The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Punishment for Blasphemy
Leviticus 24:10–16 — Punishment for Blasphemy. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
10Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ben- yiś·rə·’ê·lîṯ wə·hū ben- ’iš·šāh miṣ·rî ’îš way·yê·ṣê bə·ṯō·wḵ bə·nê yiś·rā·’êl way·yin·nā·ṣū bam·ma·ḥă·neh ben hay·yiś·rə·’ê·lîṯ hay·yiś·rə·’ê·lî wə·’îš
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-went-out a-son-of a-woman an-Israelite — and-he a-son-of a-man an-Egyptian — into-the-midst-of the-sons-of Israel; and-they-strove-together in-the-camp, the-son-of the-Israelite-woman and-a-man, the-Israelite.
Where the English smooths the original
The son of an Israelitish woman named Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan, and of an Egyptian whom the Israelitish woman had married, went out into the midst of the children of Israel, i.e., went out of his tent or place of encampment among the Israelites. As the son of an Egyptian, he belonged to the foreigners who had gone out with Israel ( Exodus 12:38 ), and who probably had their tents somewhere apart from those of the Israelites, who were encamped according to their tribes ( Numbers 2:2 ). Having got into a quarrel with an Israelite, this man scoffed at the name (of Jehovah) and cursed. The cause of the quarrel is not given, and cannot be determined.
by this severity against him who was a stranger by the father, and an Israelite by the mother, to show that God would not have this sin to go unpunished amongst his people, whatsoever he was that committed it. Went out, to wit, out of Egypt, being one of that mixed multitude which came out with the Israelites, Exodus 12:38 . It is probable this was done when the Israelites were near Sinai. Strove together: this is added to show that provocation to sin is no justification of sin.
The "mixed multitude" [Ex 12:38] that accompanied the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt creates a presumption that marriage connections of the kind described were not infrequent. And it was most natural, in the relative circumstances of the two people, that the father should be an Egyptian and the mother an Israelite.
This is the only place where the adjective Israelitish is found; and the word "Israelite" only occurs in 2 Samuel 17:25 . Whose father was an Egyptian. The man could not, therefore, be a member of the congregation, as, according to the subsequently promulgated law ( Deuteronomy 23:8 ), the descendant of an Egyptian could not be admitted till the third generation.The rarity Pulpit flags is load-bearing for the cross-references below: H3481 occurs in only three verses in the whole OT, which is why the Verifier rates the Lev 24:11 ↔ 2 Sam 17:25 link as verbal, not merely thematic.
11The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse. So they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.)
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ben- hay·yiś·rə·’ê·lîṯ hā·’iš·šāh ’eṯ- way·yiq·qōḇ haš·šêm way·qal·lêl way·yā·ḇî·’ū ’ō·ṯōw ’el- mō·šeh ’im·mōw wə·šêm šə·lō·mîṯ baṯ- diḇ·rî lə·maṭ·ṭêh- ḏān
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-pierced the-son-of the-Israelite-woman the-Name, and-cursed; and-they-brought him to Moses. (And-the-name-of his-mother was Shelomith daughter-of Dibri, of-the-tribe-of Dan.)
Where the English smooths the original
Better, cursed the Name and reviled. In accordance with the above interpretation, this happened after sentence was given against him, and when they had left the court. Being vexed with the Divine enactments which excluded him from encamping in the tribe of his mother, he both cursed God who gave such law, and reviled the judges who pronounced judgment against him. The expression, “the Name,” which in after times was commonly used instead of the Ineffable Jehovah, has been substituted here for the Tetragrammaton by a transcriber who out of reverence would not combine cursing with it.
The Heb. verb denotes ‘to indicate by name’ either honourably or with reproach. In the latter sense it is used in Numbers 23:8 ; Proverbs 11:26 , etc., and obviously must be so interpreted here. But the Jews, taking the word in its more general sense, understood the passage as forbidding the mention of the Sacred Name, and wherever it occurs in the Scriptures they either pronounced it Adônai instead (rendered in English by ‘the Lord’), or, where the word Adônai was itself in immediate juxtaposition with the Sacred Name, they substituted for the latter Elôhîm.
