20:9 “‘If anyone 2 curses his father and mother 3 he must be put to death. He has cursed his father and mother; his blood guilt is on himself. 4
1 sn Compare the regulations in Lev 18:6-23.
2 tn Heb “If a man a man who.”
3 tn Heb “makes light of his father and his mother.” Almost all English versions render this as some variation of “curses his father or mother.”
4 tn Heb “his blood [plural] is in him.” Cf. NAB “he has forfeited his life”; TEV “is responsible for his own death.”
sn The rendering “blood guilt” refers to the fact that the shedding of blood brings guilt on those who shed it illegitimately (even the blood of animals shed illegitimately, Lev 17:4; cf. the background of Gen 4:10-11). If the community performs a legitimate execution, however, the blood guilt rests on the person who has been legitimately executed (see the remarks and literature cited in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 328).