Chapter Twenty-One

1–11. Laws concerning male and female slaves. 12–32. Laws clarifying the commandment “You shall not murder.” 33–36. Laws clarifying the commandment “You shall not steal.”

Exodus 21:1. And these are the laws that you shall set before them: Exodus 21:2. When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve you for six years, and in the seventh year he shall go out free for nothing; According to the law, a Hebrew who was impoverished could be purchased as a slave for non-payment of debt (Lev 25:39), and also a thief who was unable to pay for what he stole (Exod 22:3). The six-year period of slavery (Deut 15:12, Jer 34:14) is set in accordance with the commandment of six days of work and rest on the seventh day. The year of the slave’s liberation, the seventh, is not the seventh jubilee year, but the seventh from the beginning of slavery of each individual slave. If it were the seventh jubilee year, the slave would have to serve not six years, but as much time as remained until it from the moment he entered slavery, in some cases a month, even less. And indeed, the law directly indicates that in the seventh jubilee year the slaves remain with their masters, they do not receive freedom (Lev 25:4-6). At the end of six years of service the slave was released not only “for nothing,” without ransom, since during this time he earned double the wages of a hired laborer (Deut 15:18), but he also received from his master everything necessary for establishing his own household: from the herds, from the threshing floor and the wine press (Deut 15:14).

Exodus 21:3. If he came in alone, he shall go out alone; if he was married, then his wife shall go out with him; Exodus 21:4. If his master gave him a wife and she bore him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be his master’s, and he shall go out alone; In the first case (Exod 21:3) the wife is regarded as the property of the male slave, and therefore with her, his own property, he left for freedom. In the second (Exod 21:4) she is the property of the master, wherefore when her husband is freed she remains with the children in the house of the master.

Exodus 21:5. But if the slave shall say: I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free – Exodus 21:6. then his master shall bring him before judges and shall set him at the door or the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. ***** A Hebrew who married while a slave to a female slave of his master and therefore has no right to be released in the seventh year with his entire family, on account of his love for his wife and children may remain a slave forever, that is, until the fiftieth jubilee year (Lev 25:39-41). Another action, also preventing various abuses, consisted in piercing the ear of the slave with an awl at the doorpost or door of the house in which he desired to serve (Deut 15:16-17). The slave was, as it were, fastened to the house of his master.

Exodus 21:7. If a man sells his daughter as a female slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves go out; As is evident from Deut 15:17 and Jer 34:9-11, female Hebrew slaves were freed on the same basis as male Hebrew slaves. Therefore the general rule: a female slave “shall not go out as the male slaves go out,” refers not simply to female slaves, but to female concubine-slaves.

Exodus 21:8. If she is not pleasing to her master and he does not betroth her, let him allow her to be redeemed; and he does not have power to sell her to a foreign people, since he has rejected her; When a Hebrew woman, purchased to be a concubine and having become one, is subsequently rejected by her master, then he, being guilty of her disgrace, must help her to redeem herself, must let her be bought more cheaply by whoever wishes to buy her, only not by a foreigner, marriage to whom is forbidden (Deut 7:3).

Exodus 21:9. If he betroths her to his son, he shall deal with her as the law of daughters requires; Having given a Hebrew female slave to his son as a concubine, the master must regard her not as a slave, but as a daughter.

Exodus 21:10. If he takes another wife, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights; If other concubines appear later, she does not lose her rights as a wife and the means of support.

Exodus 21:11. But if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out free, without ransom. If the master of the house does not allow the rejected concubine to redeem herself, does not regard her, the concubine of his son, as a daughter, and when his son has other concubines, deprives her of relations with him, then when these three conditions are not met she receives the right to leave him without ransom.

Exodus 21:12. Whoever strikes a person so that he dies shall be put to death; Verses 12–32 contain laws clarifying the commandment “You shall not murder”: intentional and unintentional killing; various cases of injury, as infliction of harm to the life of one’s neighbor. Intentional murder in all its forms (Num 35:16-21), whether committed by a Hebrew or by a foreigner (Lev 24:22), is punished by the general law of blood revenge with death: “the avenger of blood himself may put the murderer to death: as soon as he meets him” (Num 35:19).

Exodus 21:13. But if someone did not lie in wait, but God let it happen that he fell into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee; The law of blood revenge, applicable in the case of intentional murder, does not have a place in the case of unintentional murder, unpremeditated (Num 35:22-23, Deut 19:4-5, 1 Sam 24:18). The unintentional murderer is not subject to judgment for death (Deut 19:6), and society itself must save him from the hand of the avenger of blood (Num 35:25), affording him the opportunity to flee to a place “appointed by God,” to one of the cities of refuge (Num 35:11 and others). The law concerning unintentional murderers, limiting the right of blood revenge, softened the harshness of ancient customs.

Exodus 21:14. But if someone kills his neighbor with cunning, you shall take him from My altar to put him to death. The cunning, intentional murderer, deprived of the right to hide in one of the cities of refuge (Deut 19:11-12), cannot escape death even at the altar (1 Sam 2:28-34). Requiring Israel to exterminate evil from its midst (Deut 19:19-20), the Lord himself cannot protect it in the place of His dwelling, in the tabernacle or temple, at the altar.

Exodus 21:15. Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death. As is evident from Deut 21:18-21, the father and mother themselves disown a bad son. A disreputable member of the family, one who scorns the natural feelings, he is disreputable in society as well – he is cast out from its midst, stoned to death.

