What Does Deuteronomy 17:5 Mean in the King James?
Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verb for stoning here is also used in Isaiah for clearing stones from a vineyard: one Hebrew root holds both stones used against a person and stones removed from the ground.
THE MEANING
The sentence is concrete and lethal: a man or woman is brought to the gates and stoned until death. The repetition keeps both the person subjected to the command and its final outcome in view.
THE ROOT
וּסְקַלְתָּם
u-seqaltam
GROWS FROM
סקל
To stone or pelt with stones; in a Biblical use, to clear stones away.
“stone them” in this verse is u-seqaltam. The verb here is סקל (saqal), “to stone”; Isaiah 5:2 uses the same root when stones are cleared from a vineyard. One word-family names stones used against a person and stones removed from the ground.
ALSO GROWS
saqal: To stone or pelt with stones.
סָקַל
This is the verb used for the act commanded in this verse.
wayseqalehu: He cleared it of stones.
וַיְסַקְּלֵהוּ
Isaiah 5:2 uses this form of the same root for clearing stones from a vineyard.
וְהוֹצֵאתָ
ve-hotzeta
GROWS FROM
יצא
To go out, come out, or emerge.
The verb translated “bring forth” is a causative form of יצא, literally “cause to go out.” The root describes the accused being brought out to the gates; the same causative form describes the LORD bringing Israel out of Egypt in Deuteronomy 13:10.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: To go out or come out.
יָצָא
The basic motion inside the verse’s causative verb is going out.
hotsi: To bring out or cause to go out.
הוֹצִיא
This is the causative form used for the accused’s movement to the gates.
yetzi'ah: Departure or going out.
יְצִיאָה
This noun keeps the root’s outward movement visible across its forms.
THE PATTERN
The text repeatedly presents stoning as a public, communal form of execution.
And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death.And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.THE THREAD
And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.Isaiah uses וַיְסַקְּלֵהוּ (wayseqalehu), from the same root סקל (saqal), for clearing stones from a vineyard. Both uses remain concrete: stones are removed from the ground in Isaiah and used against a person here.
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