What Does Leviticus 24:21 Mean?
And whoever strikes a beast shall make it whole. And whoever strikes a living soul of man shall be put to death.
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 he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it: and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death.THE KEY
An animal’s loss can be repaid, but a human life has no equivalent payment: the consequence named here is life itself.
THE MEANING
When a beast is killed, its loss has a measure that can be repaid. When a person is killed, the consequence reaches the killer’s own life. The verse places human life beyond the reach of compensation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that every harm can be settled by paying its price: a human life is not made whole by compensation.
THE ROOT
יְשַׁלְּמֶנָּה
yĕšallĕmennāh
GROWS FROM
שלם
š-l-m
To be whole or complete; to make whole, repay, or settle.
“make it whole” in this verse is yĕšallĕmennāh. The Hebrew verb translated “restore” comes from the root of wholeness and repayment. The animal’s loss enters a repairable account; the verse names no payment that can make a human death whole.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
The shared root links repayment with making whole: the payment addresses the loss.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the idea inside “restore” visible: compensation settles what can be completed or made whole.
מַכֵּה
makkēh
GROWS FROM
נכה
n-k-h
To strike, hit, or inflict a blow.
The Hebrew uses the same root for the one who strikes a beast and the one who strikes a person. The difference in consequence comes from what is struck: one loss is repaid, while a human death carries the killer’s life as its consequence.
ALSO GROWS
makkēh: One who strikes.
מַכֵּה
This is the form repeated in both clauses, making the contrast turn on the victim rather than on two different kinds of action.
makkāh: A blow, wound, or plague.
מַכָּה
This noun from the same root holds the force of striking in view, even where the English says “killeth.”
THE PATTERN
A human life is not treated as a loss that can be settled through ordinary repayment.
He who strikes a man so that he dies is surely put to death.Whoever pours out the blood of man, by man his blood shall be poured out, for in the shape of God he made man.Moreover, you shall take no covering for the living soul of a crusher, who is owed death; but he shall surely be put to death.THE THREAD
If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and slaughter it, or sell it; he shall make whole five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.The Hebrew verb translated “restore” here shares the root שלם (š-l-m), to make whole or repay, with Leviticus 24:21. For an animal, the verse can name a measurable repayment; for a human life, it names no equivalent payment.
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