What Does Exodus 21:36 Mean in the King James?
Or if it be known that the ox hath used to push in time past, and his owner hath not kept him in; he shall surely pay ox for ox; and the dead shall be his own.
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
Once the ox’s pattern is known, the owner’s failure to guard it changes the loss from chance into responsibility.
THE MEANING
A known pattern of harm makes the owner accountable for leaving it unguarded: he owes an ox for the ox, and the dead ox remains his. The verse distinguishes a danger already known from a first, unforeseeable blow.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a harm remains just an accident even after its pattern is known.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁמְרֶנּוּ
yishmerennu
GROWS FROM
שׁמר
to watch over, guard, or keep
“kept him in” in this verse is yishmerennu. The word carries the sense of guarding, not merely putting up a fence. English can make the owner’s failure sound like a missed act of containment; the root points to the ongoing attention a known danger requires.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: One who watches over or guards.
שֹׁמֵר
The watchman branch makes the root’s active attention visible: keeping involves watching, not just possessing.
mishmeret: A responsibility entrusted to someone to keep or guard.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch brings out the responsibility carried by the owner’s role once the ox’s behavior is known.
שַׁלֵּם יְשַׁלֵּם
shallēm yeshallēm
GROWS FROM
שלם
to make whole or complete; to repay or recompense
“pay” in this verse is shallēm yeshallēm. The verse repeats the root in its wording for assured payment, then specifies the measure: an ox for an ox. The same root gives שָׁלוֹם (shalom), wholeness or well-being, so the compensation belongs to a word-family concerned with what is made whole.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: A state of wholeness or well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
Its shared root reveals a connection between the verse’s repayment and the wider idea of making whole.
shillēm: To pay or repay what is owed.
שִׁלֵּם
This is the payment branch heard in the verse’s doubled wording, which makes the compensation certain.
THE PATTERN
The one entrusted with a danger-bearing responsibility bears the cost when failure to guard it harms another.
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.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.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.THE THREAD
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 repeats שׁמר (shamar, guard or keep) in describing the owner’s failure to restrain the known goring ox. Here the cost is an ox for an ox; there, when the same unguarded danger kills a person, the liability escalates.
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