What Does Exodus 21:33 Mean in the King James?
And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein;
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
An uncovered pit remains an open passage from the surface into danger, and the person who makes it leaves that passage exposed.
THE MEANING
When you open or dig and leave the opening uncovered, danger is present before anyone falls. The ox or donkey makes the consequence visible: an exposed opening turns ordinary ground into a sudden drop. The verse connects that danger to the person who leaves the passage open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A fall is not only a matter of chance when someone has left a dangerous opening exposed; the hazard remains connected to the person who made it.
THE ROOT
יִפְתַּח
yiftaḥ
GROWS FROM
פתח
To open, make accessible, or create an opening.
“open” in this verse is yiftaḥ. The root פתח also forms פֶּתַח, an entrance, and מַפְתֵּחַ, a key. The pit is an access point into the ground, left without a boundary to stop an animal from passing through it.
ALSO GROWS
petaḥ: Opening, entrance, or doorway.
פֶּתַח
The pit is an opening in the ground, a passage from the surface into a hidden depth.
maphteaḥ: Key.
מַפְתֵּחַ
A key opens access; the shared root makes the pit’s opening a point of passage that remains uncontrolled.
יְכַסֶּנּוּ
yekhasennu
GROWS FROM
כסה
To cover or conceal.
The omitted cover is a concrete boundary left undone. The same root appears in words for a covering, making the danger hinge on an exposed opening rather than on the intention behind making it.
ALSO GROWS
mikhseh: Covering.
מִכְסֶה
This word names the physical layer missing over the pit.
mekhasseh: One who covers; covering.
מְכַסֶּה
This form keeps the act attached to a person: the verse names covering as an action that was left undone.
THE PATTERN
An opening creates responsibility when it leaves others exposed to a preventable fall.
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.He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.THE THREAD
Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,Psalm 78:23 uses the same Hebrew root פתח for opening, here opening the heavens. The shared root shows an opening as a passage; what it admits depends on what lies beyond it.
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