What Does Deuteronomy 5:17 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt not kill.
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 root behind “kill” also appears for an accidental manslayer and for the avenger who kills him, so context, not the root alone, distinguishes murder from other homicide.
THE MEANING
This command meets you now as a boundary against murder. Its Hebrew verb also appears where a death is accidental or a killing is legally authorized, keeping circumstance visible within the language of homicide.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that this line classifies every human-caused death as the same act falls away: the same root appears in laws that distinguish accidental killing from murder.
THE ROOT
תִּרְצָח
tirṣāḥ
GROWS FROM
רצח
r-ṣ-ḥ
Rāṣaḥ means to slay or commit homicide; context identifies the circumstances and culpability.
The Hebrew verb is often rendered “murder,” but the same root also describes accidental homicide and a legally authorized killing. English “kill” can flatten these distinctions; the surrounding law makes them visible.
ALSO GROWS
rōṣēaḥ: Murderer or slayer; the person who kills.
רֹצֵחַ
This agent form appears in Numbers 35:16, showing the root names both the act and the person who commits it.
wə-rāṣaḥ: And he kills or slays; in Numbers 35:27 it describes the avenger of blood killing the manslayer outside the refuge city.
וְרָצַח
The same root can describe a killing authorized in that law, showing why the command’s scope depends on context as well as the word itself.
THE PATTERN
Scripture protects human life while distinguishing murder from other deaths and tracing violence into the heart.
Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.Then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you; that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unawares. And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from the avenger; that the manslayer die not, until he stand before the congregation in judgment.THE THREAD
And this is the case of the slayer, which shall flee thither, that he may live: Whoso killeth his neighbour ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past;“The slayer” is הָרֹצֵחַ (hā-rōṣēaḥ, “the slayer”), from the same root רצח (rāṣaḥ, “to slay or commit homicide”) as תִּרְצָח (tirṣāḥ, “you shall kill”) in the command. Here the refuge law applies that root to an unintended death, showing how context distinguishes the act.
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