20:9 “‘If anyone 8 curses his father and mother 9 he must be put to death. He has cursed his father and mother; his blood guilt is on himself. 10
1 sn See the note on Lev 7:20.
2 tn Heb “And all who the man with the discharge touches in him and his hands he has not rinsed in water.”
3 tn See the note on v. 5 above.
4 tn Heb “And you shall keep.”
5 tn Heb “which the man shall do them and shall live in them.” The term for “a man, human being; mankind” (אָדָם, ’adam; see the note on Lev 1:2) in this case refers to any person among “mankind,” male or female. The expression וָחַי (vakhay, “and shall live”) looks like the adjective “living” so it is written וְחָיָה (vÿkhayah) in Smr, but the MT form is simply the same verb written as a double ayin verb (see HALOT 309 s.v. חיה qal and GKC 218 §76.i; cf. Lev 25:35).
6 sn Regarding the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.
7 sn Compare the regulations in Lev 18:6-23.
8 tn Heb “If a man a man who.”
9 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.”
10 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).