He blasphemed the name — So called by way of eminence; that name which is above every name; that name which a man should in some sort tremble to mention; which is not to be named without cause, or without reverence. And cursed — Not the Israelite only, but his God also, as appears from Leviticus 24:15-16 .
so the Jews generally understand by the "name" blasphemed, the name Jehovah, which he spake out plainly, and which, they say, is ineffable, and ought not to be pronounced but by the high priest in the sanctuary; but this man expressed it in its proper sound, and made use of it to curse the man that strove with him, or the judge that judged him; so it is said in the Misnah (d),"a blasphemer is not guilty until he expresses the name;''but it undoubtedly means blaspheming God himself, by whatsoever name
12They placed him in custody until the will of the LORD should be made clear to them.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yan·nî·ḥu·hū bam·miš·mār pî Yah·weh lip̄·rōš lā·hem ‘al-
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-they-set-him in-the-guard-house, to make-clear for-them according-to the-mouth-of YHWH.
Where the English smooths the original
And they put him in ward. —That is, to keep him in safe custody till he had been tried. In the Mosaic legislation confinement in a prison for a certain period as a punishment for an offence is nowhere enacted.
that it might be declared unto them at the mouth of the Lord ] more exact than the A.V. ‘that the mind of the Lord might be shewn them.’
The offender may already have been pronounced guilty by the rulers (see Exodus 18:21-22 ), and the case was referred to Moses in order that the punishment might be awarded by the divine decree. No law had as yet been enacted against blasphemy except by implication.
The same course was followed in the case of the man found gathering sticks upon the sabbath day: "And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him" ( Numbers 15:34 ). The same penalty was awarded in both cases.
13Then the LORD said to Moses,
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
Yah·weh way·ḏab·bêr ’el- mō·šeh lê·mōr
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-spoke YHWH to Moses, saying:
Where the English smooths the original
In none of these instances, however, is it stated how and where Moses made this appeal to God, whether he inquired by means of the Urim and Thummim, or otherwise. As God promised to reveal His will to Moses from the mercy-seat between the cherubim ( Exodus 25:22 ), it is probable that the lawgiver received the Divine directions in the sanctuary.
From off the mercy seat in the holy of holies, where he had promised to meet him and commune with him about anything he should inquire of him, as he did at this time
The offender may already have been pronounced guilty by the rulers (see Exodus 18:21-22 ), and the case was referred to Moses in order that the punishment might be awarded by the divine decree. No law had as yet been enacted against blasphemy except by implication.
14“Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and have all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then have the whole assembly stone him.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hō·w·ṣê ’eṯ- ham·qal·lêl ’el- mi·ḥūṣ lam·ma·ḥă·neh ḵāl haš·šō·mə·‘îm ’eṯ- wə·sā·mə·ḵū yə·ḏê·hem ‘al- rō·šōw kāl- hā·‘ê·ḏāh wə·rā·ḡə·mū ’ō·ṯōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Bring-out the-one-making-light to outside-of the-camp, and-let-lay all the-hearers their-hands upon his-head; and-let-stone him all the-assembly.
Where the English smooths the original
By laying (resting, cf. Leviticus 1:4 ) their hands upon the head of the blasphemer, the hearers or witnesses were to throw off from themselves the blasphemy which they had heard, and return it upon the head of the blasphemer, for him to expiate.
The sentence which God now passes upon the blasphemer is that he should be conducted from prison outside the camp, where all unclean persons had to abide ( Numbers 5:2-3 ), and where malefactors were executed ( Hebrews 13:12-13 ).
By laying their hands upon his head they gave public testimony that they heard this person speak such words, and did in their own and in all the people’s names desire and demand justice to be executed upon him, that by this sacrifice God might be appeased, and his judgments turned away from the people, upon whom they would certainly fall if he were unpunished.
let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head ] Cp. the inclusion of the witnesses in the account of the stoning of St Stephen ( Acts 7:58 ).
