What Does Leviticus 24:19 Mean?
And if a man sets a blemish in his neighbor, as he has done, so shall it be done to him.
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.
King James wording
King James Version
And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him;THE KEY
The Hebrew says a person “gives” a blemish, then repeats the same root for the act returned to him: the injury is handed to another and mirrored back onto its source.
THE MEANING
When you injure another person, the act does not remain separate from you: the same doing turns around and is done to you. The blemish is bodily and concrete, and the consequence is measured against the injury you cause.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that you can injure someone and remain untouched by the consequence of your own act.
THE ROOT
יִתֵּן
yitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, place.
“sets” in this verse is yitten. The Hebrew verb behind “cause a blemish” is literally “give.” The wording presents injury as something one person places upon another, making the harm a transfer between people rather than an abstraction.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift, present.
מַתָּנָה
A gift is something passed from one person to another; this branch makes the verse’s unusual image of giving harm especially vivid.
mattan: Gift, present.
מַתָּן
This related noun carries the same sense of something given, reinforcing the act of placing an effect on another person.
עָשָׂה
asah
GROWS FROM
עשה
Do, make, act.
The verse repeats עשה (asah, “do”): first the person does the act, then the same root appears in “it shall be done to him.” The grammar turns the doer into the recipient, making the return visible in the sentence itself.
ALSO GROWS
ma'aseh: Deed, work, act.
מַעֲשֶׂה
A deed is an action made concrete; here, the act becomes the measure for what follows.
oseh: One who does or makes.
עֹשֶׂה
The doer shares the root with the deed and with what is done to him, binding the person to the action’s return.
THE PATTERN
The measure of harm is answered in a corresponding measure, tying the consequence to the act.
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you.Do not be led astray. God is not sneered at. For whatever a person sows, that also he reaps.THE THREAD
Break for break, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has set a blemish in a man, so shall it be set upon him.The next verse repeats the same “give” and “do” roots while naming the bodily measure: breach answers breach, eye answers eye. It makes the return in verse 19 concrete and proportional.
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