What Does Exodus 21:9 Mean in the King James?
And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
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 arrangement assigns her future, yet the measure of her treatment is the standing of daughters.
THE MEANING
The surrounding verses place her in service and leave the arrangement in male hands; here, if the man designates her for his son, he must treat her according to the standard of daughters. The protection is real but bounded: this sentence establishes a household status and says nothing about her consent or independent choice.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that being assigned within a household permits her to be treated as a lesser dependent: the stated standard is the daughters’ standing.
THE ROOT
יִיעָדֶנָּה
yiyeʿādennāh
GROWS FROM
יעד
y-ʿ-d
appoint, designate, set by appointment
“betrothed” in this verse is yiyeʿādennāh. The verb also carries the sense of appointing or designating, so the verse makes clear that her place is assigned within the household. The same root links that assignment to מוֹעֵד (moʿed, an appointed time or meeting), language of something formally set in place.
ALSO GROWS
yaʿad: To appoint or assign.
יָעַד
This is the verb’s core sense and brings the act of arranging her future into view.
moʿed: A set time or meeting.
מוֹעֵד
The shared root connects her designation with something formally appointed, rather than a status left undefined.
כְּמִשְׁפַּט
kəmišpāṭ
GROWS FROM
שפט
š-p-ṭ
judge, decide, govern
“after the manner” in this verse is kəmišpāṭ. The word translated “manner” is mishpat, a judgment or rule. The phrase gives her treatment a stated standard: the rule that applies to daughters.
ALSO GROWS
mišpāṭ: A judgment, ruling, or prescribed order.
מִשְׁפָּט
It shows that “after the manner” names a standard for treatment, not merely a gesture of affection.
šōfēṭ: One who judges or administers judgment.
שֹׁפֵט
The related word for judge echoes the legal force of setting how she is to be treated.
THE PATTERN
A vulnerable person’s place in a household or community carries concrete obligations of care and justice.
If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge:Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.THE THREAD
If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.Verse 9 names the status she must receive; verse 10 gives its material terms: food, clothing, and marital obligation. Together, the text makes that daughter-standard concrete while leaving the power imbalance of the arrangement visible.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us