What Does Exodus 21:16 Mean?
And he who steals a man and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, is surely put to death.
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
And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.THE KEY
The verse treats a human being seized for sale as a stolen person, never as property the captor can rightfully own.
THE MEANING
The verse draws a hard boundary around a human being: whoever takes someone and sells them stands under a death sentence. Being found with that person “in his hand” names possession as part of the same crime. Capture and sale do not turn a person into property.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A person does not become ownable through capture, purchase, or possession; the verse assigns death to the one who takes and sells them.
THE ROOT
גֹנֵב
gonev
GROWS FROM
גנב
ganav
to steal, to take secretly
“stealeth” in this verse is gonev. The verse uses the ordinary theft root with a human being as its object: גֹנֵב אִישׁ (gonev ish, steals a man or person). The root links the act to theft itself, while the object makes clear that taking a person is the violation.
ALSO GROWS
gannav: thief
גַּנָּב
The same root names the person who takes; here the person-stealer faces the sentence.
genevah: theft
גְּנֵבָה
This branch names the act as theft, even when what is stolen is a human being.
וּמְכָרוֹ
u-mekharō
GROWS FROM
מכר
makhar
to sell, to transfer for a price
“selleth him” in this verse is u-mekharō. The text moves from taking a person to selling that same person; theft becomes a transaction without changing its human object. The closing phrase “found in his hand” keeps possession inside the charge.
ALSO GROWS
mokher: seller
מוֹכֵר
This branch names the one who turns the stolen person into an item of exchange.
mekhirah: sale
מְכִירָה
This branch names the transfer for a price that follows the taking.
THE PATTERN
When a person is seized and made merchandise, Scripture exposes the trade in human life as a grave violation.
If a man is found stealing a living soul from among his brothers, from the children of Israel, and seizes him and sells him, then that thief dies, and you burn out the evil from your midst.for fornicators, for those who lie in bed with men, for those who make men captives, for those who speak falsely, for oath-breakers, and if anything else lies against the healthy teaching;And cinnamon, and fragrances, and incense, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and bodies, and living souls of humankind.THE THREAD
If a man is found stealing a living soul from among his brothers, from the children of Israel, and seizes him and sells him, then that thief dies, and you burn out the evil from your midst.Deuteronomy repeats גֹנֵב (gonev, one who steals) from the root גנב (ganav, steal) and specifies the stolen object as נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, living soul), taken from among his brothers. Its language of making merchandise and selling him reveals how possession turns the theft of a person into trade.
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