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Exodus 21:35

in Exodus 21

If a man’s ox injures his neighbor’s ox and it dies, they must sell the live one and divide the proceeds; they also must divide the dead animal.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And if one man’s ox hurt another’s, so that it dieth, then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the price of it; and the dead also they shall divide.

KJV

And if one man’s ox hurt another’s, that he die; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it; and the dead ox also they shall divide.

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This verse in Exodus 21

Commentary

6 notes on this verse
The dead ox in this case, as well as in the preceding one, must have been worth no more than the price of the hide, as the flesh could not be eaten. See Lev 17:1-6.

This site's exposition

then they shall sell the live ox

on Exodus 21:35-36

Where one ox kills another and neither owner knew of any danger, the live ox is sold and both the money and the dead animal are divided, so the loss falls evenly on two men who did nothing wrong. Verse 36 changes that the moment the ox was known to push in time past, and its owner pays ox for ox and keeps the carcase himself. Knowledge is what the chapter has been measuring throughout, at verse 14 with the man who lay in wait, at verse 29 with the owner who was warned, and here with a man who had watched his animal do it before.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

And if one man's ox hurt another's, that he die,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Only if the beast that had done the harm was known to the owner to have been mischievous he shall answer for the damage, because he ought either to have killed him or kept him up,

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

These laws are called judgments, because they are framed in infinite wisdom and equity, and because their magistrates were to give judgment according to the people.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die--For the purpose of sanctifying human blood, and representing all injuries affecting life in a serious light, an animal that occasioned death was to be killed or suffer punishment proportioned to the degree of damage it had caused.

The words behind it

19 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְכִֽי־and if

    vekhi-H3588 →4482 times

  • יִגֹּ֧ףit will strike

    yigofH5062 →49 times

  • שֽׁוֹר־[the] ox of

    shor-H7794 →79 times

  • אִ֛ישׁanyone

    ʾishH376 →1663 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • שׁ֥וֹר[the] ox of

    shorH7794 →79 times

  • רֵעֵ֖הוּneighbor his

    reehuH7453 →188 times

  • וָמֵ֑תand it will die

    vametH4191 →839 times

  • וּמָ֨כְר֜וּand they will sell

    umakheruH4376 →80 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • הַשּׁ֤וֹרthe ox

    hashorH7794 →79 times

  • הַחַי֙<the> living

    hachaiH2416 →498 times

  • וְחָצ֣וּand they will divide

    vechatzuH2673 →

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • כַּסְפּ֔וֹsilver its

    kaspoH3701 →403 times

  • וְגַ֥םand also

    vegamH1571 →769 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • הַמֵּ֖תthe dead [animal]

    hametH4191 →839 times

  • יֶֽחֱצֽוּן׃they will divide !

    yechetzunH2673 →

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Where this verse is studied

On this page

Studies1

About Exodus

The Giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Exodus: the study guide →Read Exodus 21 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Exodus 21 →