What Does Leviticus 23:29 Mean in the King James?
For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his 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 turns refusal into severance: the root that names being “cut off” also names cutting a covenant.
THE MEANING
Here, a person who is not humbled on this day is cut off from their people. The verse makes the consequence stark: refusal is not left private but ends in separation. It does not explain that separation away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that refusing the day’s required humbling has no consequence for belonging.
THE ROOT
וְנִכְרְתָה
ve-nikhretah
GROWS FROM
כרת
karat
to cut or sever
The same root names cutting a covenant (כָּרַת בְּרִית, karat berit, to cut a covenant) and being cut off. One root holds both binding and severance, making this consequence a concrete rupture from the people.
ALSO GROWS
karat: Cut; sever.
כָּרַת
This concrete action underlies the verse’s image of being cut off.
karat berit: Make a covenant, literally “cut a covenant.”
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The same root can name a binding bond and its severance.
karet: A cutting off; excision.
כָּרֵת
This branch makes clear that separation is the stated consequence, not a vague loss.
תענה
te'uneh
GROWS FROM
ענה
ʿānâ
to humble, lower, or afflict
This verb carries the sense of being brought low or humbled as well as afflicted. The verse’s force is not merely that a person feels pain: the living self remains un-humbled, and the text names the consequence.
ALSO GROWS
ʿānî: Poor, lowly, afflicted.
עָנִי
This related word carries the same sense of being brought low.
ʿinnui: Affliction; humiliation.
עִנּוּי
The noun preserves the root’s connection between hardship and being humbled.
נֶפֶשׁ
nephesh
GROWS FROM
נפש
nephesh
the living self; a person as a living being
English “soul” can sound like a separate inner part, while נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh, living soul or person) names the living self. The related נָפַשׁ (nafash, be refreshed or rested) connects this word with lived, restorable life; the consequence here reaches the whole person.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh: A living being; a person.
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the word in the verse: the consequence addresses the person as a living self.
nafash: To be refreshed; to rest.
נָפַשׁ
This related verb keeps the root connected to the condition of a living person.
THE PATTERN
Humbling the self before God is a whole-person posture whose meaning is tested in life.
And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you:Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.THE THREAD
And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you:The same root ענה (ʿānâ, to humble or afflict) appears in both verses. Leviticus 16:29 names the humbling of the living self on this day; Leviticus 23:29 states what follows when that humbling is absent.
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