What Does Exodus 21:29 Mean in the King James?

But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.

Exodus 21:29 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The decisive fact is not only that the ox kills, but that its owner has already been warned and fails to guard it.

THE MEANING

When a danger has been witnessed and reported, leaving it unrestrained is no longer innocent ignorance; responsibility reaches the one who can guard it. The verse names the consequence in full severity: the ox is stoned, and its owner is put to death.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

“The animal caused it, so the owner bears no responsibility” collapses when the owner has been warned and does not restrain it.

THE ROOT

יִשְׁמְרֶנּוּ

yishmerennu

GROWS FROM

שׁמר

to guard, watch over, or keep

“kept him in” in this verse is yishmerennu. The Hebrew verb comes from shamar, which carries the sense of guarding what has been entrusted to one’s care. The hinge is the owner’s failure of that guard after warning: the ox’s violence remains real, and the owner’s failure to restrain it becomes part of the verse’s account of responsibility.

ALSO GROWS

shomer: One who watches and guards.

שֹׁמֵר

This branch makes the owner’s role active: he is responsible for keeping watch over a known danger.

mishmeret: An entrusted watch, charge, or duty.

מִשְׁמֶרֶת

It shows that keeping is a responsibility attached to what has been entrusted, not merely possession of it.

THE PATTERN

Knowledge of foreseeable danger makes care a responsibility and neglect accountable.

When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence.

Deuteronomy 22:8 · KJVA known risk of falling calls for a guard, and failing to provide it brings responsibility for the resulting harm.

But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

Luke 12:48 · KJVThe verse makes what a person knows and has been entrusted with part of the measure of their accountability.

THE THREAD

And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Genesis 2:15 · KJV

The word translated “keep” shares the root shamar with “kept him in” here: both describe guarding what has been entrusted. Genesis names the charge; Exodus shows how failure to keep watch becomes decisive when danger is already known.

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