What Does Deuteronomy 24:2 Mean in the King James?
And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife.
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 line does not leave her at the threshold: she goes out, moves onward, and becomes, departure already faces a future.
THE MEANING
The verse holds separation and future belonging in the same sentence: she leaves one home and may become another man’s wife. Her life is not frozen at the moment of departure; the sentence carries her onward into a new marriage.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that leaving a marriage leaves a woman permanently defined by her former household: the verse names another marriage as a possible future.
THE ROOT
וְיָצְאָה
wə-yāṣəʾâ
GROWS FROM
יצא
y-ṣ-ʾ
to go out, emerge
“departed” in this verse is wə-yāṣəʾâ. The Hebrew holds the verbs in one continuous movement: she goes out, goes onward, and becomes another man’s wife. Departure here is a threshold in her story, not its final state.
ALSO GROWS
yetzi'ah: departure, going out
יְצִיאָה
This noun from the same root gives her leaving the house the shape of a real passage across a threshold.
yetsi'at Mitzrayim: the going out from Egypt, Mitzrayim, the two narrows
יְצִיאַת מִצְרַיִם
The familiar Exodus phrase uses the same root for going out; it links this departure to passage from one domain without making the situations identical.
וְהָיְתָה
wə-hāyəṯāh
GROWS FROM
היה
h-y-h
to be, become, happen
“be” in this verse is wə-hāyəṯāh. The sentence ends not with her leaving, but with what she becomes afterward: another man’s wife. The root lets the final verb name a new state of belonging.
ALSO GROWS
hāyāh: to be, become, happen
הָיָה
This is the root’s basic verb, holding existence and becoming together as the verse moves toward her new marital status.
yihyeh: he or it will be
יִהְיֶה
This future form from the same root echoes the verse’s movement toward a life that continues after the departure.
וְהָלְכָה
wə-hāləḵāh
GROWS FROM
הלך
h-l-k
to go, walk
“go” in this verse is wə-hāləḵāh. The middle verb keeps the movement going between leaving the first house and becoming another man’s wife. She is the subject of the verbs: the sentence carries her onward rather than ending with her exit.
ALSO GROWS
holekh: one who goes or walks
הוֹלֵךְ
This form from the same root keeps the focus on a person in motion, like the woman continuing beyond the first household.
halikhah: going, walking
הֲלִיכָה
The noun preserves the sense of movement in the verse’s middle step: departure is followed by going onward.
THE PATTERN
A departure can be a threshold between one domain and a new place or bond.
And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.THE THREAD
And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.The Hebrew behind “departed” (וְיָצְאָה, wə-yāṣəʾâ, “she went out”) shares the root יצא (yatsa, “go out”) with “went out” in Exodus. One root names a woman’s exit from a house and a people’s exit from Mitzrayim, the two narrows; in both verses, going out is a threshold into what follows.
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