What Does Leviticus 24:18 Mean in the King James?
And he that killeth a beast shall make it good; beast for beast.
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
Where English says “beast for beast,” Hebrew repeats “nefesh for nefesh”, “life for life”, placing the animal’s life at the center of the reckoning.
THE MEANING
An animal’s life is treated as a real loss with a real obligation attached: the life taken must be answered with an equivalent life. The repeated word for living being makes the creature’s life visible in the reckoning.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that an animal’s life can be lost without consequence.
THE ROOT
נֶפֶשׁ
nefesh
GROWS FROM
נפש
n-p-sh
A living being; life as the life of a creature.
The KJV renders the second נֶפֶשׁ as “beast,” hiding that the Hebrew repeats the same word: nefesh under nefesh, life in place of life. The word can also name a human living soul, so the animal’s life is counted with language used for living persons.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: Living soul, person, or living creature.
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the word used for the animal’s life here and for a human as a living soul elsewhere; English translations often divide what Hebrew names with one word.
naphash: To rest or be refreshed.
נָפַשׁ
This verb from the same consonantal root gives the language of living being a kinship with rest and refreshment.
יְשַׁלְּמֶנָּה
yeshalmenah
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete; to make whole or repay.
“Make it good” comes from the root also found in shalom, wholeness. The repayment is described with language of making complete: the loss creates an obligation that must be answered.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, completeness.
שָׁלוֹם
Its shared root reveals the language of repayment as kin to making whole.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch shows the same root’s sense of completion beneath the demand to repay what was lost.
THE PATTERN
When a life or possession is lost through another’s act or responsibility, the loss creates an obligation of restitution.
The owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them; and the dead beast shall be his.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.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
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.Genesis calls the human a נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה, a living soul. Leviticus uses the same word, נֶפֶשׁ, for the animal’s life, showing that the verse reckons with an animal as a living being.
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