What Does Deuteronomy 22:3 Mean in the King James?
In like manner shalt thou do with his ass; and so shalt thou do with his raiment; and with all lost thing of thy brother’s, which he hath lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise: thou mayest not hide thyself.
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 Hebrew calls ignoring a found loss “hiding yourself”, the thing is not the only thing that can disappear.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks when something belonging to another comes into view: an animal, a garment, or any lost thing that is found. It names the finder’s withdrawal as part of the scene: there is no disappearing from another person’s loss. What has come to light remains connected to the one who lost it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Another person’s loss becomes none of my concern if I did not cause it.
THE ROOT
להתעלם
lehitʿalem
GROWS FROM
עלם
ʿ-l-m
To conceal or be hidden.
The verb is reflexive: the person who finds can make themselves disappear from the scene. English “hide thyself” carries the deeper image that ignoring what has been found is a kind of self-concealment.
ALSO GROWS
neʿlam: Hidden, concealed, or unknown.
נֶעְלָם
The same root describes what has gone out of sight, linking the finder’s withdrawal to the hiddenness of the lost thing.
heʿlim: To hide or conceal something.
הֶעְלִים
This form names concealment as an act, sharpening the verse’s image of a person making themselves absent from what they have found.
אבדת
avēdat
GROWS FROM
אבד
ʾ-b-d
To perish, be lost, or go astray.
The word for a lost thing belongs to a root that can also describe perishing or losing the way. The verse sets that loss beside finding: what has slipped from its owner’s reach is still present to the finder.
ALSO GROWS
avēdāh: A lost thing or property; a loss.
אֲבֵדָה
This is the noun behind the verse’s “lost thing,” keeping the object’s missing status connected to the root of loss.
ʾoved: Perishing or lost.
אֹבֵד
In Deuteronomy 26:5, this form describes one “ready to perish”; the same root holds the loss of property and the peril of a life.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats another’s visible loss as a claim on what is within reach, measured by concrete return or provision.
If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?THE THREAD
Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother.Both verses use עלם (ʿ-l-m, conceal) in להתעלם (lehitʿalem, hide oneself or ignore). Verse 1 names the straying animal; verse 3 extends the same refusal to disappear to clothing and every other lost thing.
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