What Does Deuteronomy 19:21 Mean in the King James?
And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
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 repeated body parts place a boundary around consequence: pity cannot erase the harm, and response cannot exceed it.
THE MEANING
Here, judgment is measured against the injury: life answers to life, eye to eye, tooth to tooth, hand to hand, and foot to foot. The command against pity names a refusal to spare the one whose act caused the harm. In the surrounding passage, this measure answers to false testimony.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that pity requires a judge to overlook harm: here, sparing the one who caused it would make the injury disappear from judgment.
THE ROOT
תָחוֹס
taḥōs
GROWS FROM
ח־ו־ס
To spare, to have pity.
The word carries the force of sparing someone, so the verse addresses more than a feeling in the eye: it names the decision to withhold a consequence. Here, pity cannot make the harm vanish from judgment.
ALSO GROWS
ḥûs: Spare; show pity.
חוּס
This verb names the act of sparing that the verse says the eye must not do.
taḥōs: Shall spare; shall pity.
תָחוֹס
This form appears in the verse, making pity a concrete choice about whether judgment is carried out.
נֶפֶשׁ
nephesh
GROWS FROM
נ־פ־ש
The living self, the living soul or person.
The measure begins with a living person, not an abstract unit called “life.” The repeated body parts keep that same concreteness: judgment is attached to the actual person and injury at stake.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh: Living soul; person.
נֶפֶשׁ
In “life for life,” the word brings the living person into view rather than treating life as a detached idea.
vayyinnāphaš: Was refreshed; rested.
וַיִּנָּפַשׁ
This verbal form appears in Exodus 31:17; its connection to the living self adds the dimension of a life that can be restored.
THE PATTERN
The measure of consequence is bounded by the measure of injury.
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again.Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:THE THREAD
Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:The phrase “thine eye pity” uses the same verb as “thine eye shall not pity” here. In both verses, pity carries the force of sparing, making clear that the text concerns withholding judgment as well as feeling compassion.
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