What Does Exodus 21:35 Mean?
And if one man's ox gores another's, so that it dies, then they sell the living ox, and halve its silver, and the dead ox also they halve.
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 if one man’s ox hurt another’s, that he die; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it; and the dead ox also they shall divide.THE KEY
Even what survives the collision is sold and divided; neither owner keeps the whole remainder.
THE MEANING
When one ox lives and the other dies, both the living animal’s sale price and the dead animal itself enter the split. The loss is unequal, but neither side keeps all that remains. The verse makes shared damage a shared account.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The surviving animal’s value belongs only to its owner, while the other owner bears the death alone.
THE ROOT
יִגֹּף
yiggōp
GROWS FROM
נ־ג־ף
ngf
Strike, dash against, or inflict a blow.
“gores” in this verse is yiggōp. The verb behind “hurt” describes impact: one ox strikes against another. Related forms also name a blow or stumbling, so the same root holds both the collision and the fall it can cause.
ALSO GROWS
nagaph: Strike or dash against.
נָגַף
Psalm 91:12 uses this root for a foot striking against a stone, making the physical force in this verse concrete.
negeph: A stumbling or cause of falling.
נֶגֶף
Isaiah 8:14 uses this related form for a “stone of stumbling,” showing how a blow can become a point of falling.
maggephah: A plague or striking blow.
מַגֵּפָה
The root can name an impact that spreads into wider harm, extending the image beyond one collision.
וְחָצוּ
vechatsu
GROWS FROM
ח־צ־ה
ḥ-ts-h
Split or divide into portions.
“halve” in this verse is vechatsu. The verse repeats this root: first the money from the living ox is divided, then the dead ox itself. The split covers both the value that survives and the body that does not.
ALSO GROWS
ḥaṣî: Half.
חֲצִי
This related form makes the root’s concrete sense clear: division produces portions.
maḥaṣît: A half or half-share, as in a half-shekel.
מַחֲצִית
The half-share echoes the verse’s division of the sale price between the owners.
הַחַי
haḥay
GROWS FROM
ח־י־ה
ḥ-y-h
Live, be alive, or preserve life.
The Hebrew calls this ox “the living one,” from the root for life; it then sets it beside “the dead one.” The rule divides the value of the living animal and the dead animal alike.
ALSO GROWS
ḥayyîm: Life or living.
חַיִּים
The plural form carries the same life-root found in “the living ox.”
ḥayyāh: A living creature or animal.
חַיָּה
The animal itself is named through the same root that marks it as alive.
THE PATTERN
A just account follows responsibility and loss: shared damage is apportioned, while known neglect carries direct repayment.
Or if it is known that the ox has been a goring ox from yesterday and the day before, and its owner does not keep it in, he surely makes it whole, ox for ox, and the dead is his own.For I do not mean that others be loosened, and you be pressed. But through evenness, that in this present season your overflow may fill their lack, and their overflow may fill your lack, that there may be evenness.If one limb aches, all the limbs ache with it, and if one is clothed in weight, all of them rejoice with it.THE THREAD
They lift you up on their palms, lest your foot dash against a stone.The verb translated “hurt” in Exodus and “dash” here comes from נ־ג־ף (nagaph, strike against). One collision kills an ox; the other is a foot striking stone, showing the same root’s force across different scales.
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