Exodus 21:34

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

the owner of the pit shall make it good. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall be his.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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הַבּוֹר֙

bôwr

H953

“the · pit”

Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 68× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 37:20

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H952 (in the sense of H877 )

TWOT: 194e

pit, well, cistern

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

9: words
7: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

4 verbs
4 nouns
1 preposition

Verb forms

יְשַׁלֵּ֔ם Piel · Imperfect
יָשִׁ֣יב Hiphil · Imperfect
וְהַמֵּ֖ת Qal · Participle Active
יִֽהְיֶה Qal · Imperfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

בַּ֤עַל husband H1167 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 23 words from the Hebrew and 22 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 9 Hebrew tokens and 15 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Exodus 21:34 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 21:29–30 But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past, and it has been testified to its owner, and he has not kept it in, but it has killed a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and its owner shall also be put to death.
Exodus 22:6 "If fire breaks out, and catches in thorns so that the shocks of grain, or the standing grain, or the field are consumed; he who kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.
Exodus 22:14 "If a man borrows anything of his neighbor's, and it is injured, or dies, the owner of it not being with it, he shall surely make restitution.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Exodus 21:34 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

בַּ֤עַל הַבּוֹר֙ יְשַׁלֵּ֔ם כֶּ֖סֶף יָשִׁ֣יב לִבְעָלָ֑יו וְהַמֵּ֖ת יִֽהְיֶה לּֽוֹ

the owner of the pit shall make it good. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall be his.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Exodus 21:34 Septuagint · lemma form

ὁ κύριος ὁ λάκκος ἀποτίνω ἀργύριον δίδωμι ὁ κύριος αὐτός ὁ δέ τελευτάω αὐτός εἰμί

the owner of the pit shall make compensation; he shall give money to their owner, and the dead shall be his own.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

מָרֵי דְגֻבָּא יְשַׁלֵם כַּסְפָּא יָתִיב לְמָרוֹהִי וּמֵיתָא יְהֵי דִילֵהּ:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

מָרֵיהּ דְּגוֹבָא יְשַׁלֵּם כְּסַף יָתֵיב לְמָרֵיהּ דְּמֵי תּוֹרֵיהּ וְחַמְרֵיהּ וּנְבֵילְתָּא יְהֵי דִילֵיהּ

the master of the pit shall deliver silver to give to its owner the price of the ox or the ass, and the dead body shall be his.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Exodus 21:34 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Exo 21:34 The owner of the pit shall make [it] good, [and] give money unto the owner of them; and the dead [beast] shall be his.

Ver. 34. The owner of the pit shall make it good.] Think the same of other cattle also, good vel ad usum, vel ad esum, as horse, ass, sheep, &c.: a parte, tolum intelligendum, saith Augustine here; by a part it is to be understood the whole.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

This law forbiddeth not only not to hurt, but to beware lest any be hurt.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(34) The dead beast shall be his.—Having paid the full value of the live animal, the owner of the well was entitled to make what he could by the carcass.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

34. Having paid the value of the dead animal to the owner, he is naturally at liberty to keep the carcase himself. The carcase would be of value for its hide: but though ‘that which died of itself’ was forbidden later as food (Deu_14:21; cf. Lev_17:15 f. P), this may not have been the case at the time when the present code of laws was drawn up.

money] i.e. to the value of the beast; its money (= the price of it, v. 35: כספו for כסף) would be clearer, and should perhaps be restored.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

The owner of the pit shall make it good,.... Repair the loss of the ox or ass:

and give the money unto the owner of them: the price of them, what they are worth: the Targum of Jonathan is,"the owner of the pit shall pay the silver, he shall return to its owner the price of the ox or ass:"

and the dead beast shall be his; either the owner of the pit; who pays the full value for the ox or ass killed, which seems but reasonable; or"the injured person as Jarchi, for he says, they reckon or estimate the carcass, and he takes it for the price;''that is, for part of the price it is valued at.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

The owner of the pit, i.e. he by whose hand or command it was made,

shall give money equal to the worth of the dead beast, in the opinion of the judge.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

The owner of the pit shall make it goodi.e. , "shall duly compensate the owner of the cattle for its loss." And the dead beast shall be his. Having paid the full price of the slain beast, the owner of the cistern was entitled to its carcase.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

בעל הבור THE OWNER OF THE PIT [SHALL PAY FOR IT] — This means the one who occasioned the damage. Although the pit was not his, — for he dug it in the public thoroughfare, — Scripture regards him as its “owner” (בעל הבור) in so far that he becomes responsible for the damage caused by it.

כסף ישיב לבעליו [THE OWNER OF THE PIT SHALL PAY FOR IT] AND RESTORE MONEY UNTO THE OWNER OF THEM — The word ישיב is apparently redundant; it would have sufficed to state ישלם כסף לבעליו but it is added to include as legal tender in this case even bran (i. e. the restitution need not be money so long as he actually restores something of money-value). (Bava Kamma 7a).

והמת יהיה לו AND THE DEAD BEAST SHALL BELONG TO HIM — to him who has suffered the loss. We assess the value of the carcass and he (the claimant) takes it at this value in part payment, and the man who caused the damage pays him in addition to this as much as will make up the whole loss he has suffered (Bava Kamma 10b).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Ramban (Nachmanides)

Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Ramban / Nachmanides)

AND THE DEAD BEAST SHALL BELONG TO HIM — “to the one who suffered the damage. We make an estimation of the value of the carcass and he takes it in part payment and the one who caused the damage, [the owner of the pit], pays him in addition as much as makes up the value of his damage.” This is Rashi’s language. But he did not explain the law sufficiently. For there is no need for Scripture to tell us concerning this carcass that the one who suffered the damage must take it in part payment, when he brings it before the court to collect his damage; for even if the one who caused the damage had other carcasses that were carrion, or flesh that was treifah in his possession, he can give it to him in part payment, it being already established that restitution for damages need not be in money, but may “include anything of value, even bran.” Rather, the meaning of the verse is to state that the carcass belongs to the one who suffered the damage and is considered his property; therefore if its value decreased after the damage was caused, or it was stolen, the one who caused the damage, [the owner of the pit], pays only the loss in value caused by the death of the animal. Thus if the ox that was killed was worth when alive one hundred zuzim, and upon its death became worth fifty, the one who caused the damage is liable to pay only fifty zuzim, and the other attends to his carcass [removing it from the pit], and keeps it for himself. This law applies to all damages, and it is what the Sages call: “the loss in the carcass’ value,” and is explained in the Gemara., 34a. [See in my translation of Hameniach, Shulsinger Bros., New York, 5729, p. 65.]

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Exodus, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 9 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is bôwr (“pit”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “pit” (bôwr) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Exodus 21:29–30 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
“husband” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «יְשַׁלֵּ֔ם» is Piel Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 15 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 11 words in this verse.
“husband” occurs 2× in this single verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.