Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death. Cursing a parent is grouped with killing and kidnapping in the severity of its consequences — not because words are as physically harmful as violence but because the attack on the covenant structure of family is equally destructive. Matthew 15:4 quotes this verse directly when Jesus confronts the Pharisees about their tradition of Corban, which allowed people to devote money to God that should have gone to their parents: God said, honor your father and mother, and anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death. Jesus uses Exodus 21:17 as the standard against which their tradition is measured and found wanting. The law protecting parents stands regardless of religious arrangements designed to circumvent it.

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