What Does Exodus 21:23 Mean in the King James?

And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,

Exodus 21:23 · KJV

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 ⁨נֶפֶשׁ⁩ (nephesh, “living soul/person”) makes “life for life” a measure of one human being against another, not an abstract unit.

THE MEANING

When harm reaches a person’s life, the verse names the consequence in the same measure: life for life. The lost person remains the measure; the verse does not reduce that loss to an abstraction.

THE ROOT

נֶפֶשׁ

nephesh

GROWS FROM

נ־פ־שׁ

The living self: a person or living being, life as embodied existence.

Nephesh names the living person, not a detachable quantity called “life.” Repeated on both sides of ⁨תַּחַת⁩ (tachat, “in place of”), it keeps the consequence at the scale of the human life lost.

ALSO GROWS

nefashot: Persons; living beings, plural of nephesh.

נְפָשׁוֹת

The plural keeps the word personal: the lives being measured are living beings, not abstractions.

nafash: To be refreshed or rest.

נָפַשׁ

This related verb belongs to the same word family as the living self; the verse’s repeated nephesh makes that living reality the measure of its consequence.

THE PATTERN

Judgment answers in the measure of the harm or the measure one applies.

Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

Genesis 9:6 · KJVThe life taken sets the measure for the consequence, echoing “life for life.”

And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it: and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death.

Leviticus 24:21 · KJVThe stated consequence remains at the scale of the life lost.

For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

Matthew 7:2 · KJVThe same measure logic appears in judgment: the measure applied becomes the measure returned.

THE THREAD

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2:7 · KJV

The same word ⁨נֶפֶשׁ⁩ (nephesh, “living soul/person”) appears in “a living soul” (⁨נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה⁩, nephesh chayyah, “living soul”). That makes “life for life” concrete: the measure is a whole living person.

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