Exodus 21:1
JUDGMENTS - i. e. decisions of the law.... [ Continue Reading ]
JUDGMENTS - i. e. decisions of the law.... [ Continue Reading ]
A Hebrew might be sold as a bondman in consequence either of debt Leviticus 25:39 or of the commission of theft Exodus 22:3. But his servitude could not be enforced for more than six full years. Compare the marginal references.... [ Continue Reading ]
If a married man became a bondman, his rights in regard to his wife were respected: but if a single bondman accepted at the hand of his master a bondwoman as his wife, the master did not lose his claim to the woman or her children, at the expiration of the husband’s term of service. Such wives, it m... [ Continue Reading ]
FOREVER - That is, most probably, until the next Jubilee, when every Hebrew was set free. See Leviticus 25:40, Leviticus 25:50. The custom of boring the ear as a mark of slavery appears to have been a common one in ancient times, observed in many nations. UNTO THE JUDGES - Literally, “before the god... [ Continue Reading ]
A man might, in accordance with existing custom, sell his daughter to another man with a view to her becoming an inferior wife, or concubine. In this case, she was not “to go out,” like the bondman; that is, she was not to be dismissed at the end of the sixth year. But women who were bound in any ot... [ Continue Reading ]
IF HE DO NOT THESE THREE UNTO HER - The words express a choice of one of three things. The man was to give the woman, whom he had purchased from her father, her freedom, unless (i) he caused her to be redeemed by a Hebrew master Exodus 21:8; or, (ii) gave her to his son, and treated her as a daugh... [ Continue Reading ]
The case of murder of a free man and of a bondman. See Exodus 21:20 note. The law was afterward expressly declared to relate also to foreigners, Leviticus 24:17, Leviticus 24:21; compare the marginal references.... [ Continue Reading ]
There was no place of safety for the guilty murderer, not even the altar of Yahweh. Thus all superstitious notions connected with the right of sanctuary were excluded. Adonijah and Joab 1 Kings 1:50; 1 Kings 2:28 appear to have vainly trusted that the common feeling would protect them, if they took... [ Continue Reading ]
The following offences were to be punished with death: Striking a parent, compare Deuteronomy 27:16. Cursing a parent, compare the marginal references. Kidnapping, whether with a view to retain the person stolen, or to sell him, compare the marginal references.... [ Continue Reading ]
QUIT - i. e. if one man injured another in a quarrel so as to oblige him to keep his bed, he was free from the liability to a criminal charge (such as might be based upon Exodus 21:12): but he was required to compensate the latter for the loss of his time, and for the cost of his healing.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Jewish authorities appear to be right in referring this law, like those in Exodus 21:26, Exodus 21:32, to foreign slaves (see Leviticus 25:44). The protection here afforded to the life of a slave may seem to us but a slight one; but it is the very earliest trace of such protection in legislation... [ Continue Reading ]
The rule would seem to refer to a case in which the wife of a man interfered in a quarrel. This law, “the jus talionis,” is elsewhere repeated in substance, compare the marginal references. and Genesis 9:6. It has its root in a simple conception of justice, and is found in the laws of many ancient n... [ Continue Reading ]
Freedom was the proper equivalent for permanent injury.... [ Continue Reading ]
The animal was slain as a tribute to the sanctity of human life (Compare the marginal references and Genesis 4:11). It was stoned, and its flesh was treated as carrion. Guilty negligence on the part of its owner was reckoned a capital offence, to be commuted for a fine. In the case of a slave, the... [ Continue Reading ]
The usual mode of protecting a well in the East was probably then, as now, by building round it a low circular wall.... [ Continue Reading ]
The dead ox in this case, as well as in the preceding one, must have been worth no more than the price of the hide, as the flesh could not be eaten. See Leviticus 17:1.... [ Continue Reading ]