Exodus 21:14
וְכִֽי־יָזִד אִישׁ עַל־רֵעֵהוּ לְהָרְגוֹ בְעָרְמָה מֵעִם מִזְבְּחִי תִּקָּחֶנּוּ לָמֽוּת׃ ס
✦ Hebrew interlinear
Tap a word to see its entry
✦ The same verse in five languages
וְכִֽי־יָזִ֥ד אִ֛ישׁ עַל־רֵעֵ֖הוּ לְהָרְג֣וֹ בְעָרְמָ֑ה מֵעִ֣ם מִזְבְּחִ֔י תִּקָּחֶ֖נּוּ לָמֽוּת׃ ס
ἐὰν δέ τις ἐπιθῆται τῷ πλησίον ἀποκτεῖναι αὐτὸν δόλῳ καὶ καταφύγῃ, ἀπὸ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου μου λήμψῃ αὐτὸν θανατῶσαι.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Si quis per industriam occiderit proximum suum, et per insidias: ab altari meo evelles eum, ut moriatur.
Si un hombre hace planes para matar a su prójimo a traición, lo sacarás incluso de mi altar para matarlo.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Además, si alguno se ensoberbeciere contra su prójimo, y lo matare con alevosía, de mi altar lo quitarás para que muera.
But if a man schemes and acts willfully against his neighbor to kill him, you must take him away from My altar to be put to death.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Exodus 21:14 addresses the case of a person who kills a neighbor deliberately, through premeditation, as opposed to accidental killing treated in the preceding verse. The text specifies that even if the offender flees to the sanctuary altar, he must be removed from it and put to death.
Key words
- yazid ("he will act presumptuously", H2102) — hiphil (causative) imperfect, denoting willful, deliberate action; distinguishes intentional killing from the unintentional case discussed earlier in the chapter.
- re'ehu ("his neighbor", H7453 + H9023) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, marking the victim as someone in relation ("neighbor of him").
- le-horgo ("to kill him", H2026 + H9033) — qal infinitive construct with suffix, expressing purpose: the intent behind the yazid action.
- be-'ormah ("with cunning", H6195) — feminine singular noun governed by the preposition be, functioning adverbially to describe the manner of the killing.
- tiqqachennu ("you will take him", H3947G + H9033) — qal imperfect 2nd person masculine singular with object suffix, a direct address instructing removal of the offender.
What the text says
The verse opens with the conditional particle khi ("if", H3588A), setting up a case-law structure typical of this section of Exodus. The subject ish ("anyone", H0376I) performs the verb yazid, a hiphil imperfect form of a root associated with boiling over or acting with premeditated intent — the causative stem here conveys that the action arises from a deliberate inner decision, not mere impulse. This intent is clarified by the infinitive construct le-horgo, "to kill him," which states the purpose of the scheming.
The phrase be-'ormah ("with cunning", H6195) modifies the manner of the killing, indicating calculation rather than accident. The second half of the verse shifts to address the reader or community directly: me'im mizbechi ("from with my altar", H5973B + H4196 with H9020 "my") uses a compound preposition to indicate physical removal from a specific location — the altar, marked as belonging to the speaker (the suffix -i, "my"). The verb tiqqachennu, imperfect qal of laqach ("to take"), is second-person masculine singular, instructing an unspecified addressee to seize the offender. The final infinitive lamut ("to die", H4191) expresses the resulting purpose: removal from the altar leads to execution.
Differences between versions
The LXX inserts an explicit verb of flight, καταφύγῃ ("he takes refuge"), which has no direct lexical counterpart in the Hebrew text; the Hebrew only implies proximity to the altar through the phrase me'im mizbechi without a verb of fleeing. The Vulgate renders be-'ormah as per insidias ("through ambushes/plots"), emphasizing premeditated treachery, and translates tiqqachennu with the vivid evelles ("you shall pluck/tear away"), a stronger image of forcible removal than the plain Hebrew tiqqachennu ("you will take him").
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.