Exodus 21:20

Summary

Exodus 21:20 addresses a case where a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result of that blow. The verse establishes that this outcome carries a specific legal consequence, expressed through the emphatic Hebrew construction "he will surely be avenged."

Key words

• yakkeh ("he will strike", H5221) — hiphil (causative) imperfect: the subject causes the blow to happen, not simply "hits" but "causes a striking."
• avdo ("his slave", H5650) — construct form with pronominal suffix -o ("his"), tying the noun grammatically and possessively to the striking man.
• bashevet ("with the rod", H7626) — noun with prefixed preposition and article, specifying the instrument used in the act.
• tachat yado ("under his hand", H8478 + H3027) — construct chain meaning literally "under his hand," an idiom marking the moment/location of death as directly resulting from the blow.
• nakom yinnakem ("certainly he will be avenged", H5358 twice) — infinitive absolute nakom followed by niphal imperfect yinnakem: this doubling is a Hebrew grammatical device that intensifies certainty; the niphal form marks the subject (the striking man) as the one who undergoes the action of "avenging" — that is, he is the object of retribution, not its agent.

What the text says

The verse opens with the conditional particle khi ("if", H3588A), introducing a case-law structure typical of this legal section of Exodus. The subject 'ish ("anyone", H0376I) performs the hiphil verb yakkeh ("he will strike"), with the object marked twice by the untranslated particle 'et (H0853) before avdo ("his slave") and amato ("his female slave"), both nouns in construct state bound to the third-person suffix -o ("his"). The instrument is specified by bashevet ("with the rod").

The consequence is introduced by the narrative vav on met ("he will die", H4191), a sequential perfect continuing the case's storyline, followed by the idiom tachat yado ("under his hand"), locating the death as occurring during or because of the act of striking. The final clause, nakom yinnakem, uses the infinitive absolute paired with the niphal imperfect of the same root (H5358), a construction that in Biblical Hebrew grammar emphasizes certainty of the action. Grammatically, the niphal voice makes the striking man the recipient of the "avenging" action rather than its performer — the text specifies that something will happen to him, without naming here who carries it out.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew root naqam ("to avenge", H5358) centers on retribution/vengeance. The LXX renders this with δίκῃ ἐκδικηθήτω ("let him be punished by a penalty/justice"), shifting the semantic frame toward judicial punishment. The Vulgate diverges further with criminis reus erit ("he will be guilty of a crime"), framing the outcome as legal guilt rather than vengeance. The Vulgate also omits the conditional particle, opening instead with the relative Qui ("he who"). The Spanish SBLIBRE adds "el amo" ("the master") as the subject, a word not present in the Hebrew text.