Exodus 21:16

And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him,.... One of the children of Israel, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, and so the Septuagint version: but though this law was given to the Israelites

And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. Man - stealing to sell into slavery.

i.e. In the manstealer’ s hand; q.d. though he keep him in his own hands for his own use; for still it is a theft, and he is made that man’ s slave, and it is in his power to sell him to another when he pleaseth, and therefore deserves death.

Exodus 21:16 And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.Ver. 16. He that stealeth a man.] Akin to these are they that steal other men’ s books, and father them, setting them out in their own names. Diagoras was so served by a plagiary, which, when he saw, and that the thief was not presently struck with a thunderbolt, he, out of stomach, turned atheist. Thus, of late, Fabricius stole Tremelius’ s Syriac translation. Villavincentius stole Hyperius’ s treatise, "De Ratione Studii Theologici." And Possevinus stole Dr James’ s "Cyprianus Redivivus."

(15-17) And he that smiteth his father . . .-With homicide are conjoined some other offences, regarded as of a heinous character, and made punishable by death: viz. (1), striking a parent; (2) kidnapping; and (3) cursing a parent. The immediate sequence of these crimes upon murder, and their punishment by the same penalty, marks strongly God’s abhorrence of them. The parent is viewed as God’s representative, and to smite him is to offer God an insult in his person. To curse him implies, if possible, a greater want of reverence; and, since curses can only be effectual as appeals to God, it is an attempt to enlist God on our side against His representative. Kidnapping is a crime against the person only a very little short of murder, since it is to deprive a man of that which gives life its chief value—liberty. Many a man would prefer death to slavery; and to almost all the passing into the slave condition would be a calamity of the most terrible kind, Involving life-long misery. Its suddenness and unexpectedness, when the result of kidnapping, would augment its grievousness, and render it the most crushing of all misfortunes. Joseph’s history shows us how easy it was to sell a free man as a slave, and obtain his immediate removal into a distant country (Genesis 37:25-28). The Egyptian annals tell us of bloody wars carried on for kidnapping purposes (Lenormant, Histoire Ancienne, vol. i., pp. 423, 424). In the classical times and countries, the slaves offered for sale in the markets had usually been obtained in this way. The stringent law of the Mosaic code (Exodus 21:16) was greatly needed to check an atrocious crime very widely committed.

Verse 16. He that stealeth a man] By this law every man-stealer, and every receiver of the stolen person, should lose his life; no matter whether the latter stole the man himself, or gave money to a slave captain or negro-dealer to steal him for him.

16. Man-stealing. Cf. Deuteronomy 24:7, where the present law is merely expanded, and recast in Deuteronomic phraseology. a man] in Deuteronomy 24:7, expressly limited to an Israelite: so LXX Targ. add here, ‘of the children of Israel.’ No doubt this interprets correctly the intention of the law. and selleth him] into a foreign country is probably what is thought (cf. v. 8). This would not only sever the victim cruelly from his own people, and his own religion (1 Samuel 26:19), but also expose him to many risks of death. The Phoenicians (Amos 1:9, and, at a later time, Joe 3:4-6), to say nothing of other nations (Genesis 37:36), would be ready purchasers of slaves. or if he be found in his hand] i.e. if he has not yet actually sold him. shall be put to death] The same punishment in Ḥ ?amm. § 14. At Athens, the ἀνδραποδιστής, who enslaved a free man, or enticed away another person’s slave, was punished with death (Hermann, Griech. Antiq. iii. §§ xii. 12; lxii. 12: cf. Demosth. Phil. i. p. 53 end, § 47; Xen. Memor. i. 2. 62): among the Romans both the seller and the buyer of a free-born citizen were punished with death (Kn.).

16, 17. Stealeth a man — Note that manstealing was placed on the same plane with the crime of murder. Cursing a parent was also treated as a capital offence.