What Does Exodus 21:14 Mean?
But if a man comes boiling upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile, you take him from my altar, that he may die.
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 if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.THE KEY
No sacred refuge can turn calculated violence into innocence.
THE MEANING
A person who deliberately comes against a neighbor to murder by deceit is taken even from the altar and put to death. Sacred shelter does not erase the life taken or interrupt the judgment named here.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Religious nearness can shield deliberate violence from judgment.
THE ROOT
יָזִד
yazid
GROWS FROM
זוד
zud
Boil; act arrogantly or presumptuously.
“boiling” in this verse is yazid. The verb shares its root with נָזִיד (nazid), a boiled stew, and זֵדִים (zedim), the arrogant. Hebrew lets “presumptuously” carry the image of heat rising past restraint, marking the overreach behind this deceitful attack.
ALSO GROWS
nazid: Stew; a boiled dish.
נָזִיד
The same root can describe boiling, giving the deliberate overreach in this verse an image of heat rising beyond restraint.
zedim: Arrogant or presumptuous people.
זֵדִים
This branch names the stance behind the act: brazen overreach rather than an accidental harm.
בְּעָרְמָה
be'ormah
GROWS FROM
ערם
ʿaram
Act craftily; be shrewd.
“guile” in this verse is be'ormah. The same word-family can describe the prudence offered to the simple in Proverbs and the serpent’s craftiness in Genesis. Here, that sharpness conceals a neighbor’s murder: its nature is revealed by what it serves.
ALSO GROWS
ʿarum: Crafty or shrewd.
עָרוּם
Genesis uses this word for the serpent’s craftiness, echoing the concealed intent in this attack.
ʿormah: Craftiness or prudence.
עָרְמָה
Proverbs uses this word for the shrewdness that can protect the simple; here the same faculty is turned toward deception and murder.
מִזְבְּחִי
mizbechi
GROWS FROM
זבח
zabaḥ
Slaughter, especially for sacrifice.
The altar’s name grows from the root for sacrifice, yet it cannot become cover for a person who uses deceit to murder. The verse distinguishes a sacred offering from violence against a neighbor.
ALSO GROWS
zevaḥ: Sacrifice or slaughter.
זֶבַח
This branch names the sacrificial act associated with the altar, whose sacred use does not shelter the killer.
zoveaḥ: One who sacrifices.
זֹבֵחַ
The root names the person bringing sacrifice as well as the altar; here, that sacred setting cannot overrule the judgment for murder.
THE PATTERN
Religious refuge and ritual cannot turn deliberate wrongdoing into immunity.
Moreover, you shall take no covering for the living soul of a crusher, who is owed death; but he shall surely be put to death.So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up, and struck him, and killed him, and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.For if we willingly keep missing the mark after receiving a full knowing of the truth, there is no longer a slain offering left behind for shortcomings.THE THREAD
Also hold back your servant from the seething ones; let them not rule over me. Then I will be unbroken, and I will be cleansed from great rebellion.The Hebrew for “presumptuous sins” belongs to the same זוד (zud) family as Exodus’s “presumptuously”; the family can also name boiling. Psalm gives this overreach an image of dominion, while Exodus shows how it can become deceitful violence.
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