15And you are to tell the Israelites, ‘If anyone curses his God, he shall bear the consequences of his sin.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’el- tə·ḏab·bêr lê·mōr bə·nê yiś·rā·’êl kî- ’îš ’îš yə·qal·lêl ’ĕ·lō·hāw wə·nā·śā ḥeṭ·’ōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-to the-sons-of Israel you-shall-speak, saying: A-man, a-man who curses his-God — and-he-shall-bear his-sin.
Where the English smooths the original
If such a Gentile curses his own God in whom he still professes to believe, he shall bear his sin; he must suffer the punishment for his sin from the hands of his co-religionists, whose feelings he has outraged. The Israelites are not to interfere to save him from the consequence of his guiltEllicott's minority reading — that v. 15 governs a Gentile cursing his own pagan god — is presented as one historical option; the Pulpit Commentary (in the threads below) judges the single-God reading the truer one.
They therefore are greatly mistaken that understand this of the heathen gods, whom their worshippers are forbidden to reproach or curse. But Moses is not here giving laws to heathens, but to the Israelites; nor would he concern himself so much to vindicate the honour of idols; nor doth this agree either with the design of the holy Scriptures, which is to beget a contempt and detestation of all idols and idolatry
Whosoever curseth his God — Speaketh of him reproachfully. Shall bear his sin — That is, the punishment of it; shall not go unpunished
who, as Aben Ezra observes, are sometimes called Elohim or gods, Psalm 82:1 ; and the rather, as it is probable this man had cursed his judges, and so this is a distinct sin from what follows
16Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD must surely be put to death; the whole assembly must surely stone him, whether he is a foreign resident or native; if he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·nō·qêḇ šêm- Yah·weh mō·wṯ yū·māṯ kāl- hā·‘ê·ḏāh rā·ḡō·wm yir·gə·mū- ḇōw kag·gêr kā·’ez·rāḥ bə·nā·qə·ḇōw- šêm yū·māṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-one-piercing the-name-of YHWH dying he-shall-be-put-to-death; stoning shall-stone him all the-assembly; as-the-stranger so-the-native — in-his-piercing the-Name, he-shall-be-put-to-death.
Where the English smooths the original
it is not bare using or expressing the word Jehovah that is blasphemy, but speaking ill and contemptuously of God, with respect to any of his names, titles, and epithets, or of any of his perfections, ways, and works: he shall surely be put to death; no mercy shall be shown him, no reprieve or pardon granted him: hence it is said (f), there is no atonement for it, by repentance, or chastisements, or the day of atonement: so blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is not forgiven, neither in this world nor in that which is to come, Matthew 12:31
It is henceforth to be the law that whosoever curses Jehovah is to suffer death by lapidation, which is to be inflicted upon the criminal by the Jewish community. As well the stranger as he that is born in the land. —This law is applicable alike to the proselyte and to the Gentile, who does not even profess to believe in Jehovah.
Although strangers were not obliged to be circumcised, yet by joining the Israelitish camp, they became amenable to the law, especially that which related to blasphemy.
All the congregation shall stone him, to show their zeal for God, and to beget in them the greater dread and abhorrency of blasphemy.
It extends to the strangers among them, as well as to those born in the land. Strangers, as well as native Israelites, should be entitled to the benefit of the law, so as not to suffer wrong; and should be liable to the penalty of this law, in case they did wrong. If those who profane the name of God escape punishment from men, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape his righteous judgments.Henry reads the unit's climax as its enduring point: the one law binds gēr and native alike. The same insistence on impartiality (Henry's ‘extends to the strangers among them, as well as to those born in the land’) is what Paul universalizes in Romans 2:11 — God shows no partiality.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The pericope is built on a terrible irony of naming. The offender has no name — the narrative calls him only ben-yiśrəʼêlîṯ, “son of the Israelite woman,” three times over in v. 10, defining him entirely by a lineage it judges suspect. Keil sets the scene: he “went out into the midst of the children of Israel… As the son of an Egyptian, he belonged to the foreigners who had gone out with Israel (Exodus 12:38).” The Pulpit Commentary catches a clue the English loses — that the adjective is so rare it appears nowhere else, and “the word ‘Israelite’ only occurs in 2 Samuel 17:25.” JFB grounds the mixed marriage in the plausible social aftermath of the exodus. Then, in v. 11, the unnamed man pierces the one Name that is recorded — haššêm, “the Name.” Gill rehearses the Rabbinic reading that he “expressed it in its proper sound, and made use of it to curse,” while Benson lifts the Name itself: “that name which is above every name; that name which a man should in some sort tremble to mention.” The man Scripture refuses to name has assaulted the Name above every name; the only personal name the chapter gives us is the mother's — Shelomith, daughter of Dibri, of Dan.
