What Does Exodus 21:18 Mean in the King James?
And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:
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 blow is measured not only by whether the person dies, but by whether his body is forced to lie down.
THE MEANING
When force enters a conflict, the person may survive and still be unable to rise. Survival does not erase the injury; the verse keeps the injured person’s condition in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
“If the blow does not kill, it has done no serious harm.” The verse treats the surviving person’s injury as consequential.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁכָּב
mishkav
GROWS FROM
שכב
The consonantal root שכב (sh-k-b) means to lie down or recline.
The Hebrew word for “bed” grows from the verb “to lie down.” The injury is described through the posture it leaves the person in: the blow has brought him down, even though he lives.
ALSO GROWS
shakhav: to lie down or recline
שָׁכַב
This is the verb at the root of “bed,” making the place and the bodily posture part of the same word family.
shokhev: one lying down
שֹׁכֵב
This form names the person in the posture the verse describes: alive, but laid low by the blow.
יְרִיבֻן
yerivun
GROWS FROM
ריב
The consonantal root ריב (r-y-b) means to contend or dispute.
“strive” in this verse is yerivun. The conflict begins with a word for contending, and the verse follows that contention into bodily harm. The same root can name both a quarrel and a dispute brought into judgment, linking the conflict to the legal reckoning that follows.
ALSO GROWS
riv: dispute or contention
רִיב
This noun shares the root and shows that the conflict can be named as a dispute, not only as a physical fight.
merivah: quarrel or strife
מְרִיבָה
This related word makes the opening conflict explicit: the injury grows out of contention between people.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats an injury as real and consequential even when it does not end in death.
If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again.And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.THE THREAD
The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.The word for “bed” in Exodus and the word for “bed” here share the Hebrew root שכב (sh-k-b), “to lie down.” Exodus shows the injured person brought low; Psalm 41:3 uses that same lying-down word family for the place where the languishing person is strengthened.
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