What Does Exodus 21:31 Mean in the King James?
Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.
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 judgment does not change with the child’s sex: son and daughter stand under one measure.
THE MEANING
The same judgment applies whether the ox gores a son or a daughter. The ruling falls on the owner, and the verse leaves the violence of the child’s injury fully in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the assumption that a child’s sex changes the measure of judgment: the same ruling is named for either.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
ש־פ־ט
To judge, decide, or render a ruling.
Mishpat carries the sense of both a ruling and the standard that gives it shape. Its word family includes judging and the judge who decides, so “according to this judgment” frames the consequence as governed by a stated measure, one applied to son and daughter alike.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: To judge or decide a case.
שָׁפַט
The act of judging is the root beneath the ruling named in the verse.
shofet: A judge; one who decides.
שֹׁפֵט
This branch shows the person who applies the measure carried by mishpat.
mishpatim: Judgments or ordinances.
מִשְׁפָּטִים
The plural form points to a body of established rulings, not a measure shifted for each person.
THE PATTERN
A stated measure of judgment holds across differences in sex, status, and origin.
Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God.Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.For there is no respect of persons with God.THE THREAD
Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.“In judgment” translates the same Hebrew word, mishpat, used in Exodus 21:31. Deuteronomy pairs it with hearing “the small as well as the great,” showing the same measure holding across differences between people.
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