What Does Exodus 22:31 Mean?
And you shall be set-apart men to me; you shall not eat any flesh torn by beasts in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs.
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 ye shall be holy men unto me: neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs.THE KEY
The verse calls you set apart and draws that boundary at your table: what a beast has torn is not your food.
THE MEANING
Your belonging to God reaches the table: flesh torn by beasts is excluded from your food and cast to the dogs. Holiness is not left as a title; it marks the boundary between what you receive as food and what you leave outside.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Belonging to God is only inward and has no bearing on what enters the body.
THE ROOT
קֹדֶשׁ
qodesh
GROWS FROM
קדשׁ
To be set apart or consecrated.
The verse says “men of holiness,” naming a belonging rather than an isolated quality. The same root names both a set-apart person and a set-apart place; here, that belonging reaches into the boundary around the meal.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Describes what is set apart.
קָדוֹשׁ
It echoes the identity named in “men of holiness.”
miqdash: A place set apart.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The shared root links a set-apart people with a place set apart for God.
טְרֵפָה
terefah
GROWS FROM
טרף
To tear or seize as prey.
“torn by beasts” in this verse is terefah. The Hebrew identifies this flesh as prey torn by a beast, not simply meat in a damaged condition. The verse places that prey outside the human meal and gives it to the dogs.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāraph: To tear or seize as prey.
טָרַף
This verb makes the violence named by “torn” audible in the root.
ṭeref: Food taken or torn as prey.
טֶרֶף
This branch shows that the flesh is named by its relation to the beast that seized it.
THE PATTERN
What enters the body can become a visible expression of belonging to God.
For I am the LORD your God. Set yourselves apart, and be set apart, for I am set apart. Do not make yourselves unclean through any swarming thing that creeps upon the earth.But Daniel set in his heart that he would not be soiled with the king's bread, nor with the wine he drank, and so he sought from the master of the eunuchs that he might not be soiled.So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the end that God is given weight.THE THREAD
For I am the LORD your God. Set yourselves apart, and be set apart, for I am set apart. Do not make yourselves unclean through any swarming thing that creeps upon the earth.Exodus calls the people אַנְשֵׁי־קֹדֶשׁ (anshei qodesh, men of holiness); Leviticus uses קָדוֹשׁ (qadosh, set apart), from the same קדשׁ (qadash, set apart) root. The shared root connects the food boundary with the same set-apart belonging.
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