SERIES C --- EXODUS FROM BONDAGE --- LESSON 19

LAW APPLIED

LAWS FOR DAILY LIVING

From Exodus 21

Adonai gave Moses the following Laws for His people: If a Hebrew becomes your slave because he cannot pay you his debt, he shall serve you for six years. In the seventh year he shall go free without any further debt to you. If he married after he had become your slave, then he alone shall be freed in the seventh year. But if he was married before he became your slave, then both he and his wife shall be freed in the seventh year. If the slave’s master gave him a wife during the time of his slavery and they have children, the slave alone shall go free in the seventh year. If the slave prefers to remain with his master, his wife and his children, the master shall bring him to the judges and pierce his ear with an awl before the people. Then he shall remain with his master as a slave forever. If a father sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go free in the seventh year as the male slaves do. If she does not, please her master, he shall permit her father to buy her back again. He must not sell her to foreigners, for he has treated her unfairly. If a man lets a slave girl marry his son, he shall no longer treat her as a slave girl, but as a daughter. If a master marries a slave girl himself, then marries another wife, no rights of that girl shall be taken away because of the second marriage. She shall not have less food, clothing or fewer personal rights to her husband. If the husband does not give her these rights fully, she may leave as a free person. Whoever hits another person and causes his death, that person shall be put to death. But if the death is accidental, an act which YHVH permitted, then that person may go to an appointed place and be safe. If a man plans the death of another, you must take him from My altar, where he would otherwise be safe and execute him. Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death. Whoever kidnaps another, whether he holds that person or sells him, shall be put to death. Whoever curses his father or mother shall be put to death. When a man is injured in a fight, the man who hit him is innocent if the injured person recovers. But the injured man must be paid for his time and expenses until he is well again. A man who beats his slave to death must be punished, whether that slave is male or female. But the man shall not be punished if the slave lives, even though he is injured, for the slave is the man’s possession. If a woman who is about to have a child is injured by some men who are fighting nearby and if the child dies but the woman lives, then the man who injured her shall pay whatever the woman’s husband demands as long as the demand is acceptable to the judges. If the woman dies, the one who injured her shall die also. If she has a permanent injury, the man who injured her shall be punished with the same kind of injury. If her eye was lost, then his shall be taken out; or if her tooth was lost, then his shall be taken out also. He shall pay a hand for her injured hand, a foot for her injured foot, a burn for her burn, a wound for her wound, or a stripe for her stripe. If a master blinds his slave’s eye, the slave shall go free in payment for his eye. If a master knocks out a slave’s tooth, the slave shall go free in payment for his tooth. If an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox shall be stoned to death, but not eaten. The owner shall not be punished unless the ox has gored others before. If the ox has gored others and the owner, in full knowledge, has failed to keep the ox under control, then the ox and the owner shall die. However, the relatives of the ox’s victim may take a payment as a redemption for his life if they prefer, whatever payment the judges decide is fair. The same rule will apply if the ox gores a man’s son or daughter. If the ox gores a slave, the owner shall give to the slave’s master thirty pieces of silver, then the ox must be stoned to death. If a man digs a pit and fails to cover it properly and an ox or donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall pay for the loss of the animal, which then becomes his property. If a man’s ox kills another man’s ox, then the two men shall sell the live ox and divide the money. They shall also divide the dead animal. But if the live ox has gored others in the past and the owner has not been careful to keep it penned and then he shall exchange oxen, his live ox for the other man’s dead ox.

COMMENTARY

SLAVES IN ANCIENT EGYPT

Some people say that, since Jethro was a Midianite, the natural spot for Moses to pasture his flocks would be Midian and therefore, Mount Sinai was in Midian. Others say this is not necessarily true, for Jethro belonged to the Kenite tribe of Midianites. Who travelled like nomads throughout the Middle East. These people place Mount Sinai in the Sinai Desert. Still others propose that the Bible writer did not record the physical place of Mount Sinai because he wanted to emphasize the spiritual event of YHVH giving His people the Law. The Ten Commandments are brief. So YHVH went on to give specific examples of how the principles expressed in them would be applied. In these examples, known as {case law,} we see that in Israel even slaves would have a right to respect! How differently Israelites were to treat men and women who might serve them than they had been treated in Egypt! In the ancient world people became slaves by being captured in battle, born into a slave family, or sold into slavery. Sometimes parents sold their own children into slavery when they were hopelessly in debt. Or sometimes they sold themselves into slavery. In some places, such as the copper mines of Sinai, slavery meant certain death. Life in a temple, private home, or on a government project was much easier. Women slaves had an especially miserable life. Often, they were used as prostitutes or concubines for their owner and his friends; becoming a kind of wife without the privileges. Even the Hebrews, who had been freed from slavery by YHVH, had slaves of their own in the wilderness! Although their Laws concerning slaves were more merciful, many abused the Laws and the slaves. Slavery was usually a life of misery, no matter who the owners were.