What Does Deuteronomy 21:14 Mean in the King James?
And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her.
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 release does not turn her humiliation into a transaction: she goes where she chooses, and cannot be sold.
THE MEANING
When your desire for another person ends, their direction does not become yours to control or sell; she is released to choose where she goes. The verse names the injury plainly: you have humbled her. Her life is not merchandise, and the verse bars you from profiting from the harm you caused.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that ending a relationship gives the person with more power the right to decide the other’s future or profit from the harm done.
THE ROOT
וְשִׁלַּחְתָּהּ
wəshillaḥtāh
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send forth, release, let go.
“let her go” in this verse is wəshillaḥtāh. The verb is shalach: to send forth or release. Here release opens a direction she chooses, literally, “to her own nefesh”, after the verse names the affliction he has caused.
ALSO GROWS
shilluach: Sending away or dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
It carries the same sense of sending someone out, making her departure an act of release.
shulchan: Table; a surface set out with provision.
שֻׁלְחָן
The extended table echoes shalach’s outward movement: what is set forth goes beyond the one who holds it.
לְנַפְשָׁהּ
lenafshah
GROWS FROM
נפש
Living being, person, self.
The phrase rendered “whither she will” literally turns toward her own nefesh, her living self. The wording places her person at the destination: she is released to her own life and direction, not transferred to another owner.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: Living soul, person, self.
נֶפֶשׁ
It names the living person whose choice the release restores.
nafash: Be refreshed or take respite.
נָפַשׁ
This branch evokes a life allowed space to recover after affliction.
עִנִּיתָהּ
ʿinnitāh
GROWS FROM
ענה
Afflict, humble, bring low.
“humbled her” in this verse is ʿinnitāh. The verb carries affliction and humiliation, naming harm rather than a mere change in status. The ban on selling her is tied directly to what he has done to her, so her injury cannot be turned into commerce.
ALSO GROWS
ʿoni: Affliction or misery.
עֳנִי
It makes the cost in “humbled her” visible as suffering, not simply a lowered position.
ʿinnui: Affliction or humiliation.
עִנּוּי
It carries the same root’s sense of injury that grounds the prohibition on selling her.
THE PATTERN
When one person has power over another, release must end control without turning that person’s vulnerability into profit.
If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty:The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,THE THREAD
And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty:Deuteronomy 21:14 and Deuteronomy 15:13 use the same shalach root for sending someone away free. The companion verse adds that release must not leave the person empty, showing that freedom concerns the conditions of departure as well as the end of possession.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us