לְבִנְךָ֔ (lə·ḇin·ḵā) in Deuteronomy 6:21: Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular construct | second person masculine singular
לְבִנְךָ֔ (lə·ḇin·ḵā) in Deuteronomy 6:21
Source Word
Deuteronomy 6:21 token 2 is לְבִנְךָ֔, H1121, parsed Prep-l | N-msc | 2ms and aligned with him.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The source form turns a bare pronoun into a relational scene: an adult answers a child's serious covenant question with remembered deliverance.
How To Communicate It
Use the hidden kinship relation to model patient, historically honest answers that connect commands to the Lord's rescue rather than to control alone.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- The English him points back to the questioning son; the Hebrew form explicitly means to your son.
- The masculine singular kinship form must not be used to exclude daughters or silence any child's questions.
- Retell the exodus as deliverance from real oppression, never as a sentimental analogy that diminishes the suffering of enslaved people.
What Does The Label Mean?
Hebrew-nominal
Noun
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular construct | second person masculine singular
Masculine
Singular
Construct
Prep-l
Second person masculine singular
The preposition marks the recipient of the answer, and the construct noun with its suffix means to your son. English uses him because verse 20 has already introduced the questioning son, but the Hebrew form keeps the family relation visible.
The phrase directs Israel's exodus testimony to the child who asks why the covenant commands matter.
What The Form Does In This Verse
The recipient phrase completes you are to tell and points back to the son whose question appears in verse 20.
The question-and-answer pattern explaining the covenant commands through Israel's deliverance from slavery.
It identifies the child to whom the exodus confession is spoken.
It does not make questions disloyal, restrict testimony to boys, guarantee the child's response, or turn slavery into a harmless illustration.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The form preserves a parent-child recipient relation hidden by the contextual English pronoun in a foundational teaching scene.
L-prefixed construct noun with second-person possessor. identifies the addressee's son as recipient of the exodus testimony. Attached to you are to tell. Governed by the child's covenant question. The antecedent permits a pronoun in English, while Hebrew retains the kinship noun.
Why does the BSB say him when the source form contains son? Verse 20 already names the son, so English uses a pronoun; the Hebrew repeats the relationship as to your son.
Interpretive: Him avoids repetition in English but leaves the explicit source-language kinship relation beneath the surface.
The suffix identifies whose son is addressed, not who owns or controls the child. The masculine form belongs to the example's ancient discourse and does not bar daughters from covenant learning. The child's question is the occasion for testimony, not a problem to punish.
Him erases the family relation: Restore to your son when explaining the source form and connect it to verse 20. only sons should receive instruction: Do not convert grammatical gender in the example into exclusion from the community's teaching. good children do not question: The passage anticipates a question and directs a substantive answer rooted in remembered deliverance.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
Deuteronomy 6:21 token 2 is לְבִנְךָ֔, H1121, parsed Prep-l | N-msc | 2ms and aligned with him.
בֵּן names a son or descendant; here its construct relation and suffix specify the addressee's son as the recipient of an answer.
Verse 20 supplies the questioning child, the l-prefix completes tell to, and the suffix links the son to the adult being addressed.
Israel is to answer the next generation's question by recounting slavery, the Lord's deliverance, covenant gift, and life-giving commands.
Biblical faith repeatedly remembers deliverance and welcomes truthful testimony; this memory should honor people harmed by enslavement rather than romanticize domination.
Treat the child's question as an opening for relational testimony, speak accurately about oppression, and include the whole community in passing on the story.
Do not suppress questions, restrict instruction to male children, promise automatic faith, or use the exodus memory to minimize historic or present enslavement.