What Does Exodus 22:28 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.
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 verse distinguishes making authority seem weightless from calling a curse upon it, while naming the ruler as one lifted up among the people.
THE MEANING
Your speech toward what is sacred and toward the person set over your people is not weightless: this verse names both belittling and cursing as real forms of harm. The ruler is called one lifted up among the people, placing that authority within the shared life of the community.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that contemptuous words are harmless because they only make someone smaller in speech.
THE ROOT
תְּקַלֵּל
teqallel
GROWS FROM
קלל
q-l-l
Be light; make light of, treat as insignificant.
The command against reviling uses a root of lightness: contempt makes someone count for little. English “revile” can hide that image of stripping weight from another.
ALSO GROWS
qal: Light, slight.
קַל
This branch carries the root’s image of lightness beneath the act of making someone seem insignificant.
niqleh: Despised, contemptible.
נִקְלֶה
This form shows the result of being made light of: a person is treated as having little worth.
תָּאֹר
ta'or
GROWS FROM
ארר
ʾ-r-r
Curse; call a curse upon someone.
The second prohibition uses a different root from “revile.” The verse pairs belittling someone with pronouncing a curse upon them, naming two distinct ways speech can cause harm.
ALSO GROWS
arur: Cursed.
אָרוּר
This form names the state called down by the act of cursing.
me'erah: Curse, malediction.
מְאֵרָה
This noun makes the curse itself a thing the root can name.
נָשִׂיא
nāśîʾ
GROWS FROM
נשא
Lift, carry, bear.
The word for ruler is tied to lifting or bearing: the nāśîʾ is one raised up among the people, with the root also carrying the sense of bearing a load. The title holds elevation and responsibility together.
ALSO GROWS
nāśāʾ: Lift, carry, bear.
נָשָׂא
This is the root verb behind the ruler’s title, linking being raised up with carrying.
massāʾ: Load, burden; also an oracle.
מַשָּׂא
This branch keeps the sense of bearing visible alongside the ruler’s elevated position.
THE PATTERN
Words that curse or diminish those who hold authority are treated as consequential acts within a community.
Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.THE THREAD
Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.Acts 23:5 repeats the command against speaking evil of “the ruler of thy people.” The shared wording carries this boundary over speech into another moment and community.
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