Deuteronomy 24:7

A Kidnapper Shall Die (Deuteronomy 24:7).

Here we have a contrary example of unfair dealing and lack of consideration which must be punished by death. The kidnapper violates the household of his victims and violently interferes with their rights.

Deuteronomy 24:7

‘ If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and he deal with him as a slave, or sell him, then that thief shall die. So shall you put away the evil from the midst of you.'

A kidnapper who stole any Israelite, whether man, woman or child, with a view to making them slaves or selling them for slavery, must be sentenced to death. To make a slave of an Israelite was to reverse God's deliverance and was unforgivable. By the kidnapper's death this dreadful evil would be put away from their midst.

(This was not, of course, saying that as long as they were not treated as slaves or sold as slaves then the kidnapping was legal. This obvious case where silence tells us nothing is a warning to us not to read things into what is not said).

Compare Exodus 21:16 where all ‘man-stealing' is worthy of death.