What Does Numbers 35:20 Mean in the King James?
But if he thrust him of hatred, or hurl at him by laying of wait, that he die;
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
A killing’s hidden cause is already part of its visible act: the verse names hostility and ambush before it names death.
THE MEANING
Here, death is tied to hostility and a hidden approach. The visible blow does not tell the whole story by itself; the verse exposes the motive and preparation within the act.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that only the outcome matters, while motive and preparation are irrelevant details.
THE ROOT
שִׂנְאָה
sin’ah
GROWS FROM
שׂנא
ś-n-ʾ
to hate or regard as an enemy
The Hebrew places “in hatred” directly before “he thrusts him”: hostility is the force within the motion. The same root forms “to hate” and “one who hates,” tying the inward stance to the person’s outward relation.
ALSO GROWS
śānēʾ: to hate
שָׂנֵא
This verb shows hatred as a directed stance toward another person, not a detached label.
śōnēʾ: one who hates; a hater
שֹׂנֵא
The same root can name the person by the hostility they carry, linking inner disposition with outward relation.
צְדִיָּה
tsediyyah
GROWS FROM
צדה
ṣ-d-h
to hunt or lie in wait
The term translated “laying of wait” belongs to a root also used for hunting: the hidden attacker is pictured as one who hunts a target. Concealment is part of the violence’s design, joining inward hostility to an outward plan.
ALSO GROWS
tsādâ: to hunt; to lie in wait
צָדָה
The hunting sense casts the person targeted in an ambush as prey, making the deliberate pursuit visible beneath the English phrase.
tsediyyah: lying in wait; ambush
צְדִיָּה
This noun names the hidden setup itself, showing that concealment is part of the act.
THE PATTERN
An act of lethal harm is understood through both its outcome and the intention that moves it.
But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.And this is the case of the slayer, which shall flee thither, that he may live: Whoso killeth his neighbour ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past;Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.THE THREAD
But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or have cast upon him any thing without laying of wait,The paired line reverses the marks in this verse: sudden action instead of ambush, and no enmity instead of hatred. It shows why motive and preparation matter: the parallel action is understood differently when both are absent.
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