Confronted with an offense for which no penalty had been written, Israel does not improvise. They hold the man — bammišmār — and wait. Ellicott marks how unusual this is: “In the Mosaic legislation confinement in a prison… as a punishment for an offence is nowhere enacted.” The ward is not a sentence but a suspension, a refusal to legislate ahead of God. Barnes states the gap plainly: “No law had as yet been enacted against blasphemy except by implication.” What they await is concrete — the Cambridge Bible corrects the old rendering: not “the mind of the Lord” but, more exactly, that the matter “be declared unto them at the mouth of the Lord.” The Hebrew is pî Yahweh, the mouth of YHWH. And in v. 13 the mouth opens: wayḏabbêr Yahweh. Gill locates the answer at its source — “From off the mercy seat in the holy of holies, where he had promised to meet him.” The structure is the whole point: a case with no precedent, then God Himself supplying it. It is the same procedure that will govern the sabbath-breaker (Numbers 15:34) — the Verifier confirms the two scenes share the rare verbs pârâš and mišmār, not by accident but by design.
God's verdict is precise and corporate. The man is led outside the camp — JFB: “all flagrant offenders should be thrust out,” for Israel is “a holy people.” Ellicott already sees through it to the cross: the place “where malefactors were executed (Hebrews 13:12–13).” Then the witnesses lay their hands on his head — the verb sāmak, the sacrificial gesture of Leviticus 1:4. The tradition reads the act two ways at once. Barnes: “a protest against the impiety… symbolically laying the guilt upon his head.” Poole: “that by this sacrifice God might be appeased.” Keil fuses them: the hearers “were to throw off from themselves the blasphemy which they had heard, and return it upon the head of the blasphemer, for him to expiate.” Finally all the assembly stones him — rāgam, the communal casting of stones (15 verses in the OT), the same verb the Verifier ties to Numbers 15:35–36 and Leviticus 20:2. The whole congregation, not an executioner, must act; sin against the Name is a wound to the whole body. Cambridge points across the Testaments to the witnesses at “the stoning of St Stephen (Acts 7:58).”
What began as a single incident is now generalized into standing statute — ʼîš ʼîš, “a man, a man,” any man whatsoever. Benson sees the form: “as this law is laid down in general terms (v. 15), so both the sin and the punishment are particularly expressed (v. 16).” Whether vv. 15–16 name one offense or two is debated — Ellicott reads v. 15 of a Gentile cursing his own god, but Poole flatly rejects it (“Moses is not here giving laws to heathens, but to the Israelites; nor would he concern himself… to vindicate the honour of idols”), and the Pulpit Commentary calls the single-God reading “the truer one.” Either way the climax is the same, and it is astonishing: a law occasioned by a half-Egyptian binds kaggêr kāʼezrāḥ — stranger and native alike. Henry: it “extends to the strangers among them, as well as to those born in the land.” JFB: by joining the camp “they became amenable to the law.” The covenant's boundary is holiness, not blood. And the sentence is final — Gill: “no mercy shall be shown him… there is no atonement for it, by repentance, or chastisements, or the day of atonement.” One sin the great Day could not cover.
