What Does Deuteronomy 19:5 Mean in the King James?
As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour, that he die; he shall flee unto one of those cities, and live:
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 fleeing shares its root with “refuge”: the way out is already present when an accidental blow takes a life.
THE MEANING
The death is real, and the person whose hand caused it still has a place to flee and live. Refuge keeps a path to life open without erasing what happened.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that accidental harm leaves no path to life: the verse names a place of refuge and says the person lives.
THE ROOT
יָנוּס
yanus
GROWS FROM
נוס
nus
To flee, escape, or take flight.
The root of “flee” also forms a word for refuge, making escape and shelter parts of one movement. Here flight leads to a place where the person can live, while the accidental death remains true.
ALSO GROWS
manos: Refuge; a place of escape.
מָנוֹס
This branch names the shelter toward which the person flees: refuge is already contained in the root’s movement away from danger.
menusah: Flight or escape.
מְנוּסָה
This branch names the act of getting out of danger, echoing the verse’s path from the fatal accident toward continued life.
THE PATTERN
When life is exposed to danger, refuge creates a bounded way to keep living.
And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:THE THREAD
And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.Deuteronomy says the person “shall flee” (יָנוּס), and Exodus uses the same root for fleeing to an appointed place. The repeated root lets refuge appear as the destination already contained in flight, keeping a path to life open after an unintended death.
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