(11) Blasphemed the name of the Lord, and cursed.--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 same shyness on the part of copyists has been the cause of inserting the word Lord (Adona?) and God (Eloh?m) for Jehovah in sundry passages of the Old Testament. During the second Temple, however, this passage was rendered, "he pronounced the Name and cursed." Hence it was enacted that the simple pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton was criminal. In accordance with the ancient interpretation, the Chaldee version translates this part of the verse, "And when they came out of the house of judgment, having been condemned, the son of the Israelitish woman pronounced and reviled the great and glorious name of manifestation which had been heard on Sinai, and he was defiant and annoying."

And they brought him unto Moses.--The contention about his right to pitch his tent among the tribe to which his mother belonged being a minor point, came within the jurisdiction of the rulers, according to the advice of Jethro (Exodus 18:22); whilst blaspheming God was considered too serious an offence, and hence the criminal was brought to Moses.

And his mother's name was Shelomith.--Whether we accept the traditional explanation, that Shelomith was no consenting party to her union with the Egyptian, or whether we regard her as having voluntarily married him, the fact that both her personal and tribal names are here so distinctly specified, indicates that the record of this incident is designed to point out the ungodly issue of so unholy an alliance, and to guard the Hebrew women against intermarriage with heathen.

Verse 11. - In the course of the straggle the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord, and cursed. The word nakav is here rightly translated blasphemeth (cf. verses 14, 16, 23), but the words of the Lord should be omitted, as they are not found in the original, and are not required. The LXX. have rendered nakav by a word meaning pronounced, and on this misunderstanding, adopted by the Jews, has been founded the Jewish precept forbidding the utterance of the Divine Name. Owing to that prohibition, the true pronunciation of the word written and called "Jehovah" has been lost. Wherever the Name occurred in Scripture, that of Adoring, meaning Lord, was substituted for it in public reading, the consonants only of the original name, Y H V H, being preserved in the written text, and the vowels of Adonai, namely a o a, being written underneath them in lieu of the original vowels. From the consonants Y H Y H and the vowels a o a would be formed Yahovah or Jahovah, but the laws of the Hebrew language required the first a to be changed into e, and hence the name Jehovah. It is almost certain that the original vowels were a and e, which would form the name Yahveh, the Samaritans having always so pronounced it, according to the testimony of Theodoret. It is said that the high priest continued to utter the very name Yahveh on the Day of Atonement long after it had ceased to be used in the reading of the Scriptures, and that when he did so, those who heard it prostrated themselves, saying, "Blessed be the Name!" After a time, however, he ceased to pronounce it aloud on that day also, lest it should be learnt and used for magical purposes. In consequence, perhaps, of the substitution of Adonai for Yahveh, the Septuagint version always reads for Yahveh, Κύριος: and the English version the LORD. In French and other versions the name is represented by the Eternal, and it has been proposed to substitute the latter rendering for the Loud in our own version. But it is more than doubtful whether we should then come nearer to the true sense of the original Yahveh, although at first sight it appears that this would be the case. For the word Yahveh is part of the causative form of the verb havah, or hayah, to be; but this verb is not used to express unchangeable or absolute existence, but rather an occurrence: its causative form, therefore, would signify that which brings about events; and the substantive derived from that causative form would signify, not one that eternally exists, but one that providentially governs. For an induction of instances for the further proof of the above meaning of the word Yahveh, we refer the reader to Sir William Martin's essay 'On the Divine Name' ('Semitic Languages,' part 2), from which we transcribe the concluding paragraph. "This view of the Divine Name, to which we are led by the evidence of the Hebrew language itself, is in full conformity with the general religious teaching of the Old Testament, which is practical and moral; setting forth in form readily intelligible, the character of God in his relations to man. It does not concern itself with those problems which philosophy has ever been seeking to solve. It addresses itself to human needs and human duties, and not to abstract inquiries. Not that the highest abstract truths were unknown or untaught. Lawgiver and prophet and psalmist set before the people the greatness and the eternity of God in language most clear and impressive. Yet the Name whereby he was put before them as the object of their daily worship, was not one which would exalt him to the utmost above the frail and changeful and transitory lives of his worshippers, and thereby remove him far away from them into the height of a Being beyond man's search or comprehension; but rather a Name which should bring him nigh to them, as One ever mindful of them, ever carrying forward his great purpose for their good, working for their deliverance in every time of need; as One 'whose providence ordereth all things in heaven and on earth.' If this Name did convey to the mind of a Hebrew hearer the thought above expressed, it follows that the old rendering Adonai, Κύριος, or Lord, is to be preferred to that which has of late been substituted for it." And they brought the blasphemer unto Moses. This was in accordance with the counsel of Jethro, accepted by Moses (Exodus 18:13-26): "Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: and let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge:... and they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves."

Parallel Commentaries ...


The son
בֶּן־ (ben-)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 1121: A son

of the Israelite
הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִ֤ית (hay·yiś·rə·’ê·lîṯ)
Article | Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 3482: Israelite -- female descendant of Israel

woman
הָֽאִשָּׁ֨ה (hā·’iš·šāh)
Article | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 802: Woman, wife, female

blasphemed
וַ֠יִּקֹּב (way·yiq·qōḇ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 5344: To puncture

the Name
הַשֵּׁם֙ (haš·šêm)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 8034: A name

and cursed.
וַיְקַלֵּ֔ל (way·qal·lêl)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 7043: To be slight, swift or trifling

So they brought
וַיָּבִ֥יאוּ (way·yā·ḇî·’ū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

him to
אֶל־ (’el-)
Preposition
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to

Moses.
מֹשֶׁ֑ה (mō·šeh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 4872: Moses -- a great Israelite leader, prophet and lawgiver

(His mother’s
אִמּ֛וֹ (’im·mōw)
Noun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 517: A mother, )

name
וְשֵׁ֥ם (wə·šêm)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 8034: A name

was Shelomith
שְׁלֹמִ֥ית (šə·lō·mîṯ)
Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 8019: Shelomith -- the name of several Israelites

daughter
בַּת־ (baṯ-)
Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 1323: A daughter

of Dibri,
דִּבְרִ֖י (diḇ·rî)
Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 1704: Dibri -- a Danite

of the tribe
לְמַטֵּה־ (lə·maṭ·ṭêh-)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 4294: A staff, rod, shaft, branch, a tribe

of Dan.)
דָֽן׃ (ḏān)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 1835: Dan -- 'judge', a son of Jacob, also a place in Northern Israel


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OT Law: Leviticus 24:11 The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed (Le Lv Lev.)