Read under the rule that Scripture alone is the final authority, this hard chapter yields three things — offered as a reading to be tested, not a verdict to be trusted. First, God will not be legislated ahead of. The most striking move in the passage is the pause: faced with a crime no statute covered, Israel jails the man and waits for pî Yahweh, the mouth of the LORD (v. 12). Even Moses does not fill the silence with his own opinion. The pattern rebukes every age that supplies God's verdicts for Him; the authority to bind life and death belongs to His spoken word, not to the court's convenience. Second, the Name carries the weight of God Himself. The crime is nâqab — to bore through the Name — and its opposite is the root qâlal, to make light what God has made heavy. To revile the Name is to assault the reality it carries; reverence for the Name is not superstition but the plainest acknowledgment that God is God. Third, the law is no respecter of persons. The verdict that binds the stranger exactly as it binds the native (v. 16) is the Old Testament's own seed of the truth Paul will state outright — there is no distinction; the same Lord is Lord of all. The covenant was never about Israelite blood; it was about the holiness of the One who dwelt in the midst. And one shadow falls forward: the man must bear his own sin (nāśāʼ, v. 15), and there is no atonement for him. The same two words — bear (nâsâʼ) and sin (ḥêṭ) — describe the Servant who would “bear the sin of many” (Isaiah 53:12). The blasphemer carries his guilt alone and dies outside the camp; One greater would later be carried outside the camp to bear the guilt of the guilty.
The man with no name pierced the Name above every name — and the only mercy in the chapter is the one it does not yet show.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The two episodes are the Pentateuch's only paired instances of a crime jailed pending a direct oracle. The Pulpit Commentary names the parallel verbatim: “The same course was followed in the case of the man found gathering sticks upon the sabbath day… The same penalty was awarded in both cases.” ⚙ The Verifier confirms this is a genuine verbal link, not a mere theme: Leviticus 24:12 and Numbers 15:34 share the rare verb pârâš (H6567, only 5 verses in the OT) together with mišmâr (H4929, the ‘ward’) and nûwach (H5117, ‘they set him’). Both narratives stage the same structure — a case with no precedent, held until God declares the sentence at His own mouth.
Leviticus 24:12 · Numbers 15:34 · Numbers 15:35
basis: shared rare lexeme H6567 pârâsh (5 vv OT) plus H4929 mishmâr (20 vv) and H5117 nûwach across Lev 24:12 ↔ Num 15:34, the two ‘held-in-ward-until-the-LORD-declares’ scenes
The adjective yiśrəʼêlî / yiśrəʼêlîṯ (H3481) is one of the rarest gentilics in the Hebrew Bible. The Pulpit Commentary flags it exactly: “This is the only place where the adjective Israelitish is found; and the word ‘Israelite’ only occurs in 2 Samuel 17:25.” ⚙ The Verifier rates the link verbal on the strength of that rarity — H3481 appears in only three verses in the whole OT, so its shared presence in Leviticus 24:10–11 and 2 Samuel 17:25 (Amasa, ‘son of a man… an Ishmaelite/Israelite’) is a true lexical fingerprint, not a common word recurring. Honest caveat: the connection is lexical and onomastic, not thematic — 2 Samuel uses the rare word in a genealogy, not a blasphemy narrative. The link is between the words, and worth noting precisely because the word is so scarce.
Leviticus 24:10 · Leviticus 24:11 · 2 Samuel 17:25
basis: shared rare gentilic H3481 Yisrᵉʼêlîy (only 3 vv in the entire OT) links Lev 24:10–11 to 2 Sam 17:25; lexical fingerprint, not thematic parallel
The verb for stoning, râgam (H7275, ‘to cast stones together’), is deliberately corporate: it is always the whole congregation, never an executioner. ⚙ The Verifier ties Leviticus 24:14 and 24:16 to a cluster of capital-judgment scenes that share this rare verb (15 verses OT): the sabbath-breaker stoned outside the camp (Numbers 15:35–36), the Molech-worshipper (Leviticus 20:2, which also shares gêr, ‘the stranger’), and the congregation that nearly stoned Caleb and Joshua (Numbers 14:10, sharing also ʻêdâh, ‘assembly’). The shared lexemes are real but not rare enough — and the scenes too varied — to call this a quotation; it is a confirmed structural pattern: in Israel, sin against the holy is purged by the act of the whole body.
