What Does Romans 3:15 Mean?
Their feet are quick to pour out blood.
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
Their feet are swift to shed blood:THE KEY
The word translated “shed” also describes love being “shed abroad”: the Greek holds both acts as pouring out, while what is poured out changes everything.
THE MEANING
The verse names a human pattern in which the body is already moving toward violence: the feet hurry where blood will be spilled. Bloodshed appears as a path pursued with urgency, not a stray accident.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that violence is only a sudden loss of control: here, the feet are already swift on a path toward bloodshed.
THE ROOT
ἐκχέαι
ekcheai
GROWS FROM
χέω
cheō
To pour or pour out; with ἐκ-, to pour out.
“pour out” in this verse is ekcheai. The Greek word translated “shed” is built on χέω, “to pour.” The same root appears in Romans 5:5, where love is “shed abroad,” revealing a shared image of pouring out while the object and its direction differ sharply.
ALSO GROWS
ekcheō: Pour out; the verb behind “shed” here.
ἐκχέω
Bloodshed is pictured as blood being poured out.
ekkekytai: Has been poured out; translated “shed abroad” in Romans 5:5.
ἐκκέχυται
The same root describes love poured into hearts, opening a striking contrast with blood poured onto the ground.
ekchynnomenon: Being poured out; used of blood “shed” in Matthew 26:28.
ἐκχυννόμενον
It carries the same pouring image into another verse about blood.
THE PATTERN
When violence takes hold, movement turns into a hurried path toward bloodshed and destruction.
For their feet run toward evil, and hurry to pour out blood.Their feet run toward harm, and they hurry to pour out clean blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of crookedness; ruin and breaking are in their paths.For they have poured out the blood of the set-apart ones and the prophets, and you have given them blood to drink, for they are worthy.THE THREAD
And hope does not put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Set-Apart Breath, which has been given to us.The verb translated “shed” here shares the Greek root χέω, “pour,” with “shed abroad” in this verse. The same pouring language holds bloodshed beside love poured into the heart, making the difference between what is poured out unmistakable.
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