Exodus 21

Chap. XXI. Ver. 1-36. Laws respecting slavery, manslaughter, and misdemeanors.—Our Lord, speaking of divorces, said, &c., says, Moses suffered them to the Israelites “because of the hardness of their hearts:” ((Matthew 19:8).) and the same remark will apply to slavery, retaliation, and various other evils which were unavoidable, in the rude state of society among them, when they came out of Egypt; these things may exist under the Christian economy, but are inconsistent with it. While, however, these evils were tolerated for a time, they were restrained and moderated by certain regulations in this and the following chapters, which are full of moral justice, and legislative wisdom.

We shall not attempt to examine these judicial laws minutely and distinctly; but we may offer a few remarks on the different classes of them. 1. On slavery. “The Israelites (says Scott) sometimes sold themselves or their children through poverty; magistrates sold some persons for their crimes; and creditors were, in certain cases, allowed to sell their insolvent debtors. In these ways slavery had been, or would soon be, introduced among the Israelites, even that of their brethren, as well as strangers; and God did not see good, in the judicial law, totally to prohibit this, and several other things which are not easy to the perfect demands of the moral law.” Various laws, however, were made to regulate an evil which, from its universal prevalence, could not be immediately suppressed.

The term of slavery was not for life, but restrained to six years; and then the slave shall have the right to go out free, and if married at the commencement of his servitude, to take his wife with him. But if his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him children, he has the option to remain with them “for ever;” that is, till the year of the jubilee, when all slavery must terminate. Wise laws also are imposed to restrain the cruelty or licentiousness of masters; man-stealers are in all cases to be punished with death. 2. The rest of the chapter is taken up with providing against accidents between man and man, or from cattle; and inflicting punishments for various misdemeanors.

The spirit of these laws is, to cherish the utmost tenderness for human life, and to guard against wanton cruelty or neglect; to prevent, as much as possible, litigious altercations, and to promote domestic peace.

Notes on the verses

Chap. XXI. Ver. 1. If his master had given him a wife.—Dr. Clarke exegesis of a Canaanitish woman, who, with her children, might be bought and sold.

Ver. 6. Shall bring him to the judges.—Heb. the Elohim, “the gods,” by whom some understand the magistrates, but others, the divine presence; that is, before the Shekinah, or the most holy place.—The boring of the ear of a slave.—[This significant ceremony was intended as a mark of permanent servitude, and was calculated to impress the servant with the duty of hearing all his master’s orders, and obeying them punctually. We learn from Juvenal, and Petronius, that this ancient custom also prevailed in Syria and Arabia.]

—Bagster. Cicero rallies a Lybian, who pretended he could not hear him, by saying, ‘It is not because your ears are not sufficiently bored;’ alluding to his having been a slave.

Ver. 10. Her food, &c.—Sheairah, “her flesh;” he shall not only afford her a sufficient quantity of food, as before, but of the same quality. She is not to be fed, like a common slave, with a sufficiency of bread, vegetables, milk, &c., but with her customary supply of flesh, and other agreeable articles of food. See Harmer.—Bagster.

Ver. 16. Stealeth a man.—[Among the Romans also in later times, the penalty of death was to be inflicted for this crime by the Fabian Law.]—

Ver. 19. Pay the loss.—(This was a wise and excellent institution.

The same provision is made in the civil law; and most courts of justice still regulate their decisions in such cases by this Mosaic precept. According to the laws of Plato, he that wounded another in his anger, if the wound was curable, was to pay double the damage sustained by the wounded man. If it was incurable, or left a remarkable scar, he was to pay fourfold.—Bagster.

Ver. 24. An eye for an eye.—This is the earliest account we have of the Lex Talionis, law of like for like, which afterwards prevailed among the Greeks and Romans. Solon, according to Diogenes Laertius, had ordained among the Athenians, one of the most enlightened nations of antiquity, that whosoever knocked out the eye of a person who had but one, should lose both his.

According to the most ancient Roman laws, the Twelve Tables, the person that broke the limb of another must lose the same limb, unless the injured person would consent to accept a pecuniary compensation, to be levied at the discretion of the pretor. It prevails more or less in most civilized countries; and is fully acted upon in the Canon law, with respect to calumniators: “If the calumniator fail in the proof of his accusation, let him receive the same punishment which he wished to have inflicted on the accused.” Nothing, however, of this kind was left to private revenge; but the magistrate awarded the punishment when the fact was proved.—Bagster.

Ver. 28. Ox gore, &c.—Mischief of this kind was provided against by most nations: it appears that the Romans twisted hay about the horns of dangerous cattle, that people might observe and avoid them.

Hence that saying of Horace, ‘He has hay on his horns, fly for life.’ The laws of the Twelve Tables ordered that the owner should pay for what damages he committed, or deliver him to the person injured.—Bagster.

Ver. 32. Thirty shekels.—(About $20.00.) the price of a slave. See (Zechariah 10:12-13).; (Matthew 26:15).