What Does Exodus 21:14 Mean in the King James?
But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.
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
No sacred refuge can turn calculated violence into innocence.
THE MEANING
A person who deliberately comes against a neighbor to murder by deceit is taken even from the altar and put to death. Sacred shelter does not erase the life taken or interrupt the judgment named here.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Religious nearness can shield deliberate violence from judgment.
THE ROOT
יָזִד
yazid
GROWS FROM
זוד
zud
Boil; act arrogantly or presumptuously.
The verb shares its root with נָזִיד (nazid), a boiled stew, and זֵדִים (zedim), the arrogant. Hebrew lets “presumptuously” carry the image of heat rising past restraint, marking the overreach behind this deceitful attack.
ALSO GROWS
nazid: Stew; a boiled dish.
נָזִיד
The same root can describe boiling, giving the deliberate overreach in this verse an image of heat rising beyond restraint.
zedim: Arrogant or presumptuous people.
זֵדִים
This branch names the stance behind the act: brazen overreach rather than an accidental harm.
בְּעָרְמָה
be'ormah
GROWS FROM
ערם
ʿaram
Act craftily; be shrewd.
“guile” in this verse is be'ormah. The same word-family can describe the prudence offered to the simple in Proverbs and the serpent’s craftiness in Genesis. Here, that sharpness conceals a neighbor’s murder: its nature is revealed by what it serves.
ALSO GROWS
ʿarum: Crafty or shrewd.
עָרוּם
Genesis uses this word for the serpent’s craftiness, echoing the concealed intent in this attack.
ʿormah: Craftiness or prudence.
עָרְמָה
Proverbs uses this word for the shrewdness that can protect the simple; here the same faculty is turned toward deception and murder.
מִזְבְּחִי
mizbechi
GROWS FROM
זבח
zabaḥ
Slaughter, especially for sacrifice.
The altar’s name grows from the root for sacrifice, yet it cannot become cover for a person who uses deceit to murder. The verse distinguishes a sacred offering from violence against a neighbor.
ALSO GROWS
zevaḥ: Sacrifice or slaughter.
זֶבַח
This branch names the sacrificial act associated with the altar, whose sacred use does not shelter the killer.
zoveaḥ: One who sacrifices.
זֹבֵחַ
The root names the person bringing sacrifice as well as the altar; here, that sacred setting cannot overrule the judgment for murder.
THE PATTERN
Religious refuge and ritual cannot turn deliberate wrongdoing into immunity.
Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death.So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up, and fell upon him, and slew him: and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,THE THREAD
Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.The Hebrew for “presumptuous sins” belongs to the same זוד (zud) family as Exodus’s “presumptuously”; the family can also name boiling. Psalm gives this overreach an image of dominion, while Exodus shows how it can become deceitful violence.
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