Exodus 21:15
New International Version
“Anyone who attacks their father or mother is to be put to death.

New Living Translation
“Anyone who strikes father or mother must be put to death.

English Standard Version
“Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.

Berean Standard Bible
Whoever strikes his father or mother must surely be put to death.

King James Bible
And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.

New King James Version
“And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

New American Standard Bible
“And one who strikes his father or his mother shall certainly be put to death.

NASB 1995
“He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

NASB 1977
“And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

Legacy Standard Bible
“And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

Amplified Bible
“Whoever strikes his father or his mother must be put to death.

Christian Standard Bible
“Whoever strikes his father or his mother must be put to death.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Whoever strikes his father or his mother must be put to death.”

American Standard Version
And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
He who will strike his father or his mother shall certainly be killed.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Whoever smites his father or his mother, let him be certainly put to death.

Contemporary English Version
Death is the punishment for attacking your father or mother.

Douay-Rheims Bible
He that striketh his father or mother, shall be put to death.

English Revised Version
And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
"Whoever hits his father or mother must be put to death.

Good News Translation
"Whoever hits his father or his mother is to be put to death.

International Standard Version
"Whoever strikes his father or his mother is certainly to be put to death.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.

Literal Standard Version
And he who strikes his father or his mother is certainly put to death.

Majority Standard Bible
Whoever strikes his father or mother must surely be put to death.

New American Bible
Whoever strikes father or mother shall be put to death.

NET Bible
"Whoever strikes his father or his mother must surely be put to death.

New Revised Standard Version
Whoever strikes father or mother shall be put to death.

New Heart English Bible
"Anyone who attacks his father or his mother shall be surely put to death.

Webster's Bible Translation
And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.

World English Bible
“Anyone who attacks his father or his mother shall be surely put to death.

Young's Literal Translation
'And he who smiteth his father or his mother is certainly put to death.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Personal Injury Laws
14But if a man schemes and acts willfully against his neighbor to kill him, you must take him away from My altar to be put to death. 15Whoever strikes his father or mother must surely be put to death. 16Whoever kidnaps another man must be put to death, whether he sells him or the man is found in his possession.…

Cross References
Exodus 21:14
But if a man schemes and acts willfully against his neighbor to kill him, you must take him away from My altar to be put to death.

Exodus 21:16
Whoever kidnaps another man must be put to death, whether he sells him or the man is found in his possession.


Treasury of Scripture

And he that smites his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.

Deuteronomy 21:18-21
If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: …

Deuteronomy 27:24
Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbour secretly. And all the people shall say, Amen.

Proverbs 30:11,17
There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother…

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Attacks Blow Death Gives Mother Smiteth Strikes Striketh Surely
Exodus 21
1. Laws for men servants
5. For the servant whose ear is bored
7. For women servants
12. For manslaughter
16. For kidnappers
17. For cursers of parents
18. For smiters
22. For a hurt by chance
28. For an ox that gores
33. For him who is an occasion of harm














(15-17) And he that smiteth his father . . .-With homicide are conjoined some other offences, regarded as of a heinous character, and made punishable by death: viz. (1), striking a parent; (2) kidnapping; and (3) cursing a parent. The immediate sequence of these crimes upon murder, and their punishment by the same penalty, marks strongly God's abhorrence of them. The parent is viewed as God's representative, and to smite him is to offer God an insult in his person. To curse him implies, if possible, a greater want of reverence; and, since curses can only be effectual as appeals to God, it is an attempt to enlist God on our side against His representative. Kidnapping is a crime against the person only a very little short of murder, since it is to deprive a man of that which gives life its chief value--liberty. Many a man would prefer death to slavery; and to almost all the passing into the slave condition would be a calamity of the most terrible kind, Involving life-long misery. Its suddenness and unexpectedness, when the result of kidnapping, would augment its grievousness, and render it the most crushing of all misfortunes. Joseph's history shows us how easy it was to sell a free man as a slave, and obtain his immediate removal into a distant country (Genesis 37:25-28). The Egyptian annals tell us of bloody wars carried on for kidnapping purposes (Lenormant, Histoire Ancienne, vol. i., pp. 423, 424). In the classical times and countries, the slaves offered for sale in the markets had usually been obtained in this way. The stringent law of the Mosaic code (Exodus 21:16) was greatly needed to check an atrocious crime very widely committed.

Verses 15-17. - Other capital offences. The unsystematic character of the arrangement in this chapter is remarkably shown by this interruption of the consideration of different sorts of homicide, in order to introduce offences of quite a different character, and those not very closely allied to each other - e.g.,

1. Striking a parent;

2. Kidnapping;

3. Cursing a parent. Verse 15. - He that smiteth his father, etc. To "smite" here is simply to "strike" - to offer the indignity of a blow - not to kill, which had already been made capital (ver. 12), not in the case of parents only, but in every case. The severity of the law is very remarkable, and strongly emphasises the dignity and authority of parents. There is no parallel to it in any other known code, though of course the patria potestas of the Roman father gave him the power of punishing a son who had struck him, capitally.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
He who strikes
וּמַכֵּ֥ה (ū·mak·kêh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Participle - masculine singular construct
Strong's 5221: To strike

his father
אָבִ֛יו (’ā·ḇîw)
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 1: Father

or mother
וְאִמּ֖וֹ (wə·’im·mōw)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 517: A mother, )

must surely
מ֥וֹת (mō·wṯ)
Verb - Qal - Infinitive absolute
Strong's 4191: To die, to kill

be put to death.
יוּמָֽת׃ (yū·māṯ)
Verb - Hofal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 4191: To die, to kill


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OT Law: Exodus 21:15 Anyone who attacks his father or his (Exo. Ex)
Exodus 21:14
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