What Does Exodus 22:20 Mean?
Whoever slaughters to any god, except to the LORD alone, shall be devoted to destruction.
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
He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb behind “utterly destroyed” places the worshiper under an irrevocable ban, making rival sacrifice a death sentence.
THE MEANING
This verse places before you a stark boundary: sacrifice to any god besides the LORD carries the sentence of total destruction. Its language makes the recipient of worship decisive and the consequence bodily, not symbolic.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that worship directed to any god is interchangeable: this verse names rival sacrifice as carrying a lethal consequence.
THE ROOT
יָחֳרָם
yāḥŏrām
GROWS FROM
ח־ר־ם
ḥ-r-m
To place under an irrevocable ban or devote to destruction; here, the ban ends in death.
“devoted to destruction” in this verse is yāḥŏrām. The verb carries the force of being placed under a total ban, not merely receiving a general penalty. In this verse, that status has a lethal consequence: the worshiper who sacrifices to another god is sentenced to destruction.
ALSO GROWS
ḥērem: A person or thing placed under a ban, often devoted to destruction.
חֵרֶם
This noun shows the status named by the verb: the sentence places the worshiper under the ban.
ḥāram: To ban or devote irrevocably, often to destruction.
חָרַם
The verb branch makes clear that “utterly destroyed” carries the idea of an irrevocable ban whose consequence here is death.
זֹבֵחַ
zōvēaḥ
GROWS FROM
ז־ב־ח
z-b-ḥ
To slaughter in sacrifice.
“slaughters” in this verse is zōvēaḥ. The Hebrew word keeps sacrifice connected to slaughter: it names a concrete act, not only an inward feeling of devotion. Its root also links the act to the altar and to the offering made there.
ALSO GROWS
mizbēaḥ: Altar, the place of sacrifice.
מִזְבֵּחַ
The altar shares the root and makes the physical setting of the act visible.
zebaḥ: Sacrifice or slaughtered offering.
זֶבַח
This related noun shows the act and offering growing from the same root.
THE PATTERN
Rival devotion is treated as a real breach of exclusive allegiance, with consequences that can be lethal.
And you shall pelt him with stones, so that he dies, because he has sought to push you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.And Elijah came to all the people, and said, How long will you limp on two branches? If the LORD is God, walk after him, but if Baal, then walk after him. And the people answered him not a word.Then Jesus said to him, Go away, Adversary, for it is written, You shall bow down to the LORD your God, and serve him alone.THE THREAD
Now go and strike Amalek, and devote all that they have to destruction, and do not spare them; but put to death man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.“Utterly destroy” translates the same חרם root used in Exodus 22:20. Here its force is explicit: being placed under the ban means total destruction, extending even to infants and animals.
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