Leviticus 24:14 · Leviticus 24:16 · Numbers 15:35 · Leviticus 20:2 · Numbers 14:10
basis: shared lexemes H7275 râgam (15 vv) and H5712 ʻêdâh (140 vv), with H1616 gêr at Lev 20:2; a recurring pattern of congregational stoning, not a verbal quotation
The unit's law is not left in the abstract; nine verses later the congregation does exactly what the LORD commanded. ⚙ The Verifier links Leviticus 24:16 to 24:23 by the shared verbs qâlal (H7043, ‘curse’) and râgam (H7275, ‘stone’) and the noun maḥăneh (H4264, ‘camp’) — the narrative frame closing on its own statute. Because the shared lexemes are mid-frequency and the link is law-then-execution within the same chapter, it tiers as structural, not verbal: this is the same author binding command (vv. 14–16) to compliance (v. 23), the surest sign that the inserted narrative and the surrounding code belong together.
Leviticus 24:16 · Leviticus 24:14 · Leviticus 24:23
basis: shared lexemes H7043 qâlal, H7275 râgam, H4264 machăneh bind the law (Lev 24:14–16) to its execution (Lev 24:23) within the one pericope
The crime-verb nâqab (H5344, ‘to bore, pierce; figuratively to designate or revile’) sits at the heart of a real interpretive dispute. Keil argues it must here mean ‘curse’ and equates it with qābab (the verb Balaam is hired to use, Numbers 23:8, 11, 25): “to prick in malam partem, to taunt, i.e., to blaspheme, curse, equals קבב.” The Jewish tradition (per Keil and Cambridge) took the same verb in its neutral sense — merely to pronounce the Name — founding the prohibition on uttering YHWH at all. ⚙ Honest flag: the Verifier finds no shared Strong's lexeme between Leviticus 24:11 and Numbers 23:8 — nâqab (H5344) and qābab (H6895) are different roots. Keil's equation is a lexicographer's argument, not an index-confirmed verbal link. The connection, if any, must be argued from meaning, not asserted from the data; left flagged.
Leviticus 24:11 · Leviticus 24:16 · Numbers 23:8
basis: Verifier finds no shared lexeme; nâqab (H5344) and qābab (H6895) are distinct roots — K&D's semantic equation is contested and not confirmed by the index
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
Ellicott reads the sentence of v. 14 straight through to Calvary: the man is taken “outside the camp… where malefactors were executed (Hebrews 13:12–13),” and Gill notes the same place where, “afterwards without the city,” the condemned suffered (he cites Hebrews 13:12 by name). Hebrews makes the figure explicit: “Jesus also suffered outside the gate, to sanctify the people through his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing the reproach he bore.” The blasphemer is carried out to die under the curse of the Name he reviled; the sinless One is carried out to die as if a blasphemer — the charge the Sanhedrin laid against Him (Matthew 26:65) — bearing the curse so the people might be made holy. ⚙ Honest note: this is a cross-Testament figure (Greek NT ↔ Hebrew OT), so the Verifier finds no shared Strong's lexeme; the connection rests on the place, the curse, and Hebrews' own explicit appeal — typology, not a verbal match.
Leviticus 24:14 · Hebrews 13:12 · Matthew 26:65
The law's verdict on the blasphemer is that he must nāśāʼ his own sin — “bear his sin” (v. 15, nâsâʼ H5375 + ḥêṭ H2399, ‘sin’) — and Gill records that for this crime “there is no atonement… by repentance, or chastisements, or the day of atonement.” One sin the great Day could not cover. The exact same pairing — the verb nâsâʼ with the noun for sin — is what the Suffering Servant does: “he bare the sin of many” (Isaiah 53:12). What the guilty man must carry alone and perish under, the Servant carries for the many. ⚙ Note: the Verifier confirms Leviticus 24:15 and Isaiah 53:12 share two Hebrew lexemes — H5375 nâsâʼ (‘bear/lift’) and the rarer H2399 ḥêṭ (‘sin,’ 33 vv) — so this is a genuine Hebrew↔Hebrew verbal link of the very phrase ‘bear sin,’ not merely a thematic guess (the parallel commonly cited at Isa 53:11 carries no shared index lexeme; the load-bearing verse is 53:12). The step from the Servant to Christ is the cross-Testament one — drawn explicitly by the NT (1 Peter 2:24, ‘he bore our sins in his body on the tree’) — and is typological by attestation, not asserted from the index.
