What Does Exodus 23:11 Mean in the King James?

But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard.

Exodus 23:11 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The land’s rest is a release of human claim, and what is released becomes food for the poor and the wild.

THE MEANING

The land is released from cultivation, and its growth feeds both the poor among the people and the beasts of the field. Its rest becomes shared provision, extending beyond the one who tends the vineyard or oliveyard.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the belief that land is fruitful only when people keep working it and claiming its yield.

THE ROOT

תִּשְׁמְטֶנָּה

tishmetenna

GROWS FROM

שמט

shamat

To release or let drop.

The word rendered “rest” carries the sense of releasing the land from cultivation. The release is not empty: what grows becomes food for people in need and for the animals of the field.

ALSO GROWS

shamat: To drop, let fall, or release.

שָׁמַט

The verb names the act of letting the land go from the usual claim of cultivation.

shemittah: A release or remission, including the seven-year release named in Deuteronomy 15:1.

שְׁמִטָּה

This related form links the land’s release to a wider pattern of relinquishing claims.

THE PATTERN

When claims on production are released, provision reaches beyond the one who cultivated or owned the yield.

And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,

Leviticus 25:6 · KJVThe land’s rest yields food shared among the household and the stranger.

At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.

Deuteronomy 15:1 · KJVThe same release principle appears in the seven-year relinquishing of claims.

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

Matthew 6:26 · KJVThe birds receive food without sowing or storing it, extending provision beyond human production.

THE THREAD

At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.

Deuteronomy 15:1 · KJV

Exodus uses ⁨שָׁמַט⁩ (shamat, release or let drop) for letting the land go; Deuteronomy uses the related ⁨שְׁמִטָּה⁩ (shemittah, release) for the seven-year release. The shared root joins the land’s yield and human claims in one recurring act of relinquishment.

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