Exodus 21:16. Whoever steals a person from the sons of Israel and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, shall be put to death. Freedom is precious no less than life, therefore its deprivation – the stealing and selling of a Hebrew by a Hebrew fellow countryman (Deut 24:7) is equated with murder.

Exodus 21:17. Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death. Exodus 21:18. When men quarrel, and one man strikes another with a stone or a fist, and he does not die, but is confined to bed, Exodus 21:19. if he gets up and walks around with a staff, then the one who struck him shall be clear; only he must pay for the loss of his time and shall pay for his healing. In verses 18–33 various cases of injury are considered. The punishments assigned for them correspond to the degree of the crime. He who struck his neighbor in a quarrel must compensate him for what he deprived him of: pay him the sum of money that the injured party could have earned if he had been well, and heal him at his own expense.

Exodus 21:20. If someone strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies under his hand, he must be punished; Exodus 21:21. but if he lives a day or two days, he shall not be punished, for it is his money. For the murder of a male or female slave who dies during punishment, the master is not subjected to death, but only to such punishment as the court assigns, either because a slave is not equated with a free person (Exod 21:19), or because the master was only punishing an undisciplined slave (Prov 10:13), not intending to kill him. The master is even completely freed from punishment when the death of the slave is not a direct consequence of the blows: if he dies a day or two days after the beating. For the master in this case it is enough punishment that, losing the slave, he loses the money paid for him, suffers loss: “for it is his money.”

Exodus 21:22. When men fight, and they strike a pregnant woman, and she gives birth prematurely, but there is no other harm, he shall surely be fined, as much as the woman’s husband demands, and the judges allow; The fine is imposed for the prematurely lost child. Judges are required to prevent the husband from making excessive demands. The Greek translation introduces a distinction in the degree of development of the miscarriage for which there is no basis in the Hebrew text. A miscarriage “unformed” – an unformed child, is not equated with a full person – and therefore for the death of it only a fine is imposed. A miscarriage, “formed” – an externally developed child, and for his death, as well as for the death of an adult, the guilty party is subject to death.

Exodus 21:23. But if there is harm, then you shall give a life for a life, Exodus 21:24. an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, Exodus 21:25. a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise. If the consequence of a quarrel, besides premature delivery, is infliction of damage to the pregnant woman herself, then in that case the following rule must be followed: “a life for a life,” that is, life for life, an eye for an eye and so forth. Constituting a continuation of the preceding speech, the words: “if there is harm, then” also establish the general rule of retaliation for injury (Lev 24:20; Deut 19:21; Matt 5:38). Evil caused by one Hebrew to another must be punished by the same evil – simple, painful, and capable of powerfully deterring crime.

Exodus 21:26. If one strikes the eye of his male or female slave and destroys it, he shall let him go free for his eye; Exodus 21:27. and if he knocks out the tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let him go free for his tooth. The general rule determining the degree of punishment for inflicted injury does not apply to slaves, but its modification restricts the arbitrariness and cruel treatment of them by masters.

Exodus 21:28. If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; and the owner of the ox is not guilty; The ox is killed as an animal dangerous to human life and moreover according to the divine command (Gen 9:5, Num 35:33). Not freed from blood, its flesh is not eaten according to the general law requiring meat to be eaten without blood (Lev 17:10-14). The owner, not knowing of the goring tendency of his ox (Exod 21:29), is not guilty. But the stoning of the ox and the prohibition to extract any benefit from its flesh caused the owner such significant loss that it naturally prompted him to be not indifferent to the question: does his ox have a tendency to gore?

Exodus 21:29. But if the ox has been goring before, and its owner has been warned, and he does not guard it, and it kills a man or a woman, then the ox shall be stoned, and its owner shall be put to death; The owner of the ox is put to death for careless regard for the life of one’s neighbor. The person responsible for death is not so much the unreasonable beast as he himself, who had the opportunity to prevent it by appropriate measures. The severity of the punishment completely eliminated the possibility of indifference to the goring tendency of the animal and required care for the safety of one’s neighbors.

Exodus 21:30. If a ransom is imposed on him, he shall give the ransom for his life according to all that is imposed on him. Exodus 21:31. Whether it gores his son or his daughter, the same law applies to him. Death is replaced by a ransom perhaps on the basis that the guilt of the householder consists only in carelessness, not in evil intent.

Exodus 21:32. If the ox gores a male or female slave, he shall pay thirty shekels of silver to the owner of the slave, and the ox shall be stoned. Thirty shekels apparently constitute the purchase price of a slave, just as fifty shekels form the redemption price of an adult (Lev 27:3).

Exodus 21:33. If someone uncovers a pit, or if he digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or donkey falls into it, Exodus 21:34. the owner of the pit must pay, give money to the owner of the animal, and the dead animal shall be his. The owner of an uncovered pit must compensate for the loss that carelessness caused to one’s neighbor.

Exodus 21:35. If one’s ox gores the ox of his neighbor to death, let them sell the living ox and divide the price; they shall also divide the dead one; Solidarity of interests requires – divide the misfortune in half.

Exodus 21:36. But if it was known that the ox had been goring before, yesterday and the day before, but its owner did not keep watch, then he must pay ox for ox, and the dead one shall be his. In the losses the fault lies only with him who carelessly, negligently treated the property of one’s neighbor, therefore he alone suffers the loss. * * * That is, [before the judges]. – Ps 81:1-2. The term “soul,” used in the Bible to denote the life force, with the removal of which a living being dies, is used in place of the expression “life”: Ps 106:5, Jonah 2:8, Lam 1:11, 1 Sam 17:21.