What Does Exodus 21:34 Mean in the King James?
The owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them; and the dead beast shall be his.
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 verb for making good shares a root with shalom: here, wholeness takes the form of a settled payment, while the dead animal passes to the one who pays.
THE MEANING
This verse presents repair as something countable: the loss is met with payment to its owner. The person responsible also receives the dead animal, so compensation and what remains of the loss are assigned together. The harm is not erased; responsibility gives its aftermath an order.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that good intentions alone settle a loss: making it good includes paying the owner and taking responsibility for what remains.
THE ROOT
יְשַׁלֵּם
yeshallēm
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
Be whole or complete; in this verb form, make good or repay.
“make it good / pay” in this verse is yeshallēm. The verb yeshallēm belongs to the same root family as shalom, so making good carries the sense of settling what is due. The verse does not make the dead animal alive again; it assigns payment and the carcass, giving the loss a concrete accounting.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness or well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This branch reveals the shared root behind wholeness and repayment: here, what is owed is brought to a settled account.
shalēm: Whole or complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch echoes the root’s sense of completeness, while the verse shows that repayment can address a loss without reversing it.
shillēm: To repay or recompense.
שִׁלֵּם
This related verb makes the payment sense of yeshallēm visible: making good includes a material return.
THE PATTERN
When harm leaves a measurable loss, repair gives what is owed a concrete form and assigns what remains.
If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man’s field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution.And he that killeth a beast shall make it good; beast for beast.And Zacchæus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.THE THREAD
And he that killeth a beast shall make it good; beast for beast.The same root, שׁלם (sh-l-m), appears in Leviticus in the phrase translated “make it good.” Its “beast for beast” makes the accounting explicit, opening this verse’s two-part settlement: payment to the owner and the dead animal to the payer.
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