Exodus 21

Ex 21:1-6.

LAWS FOR

MENSERVANTS.

1. judgments--rules for regulating the procedure of judges and

magistrates in the decision of cases and the trial of criminals. The

government of the Israelites being a theocracy, those public

authorities were the servants of the Divine Sovereign, and subject to

His direction. Most of these laws here noticed were primitive usages,

founded on principles of natural equity, and incorporated, with

modifications and improvements, in the Mosaic code.

2-6. If thou buy an Hebrew servant--Every Israelite was

free-born; but slavery was permitted under certain restrictions. An

Hebrew might be made a slave through poverty, debt, or crime; but at

the end of six years he was entitled to freedom, and his wife, if she

had voluntarily shared his state of bondage, also obtained release.

Should he, however, have married a female slave, she and the children,

after the husband's liberation, remained the master's property; and if,

through attachment to his family, the Hebrew chose to forfeit his

privilege and abide as he was, a formal process was gone through in a

public court, and a brand of servitude stamped on his ear

(Ps 40:6)

for life, or at least till the Jubilee

(De 15:17).

Ex 21:7-36.

LAWS FOR

MAIDSERVANTS.

7-11. if a man sell his daughter--Hebrew girls might be redeemed

for a reasonable sum. But in the event of her parents or friends being

unable to pay the redemption money, her owner was not at liberty to

sell her elsewhere. Should she have been betrothed to him or his son,

and either change their minds, a maintenance must be provided for her

suitable to her condition as his intended wife, or her freedom

instantly granted.

23-25. eye for eye--The law which authorized retaliation (a

principle acted upon by all primitive people) was a civil one. It was

given to regulate the procedure of the public magistrate in determining

the amount of compensation in every case of injury, but did not

encourage feelings of private revenge. The later Jews, however, mistook

it for a moral precept, and were corrected by our Lord

(Mt 5:38-42).

28-36. 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. Punishments are still inflicted on this principle in

Persia and other countries of the East; and among a rude people greater

effect is thus produced in inspiring caution, and making them keep

noxious animals under restraint, than a penalty imposed on the

owners.

30. If there be laid on him a sum of money, &c.--Blood fines are

common among the Arabs as they were once general throughout the East.

This is the only case where a money compensation, instead of capital

punishment, was expressly allowed in the Mosaic law.