Leviticus 24:15 · Isaiah 53:12 · 1 Peter 2:24
Commenting on v. 16, Gill himself draws the line to the Gospels: of the blasphemer's unpardonable status he writes, “so blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is not forgiven, neither in this world nor in that which is to come, Matthew 12:31.” The Levitical statute that no sacrifice could cover blasphemy of the Name anticipates Jesus' own warning that “the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.” ⚙ Honest note: this is a thematic, cross-Testament link — the Verifier finds no shared lexeme between Lev 24:16 and Matthew 12:31 (Hebrew ↔ Greek). It is a connection of theology, drawn by the commentator and the NT, not a verbal match; the continuity is real but rests on the analogy of an unforgivable assault on God, not on the index.
Leviticus 24:16 · Matthew 12:31
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
This unit is the rare moment where Leviticus turns from statute to story — a single incident in the camp that becomes the occasion for a standing law. The synthesis is built up from the Hebrew, and every commentary excerpt is a verbatim, contiguous substring of the sourced voices_raw, trimmed only at the ends to a pointed quotation — never altered, reordered, modernized, or stitched.
On ‘the Name’ (v. 11). The narrative deliberately withholds the divine name where the blasphemy occurs, writing only haššêm, ‘the Name.’ Poole and Ellicott explain this as the work of reverent copyists who would not write blasphemy beside the Tetragrammaton; Cambridge ties it to the Jewish practice of substituting Adônai. The synthesis follows the commentators in treating ‘the Name’ as standing for YHWH (confirmed by v. 16, where the full phrase is written out), but flags that the substitution is itself a textual-transmission claim.
One offense or two? (vv. 15–16). The honest division in the tradition is preserved, not resolved. Ellicott reads v. 15 of a Gentile cursing his own god and v. 16 of cursing YHWH; Poole and the Pulpit Commentary judge this a single offense restated. The grand commentary presents the single-God reading as the historically dominant one (Pulpit calls it ‘the truer one’) while quoting Ellicott's alternative verbatim and labeling it a minority option.
On the cross-references. The Hebrew-to-Hebrew links (the sabbath-breaker, the rare gentilic ‘Israelite,’ the communal verb râgam) are confirmed by the Verifier on shared Strong's lexemes and tiered by their rarity. The cross-Testament Christ steps (outside the camp → Hebrews 13:12; the Servant → the cross via 1 Peter 2:24; the unpardonable sin → Matthew 12:31) carry no shared Strong's number — Greek and Hebrew cannot share one — and are therefore placed among the Christ-readings as typology, never as ‘verbal.’ One link inside that cluster is, however, Hebrew↔Hebrew and genuinely verbal: Leviticus 24:15 and Isaiah 53:12 share both H5375 nâsâʼ (‘bear’) and the rarer H2399 ḥêṭ (‘sin’) — the very idiom ‘bear sin’ — so the OT half of that figure rests on the index, while only the final move to Christ is typological. (The parallel often cited at Isa 53:11 carries no shared lexeme; the verified verse is 53:12.) The K&D claim that nâqab here equals qābab (Numbers 23) is left flagged: the two are distinct roots, and the index finds no link between the verses.
Transliterations, parsings, literal renderings, and the ‘where the English smooths the Hebrew’ notes are this tool's own work (⚙) — careful, but fallible; check them against a lexicon (BDB, HALOT) and a standard grammar. ‘Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.’ (Acts 17:11)
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)