What Does Leviticus 6:4 Mean in the King James?
Then it shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took violently away, or the thing which he hath deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he found,
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 word for “restore” means “bring back,” so repair reverses the movement that carried the thing away.
THE MEANING
The verse makes guilt concrete: what enters your hands through seizure or deceit, what another entrusts to you, and what you find after another loses it still belongs within that relationship. Repair takes shape as the return of the thing itself. The breach reaches beyond the mind and into the shared world.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that remorse by itself repairs a breach dissolves here: guilt is joined to returning what was taken, withheld, entrusted, or found.
THE ROOT
וְהֵשִׁיב
ve-hēshîv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
Turn back; return.
“restore” in this verse is ve-hēshîv. The form הֵשִׁיב (hēshîv) means to bring back or cause to return, framing repair as a reversal of movement. The same root gives תְּשׁוּבָה (teshuvah), a return or turning back, and מֵשִׁיב (meshiv), one who brings back; the word-family keeps return and restoration joined.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: Return; turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
The same root names a return as a movement, opening “restore” beyond a transaction to the act of turning back.
meshiv: One who brings back or restores.
מֵשִׁיב
This form makes the agent of return visible: restoration is something brought about, not merely felt.
הַגְּזֵלָה
hagezelah
GROWS FROM
גזל
gazal
Seize by force; rob.
“took violently away” in this verse is hagezelah. The noun for the thing taken and the verb for taking it share גזל (gazal), the language of seizure. Set beside שׁוּב (shuv), the verse holds opposite motions together: what was grabbed is brought back.
ALSO GROWS
gazal: To seize or rob.
גָּזַל
This is the verb in the verse’s phrase for taking violently away; the noun and action grow from the same root.
gazul: Robbed; taken by force.
גָּזוּל
The word describes the thing by the act that displaced it, keeping the taking visible in the object’s name.
הָאֲבֵדָה
ha’avedah
GROWS FROM
אבד
avad
Be lost; perish; lose the way.
“lost thing” in this verse is ha’avedah. The Hebrew word for lost property grows from אָבַד (avad), a verb for being lost or perishing. Even after someone finds the object, the word keeps its history of loss in view: finding it does not erase the loss from which it came.
ALSO GROWS
avad: To be lost or perish.
אָבַד
The lost object is named by the same root that describes the state of being lost.
avaddon: Destruction; ruin.
אֲבַדּוֹן
This related form shows the root’s wider language of loss, while the verse applies it to a specific lost possession.
THE PATTERN
When possession is distorted by taking, the breach is answered through material return.
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.If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.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
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.The Hebrew verb translated “Restore” here comes from the same root, שׁוּב (shuv), as Leviticus’s “restore.” Leviticus names a possession brought back; Psalm 51 uses the same word for joy brought back, extending the root’s movement from material repair to inward restoration.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us