Religious Service;   Reward;   Sanitation;   Word of God;   Worship;   The Topic Concordance - Curses;   Sexual Activities;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Ebal;   Gerizim;   Marriage;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Amen;   Curse;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Apostasy;   Blessing;   Curse, Accursed;   Incest;   Punishment;   Sexuality, Human;   Worship;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Amen;   Moses;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Amen;   Ebal;   Law;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Amen;   Ark of the Covenant;   Blessing and Cursing;   Covenant;   Temple of Jerusalem;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Crimes and Punishments;   Marriage;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Bond ;   Synagogue;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Amen;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Gerizim;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Amen;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Peculiarities of the Law of Moses;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Apostasy;   Covenant, in the Old Testament;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Judaism;   Numbers, Book of;   Taḳḳanah;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
‘The one who sleeps with his mother-in-law is cursed.’
Hebrew Names Version
Cursed be he who lies with his mother-in-law. All the people shall say, Amein.
King James Version
Cursed be he that lieth with his mother in law. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Lexham English Bible
‘Cursed be the one who lies with his mother-in-law.' And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.'
English Standard Version
"‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his mother-in-law.' And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.'
New Century Version
"A man will be cursed who has sexual relations with his mother-in-law." Then all the people will say, "Amen!"
New English Translation
‘Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with his mother-in-law.' Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!'
Amplified Bible
'Cursed is he who is intimate with his mother-in-law.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'
New American Standard Bible
'Cursed is he who sleeps with his mother-in-law.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'
Geneva Bible (1587)
Cursed be he that lyeth with his mother in law: And all the people shal say: So be it.
Legacy Standard Bible
‘Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.' And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.'
Complete Jewish Bible
"‘A curse on anyone who has sexual relations with his mother-in-law.' All the people are to say, ‘Amen!'
Darby Translation
Cursed be he that lieth with his mother-in-law! And all the people shall say, Amen.
Easy-to-Read Version
"The Levites will say, ‘Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with his mother-in-law!' "Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!'
George Lamsa Translation
Cursed be he who lies with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Good News Translation
"‘God's curse on anyone who has intercourse with his mother-in-law.' "And all the people will answer, ‘Amen!'
Literal Translation
Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law! And all the people shall say, Amen!
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Cursed be he, yt lyeth with his mother in lawe. And all the people shal saye, Amen.
American Standard Version
Cursed be he that lieth with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Bible in Basic English
Cursed is he who has sex relations with his mother-in-law. And let all the people say, So be it.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Cursed be he that lieth with his mother in lawe: and al the people shall say, Amen.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Cursed be he that lieth with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say: Amen.
King James Version (1611)
Cursed be hee that lieth with his mother in law: and all the people shall say, Amen.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Cursed is he that lies with his daughter-in-law: and all the people shall say, So be it. Cursed is he that lies with his wife’s sister: and all the people shall say, So be it.
English Revised Version
Cursed be he that lieth with his mother in law. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Berean Standard Bible
'Cursed is he who sleeps with his mother-in-law.' And let all the people say, 'Amen!'
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Cursid is he that slepith with his wyues modir; and al the puple schal seye, Amen!
Young's Literal Translation
`Cursed [is] he who is lying with his mother-in-law, -- and all the people have said, Amen.
Update Bible Version
Cursed be he that lies with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Webster's Bible Translation
Cursed [be] he that lieth with his mother-in-law: and all the people shall say, Amen.
World English Bible
Cursed be he who lies with his mother-in-law. All the people shall say, Amen.
New King James Version
"Cursed is the one who lies with his mother-in-law.' "And all the people shall say, "Amen!'
New Living Translation
‘Cursed is anyone who has sexual intercourse with his mother-in-law.' And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.'
New Life Bible
‘Cursed is the man who lies with his mother-in-law.' And all the people will say, ‘Let it be so.'
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Cursed, be he that lieth with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say - Amen.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Cursed be he that lieth with his mother-in-law: and all the people shall say: Amen.
Revised Standard Version
"'Cursed be he who lies with his mother-in-law.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'
New American Standard Bible (1995)
'Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

Contextual Overview

11 The same day Moses charged the people as follows: 12 When you have crossed over the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim for the blessing of the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. 13 And these shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. 14 Then the Levites shall declare in a loud voice to all the Israelites: 15 "Cursed be anyone who makes an idol or casts an image, anything abhorrent to the Lord , the work of an artisan, and sets it up in secret." All the people shall respond, saying, "Amen!" 16 "Cursed be anyone who dishonors father or mother." All the people shall say, "Amen!" 17 "Cursed be anyone who moves a neighbor's boundary marker." All the people shall say, "Amen!" 18 "Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind person on the road." All the people shall say, "Amen!" 19 "Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien, the orphan, and the widow of justice." All the people shall say, "Amen!" 20 "Cursed be anyone who lies with his father's wife, because he has violated his father's rights." All the people shall say, "Amen!"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Leviticus 18:17, Leviticus 20:14

Reciprocal: Leviticus 20:11 - General Leviticus 20:12 - lie Ezekiel 22:10 - discovered

Cross-References

Genesis 27:11
But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, "Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a man of smooth skin.
Genesis 27:12
Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him, and bring a curse on myself and not a blessing."
Genesis 27:16
and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.
Hebrews 11:20
By faith Isaac invoked blessings for the future on Jacob and Esau.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Cursed [be] he that lieth with his mother in law,.... See

Leviticus 18:7. All these incestuous or brutal copulations may well be supposed to be done in secret:

and all the people shall say Amen; as abhorring such incest.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Compare Joshua 8:32-35. The solemnity was apparently designed only for the single occasion on which it actually took place.

Deuteronomy 27:12, Deuteronomy 27:13

The tribes appointed to stand on Gerizim to bless the people all sprang from the two wives of Jacob, Leah and Rachel. All the four tribes which sprang from the handmaids Zilpah and Bilhah are located on Ebal. But in order, as it would seem, to effect an equal division, two tribes are added to the latter from the descendants of the wives, that of Reuben, probably because he forfeited his primogeniture Genesis 49:4; and of Zebulun, apparently because he was the youngest son of Leah.

The transaction presents itself as a solemn renewal of the covenant made by God with Abraham and Isaac, but more especially with Jacob and his family. Accordingly the genealogical basis of the “twelve patriarchs” (compare Acts 7:12; Revelation 7:4 ff), the sons of Jacob, is here assumed. The tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh are merged in the name of Joseph, their father; and Levi regains on this occasion his place collaterally with the others. “The Levites” of Deuteronomy 27:14 are no doubt “the priests the Levites” (compareJoshua 8:33; Joshua 8:33), in whom the ministerial character attaching to the tribe was more particularly manifested. It is noteworthy that the group of tribes which stood on Gerizim far exceeded the other in numbers and in importance, thus perhaps indicating that even by the Law the blessing should at length prevail.

Deuteronomy 27:15

The “Amen” attested the conviction of the utterers that the sentences to which they responded were true, just, and certain; so in Numbers 5:22, and in our own Commination Office, which is modelled after this ordinance of Moses.

Deuteronomy 27:15-26

Twelve curses against transgressions of the covenant. The first eleven are directed against special sins which are selected by way of example, the last comprehensively sums up in general terms and condemns all and every offence against God’s Law. Compare the marginal references.


 
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