Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 27:24
‘Cursed is he who strikes down his neighbor in secret.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses addresses Israel on the plains of Moab, just before they cross the Jordan into the Promised Land. He recites a covenant curse to establish legal and moral boundaries for the nation.
The words — The text highlights אָרוּר (’a.Rur), meaning “cursed,” and בַּסָּתֶר (ba./Sa.ter), meaning “in secrecy.” These terms frame the prohibition as a divine judgment against covert violence that escapes human detection.
The thread — This condemnation of hidden killing aligns with the prohibition in Exodus 20:13 and the capital punishment mandate in Leviticus 24:17. It also connects to the judicial restriction in Numbers 35:31 that a murderer’s life cannot be redeemed by payment.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that divine justice covers crimes hidden from human courts. The communal “Amen” requires each listener to personally affirm the covenant’s standard against unobserved violence.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbour secretly. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Cross-references
- Numbers 35:31 You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death.
- Leviticus 24:17 And if a man takes the life of anyone else, he must surely be put to death.
- Exodus 20:13 You shall not murder.
- Exodus 21:12 Whoever strikes and kills a man must surely be put to death.
- Deuteronomy 19:11 If, however, a man hates his neighbor and lies in wait, attacks him and kills him, and then flees to one of these cities,
- 2 Samuel 3:27 When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab pulled him aside into the gateway, as if to speak to him privately, and there Joab stabbed him in the stomach. So Abner died on account of the blood of Joab’s brother Asahel.
- 2 Samuel 11:15 In the letter he wrote: “Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest battle; then withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and killed.”
- 2 Samuel 12:9 Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own. You have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites.
- 2 Samuel 13:28 Now Absalom had ordered his young men, “Watch Amnon until his heart is merry with wine, and when I order you to strike Amnon down, you are to kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and valiant!”
- 2 Samuel 20:9 “Are you well, my brother?” Joab asked Amasa. And with his right hand Joab grabbed Amasa by the beard to kiss him.