What Does Exodus 22:23 Mean in the King James?
If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;
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 Hebrew repeats all three actions, afflict, cry, hear, making harm, the vulnerable person’s voice, and God’s certain attention one unbroken chain.
THE MEANING
When someone is pressed under another’s power, their cry reaches God, who surely hears. The verse holds harm and attention together: suffering is neither invisible nor dismissed. Its assurance speaks now wherever a cry seems to disappear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it undoes is that being powerless makes a person’s pain inaudible to God.
THE ROOT
עַנֵּה
ʿannēh
GROWS FROM
ענה
to afflict, oppress, or humble
“afflict” in this verse is ʿannēh. The Hebrew repeats the root in עַנֵּה תְעַנֶּה, intensifying the act of afflicting. Its word family connects the deed to the afflicted person and the condition of affliction, keeping the human cost inside the verb.
ALSO GROWS
ʿinnûy: affliction, oppression
עִנּוּי
It names the suffering produced by the act in this verse.
ʿānî: poor, afflicted person
עָנִי
It names the person who bears the pressure, not just the pressure itself.
צָעֹק
tsaʿoq to cry
GROWS FROM
צעק
to cry out, call urgently
The verse repeats this root too: צָעֹק יִצְעַק, “cry, cry.” The doubled outcry is not a passing sound; it is the voice of the afflicted reaching toward God.
ALSO GROWS
tseʿaqah: cry, outcry
צְעָקָה
It is the noun for the cry itself, as in Exodus 3:7.
tsoʿeq: one crying out
צֹעֵק
It keeps the focus on a person whose voice rises under pressure.
שָׁמֹעַ
shamoa to hear
GROWS FROM
שמע
to hear, listen, heed
שָׁמֹעַ אֶשְׁמַע repeats the root, “hear, I will hear”, to make the hearing certain. The word family also includes shema, hearing that answers, so the verse’s assurance carries attentive force.
ALSO GROWS
shema: hear and respond
שְׁמַע
This familiar form shows how hearing can include an answering response.
shemuah: report, something heard
שְׁמוּעָה
It shows the root’s reach from hearing an utterance to the report carried by it.
THE PATTERN
A cry from someone under oppression reaches God and is met with attentive, consequential hearing.
And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.THE THREAD
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;This verse braids the same roots: affliction (ענה), outcry (צעק), and hearing (שמע). Exodus 3:7 makes the link explicit: the affliction is seen, the cry is heard, and the suffering is known.
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