What Does Deuteronomy 22:7 Mean?
You shall surely send the mother away, and take the young for yourself, so that it goes well with you, and you may lengthen your days.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days.THE KEY
The verse permits taking the young, but commands that the mother be released: restraint is part of the taking.
THE MEANING
You may take the young, yet the mother must be sent away. The verse joins that limit to your good and to days made long; care reaches even into what you are allowed to take.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that permission to take something makes every kind of taking harmless.
THE ROOT
שַׁלֵּחַ תְּשַׁלַּח
shalleaḥ teshalleaḥ
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ח
sh-l-ḥ
To send, send away, or release.
“surely send the mother away” in this verse is shalleaḥ teshalleaḥ. The Hebrew repeats the verb in an emphatic construction: “you shall surely send her away.” Release is not a general refusal to take anything here; it is the boundary placed around taking the young.
ALSO GROWS
shaliaḥ: Messenger; one who is sent.
שָׁלִיחַ
The messenger carries the root’s sense of being sent forth, showing how release and sending share one word-family.
mishloaḥ: Sending or dispatch; also used for portions sent to others.
מִשְׁלוֹחַ
This branch keeps the motion of the root visible: what is sent away leaves the sender’s immediate grasp.
וְהַאֲרַכְתָּ
vehaʾarakhta
GROWS FROM
ארך
ʾ-r-k
To be long or make long; to lengthen.
“lengthen your days” in this verse is vehaʾarakhta. The promise literally uses the language of lengthening: “you will lengthen days.” Its image of extended time follows a command that limits what may be taken from a living creature.
ALSO GROWS
ʾarokh: Long.
אָרֹךְ
The adjective shows the basic length-image carried by the promise of prolonged days.
ʾerekh appayim: Slow to flare.
אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם
The same root of length appears in a phrase for restraint, echoing the verse’s limit on taking.
THE PATTERN
The taking of life is bounded by regard for the living beings within reach.
Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall stop, that your ox and your donkey may settle, and the son of your handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed.The aligned perceives the living soul of his beast, but the compassions of the wicked are cruel.Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins, and not one of them slips from God's sight?THE THREAD
And Moses and Aaron came in to Pharaoh, and said to him, Thus says the LORD God of the Hebrews. How long will you refuse to bend low before me? Let my people go, so that they may serve me.“Let my people go” uses the same root, ש־ל־ח (sh-l-ḥ), as the command to send the mother bird away. In both verses, release means letting a living being leave the grip of the one who holds it.
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