What Does Exodus 22:1 Mean in the King James?
If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.
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
“Restore” carries the root sense of wholeness, yet here the repair is deliberately larger than the loss: one stolen ox or sheep becomes a fivefold or fourfold debt.
THE MEANING
This verse gives taking and disposing of another’s animal a measurable cost: five oxen for an ox, four sheep for a sheep. The loss remains answerable even after the animal is killed or sold, and the repayment exceeds what was taken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a loss disappears once what was taken is gone: this verse says the obligation remains, and the debt grows.
THE ROOT
יְשַׁלֵּם
yeshallēm
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete; in this verb form, to repay or make good.
The word translated “restore” belongs to the same root family as words for wholeness and well-being. That connection lets repayment carry more than the sense of returning property: it is a response to what has been disrupted, while the fivefold and fourfold amounts keep the cost of the loss visible.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being
שָׁלוֹם
It shares the root’s association with a condition made whole, illuminating the sense of repair within repayment.
shalem: Whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This form makes the root’s idea of completeness explicit, a meaning carried into the act of making good a loss.
shillem: Repaid, recompensed
שִׁלֵּם
This related verb names the repayment that the verse requires.
THE PATTERN
Restitution answers a loss with a quantified repayment that exceeds what was taken.
Then they shall confess their sin which they have done: and he shall recompense his trespass with the principal thereof, and add unto it the fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed.But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.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
But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.Proverbs uses the same Hebrew repayment verb, יְשַׁלֵּם (yeshallēm), from שלם (sh-l-m), as Exodus 22:1. The shared root joins repayment with wholeness, while the sevenfold measure makes the scale of repair unmistakable.
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