What Does Leviticus 22:28 Mean?

And whether cow or ewe, you shall not slaughter it and its young both in one day.

Leviticus 22:28 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And whether it be cow or ewe, ye shall not kill it and her young both in one day.

THE KEY

The Hebrew calls the young “its son,” keeping kinship visible even in the act of slaughter.

THE MEANING

The boundary holds the mother and her young as a relationship, not just two animals available for use. The verse allows slaughter, yet draws a line at taking both lives in the same day. Its wording keeps that bond present now, even where life is treated as useful.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that once a life is available for use, its bonds no longer matter.

THE ROOT

בְּנוֹ

beno

GROWS FROM

בנה

banah

Build, establish; the noun for “son” is traditionally linked with this root.

The Hebrew says “its son” (⁨בְּנוֹ⁩, beno), using the same kinship word used for a human son. The word-family links son with building: the young is named as part of a continuing bond, not as an interchangeable thing.

ALSO GROWS

ben: son, child

בֵּן

This is the kinship word contained in beno; the verse names the animal’s young as a son.

banah: to build, establish

בָּנָה

Its traditional link with ben gives the son word an echo of building and continuation.

banim: sons, children

בָּנִים

The plural keeps the same family word in view, showing that beno belongs to a broader language of kinship.

THE PATTERN

Scripture places limits on using living creatures so that their relationships and lives remain visible.

The first of the first-ripened of your ground you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a kid in his mother's milk.

Exodus 23:19 · SDVThe rule places a boundary around preparing food where the young animal’s dependence on its mother remains explicit.

You shall surely send the mother away, and take the young for yourself, so that it goes well with you, and you may lengthen your days.

Deuteronomy 22:7 · SDVThe mother is released while the young may be taken, making restraint part of the use of what is found.

For it is written in the instruction of Moses, You shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the grain. Does God care for oxen?

1 Corinthians 9:9 · SDVThe command against muzzling an ox makes care for a working animal part of the passage’s reasoning.

THE THREAD

And he said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go yourself to the land of Moriah, and raise him there as a rising offering upon one of the mountains I will tell you of."

Genesis 22:2 · SDV

The same word ⁨בֵּן⁩ (ben), “son,” names Isaac here and the animal’s young in Leviticus. In both verses, the kinship word stays explicit at the edge of sacrifice, making the Leviticus boundary reverberate across human and animal life.

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