Exodus 21 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Exodus 21:1-6

1 ‘These are the laws you are to set before them:

2 ‘If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. 3 If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free. 5 ‘But if the servant declares, “I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,” 6 then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the door-post and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.

A. Find Out:

1. How long should a bought-servant serve for? v.2
2. How does he eventually leave? v.3
3. What might have happened during the serving period? v.4a
4. How shall he leave? v.4b
5. What may he prefer to do? v.5
6. How shall this be confirmed in law? v.6

B. Think:

1. What do you think is the purpose of the time limit in v.2?
2. What do you think is the significance of the ‘leaving rules’?

C. Comment:

      In some parts of the world in business, there are apprentices who are indentured for a period of years to work under the direction of a ‘Master’ craftsman. The Hebrew system of serving as a servant was not dissimilar. ‘Slave’ here gives a wrong connotation. God’s Laws were caring for all classes and so if you were poor you would work for someone else in return of a payment and keep. To ensure that the servant was not exploited they were to be released from the arrangement in the seventh year of it, without any obligations on their part. If they were married when they came, then their wife went as well.

      Now comes the difficult bit (in our modern eyes). If the master gives the servant a wife, she is under the master’s directions and so she and any children remain with the master at the end of the period (unless of course a friendly master should release her as well). However legally she was to stay with the Master. It would be likely that a servant knowing this would either marry with the obligations and stay on at the end, or simply not marry during that time. If he did want to stay on, then a simple procedure of creating a permanent body mark (like we pierce ears for earrings) indicated his intent and the master’s agreement to have he and his family. The purpose of these instructions was to formalize a process that often happened anyway, in order to prevent abuse and protect the servant.

D. Application:

1. God’s Laws provide caring and protection for all.
2. Good relationships at work are invaluable and make work pleasurable.

Passage: Exodus 21:7-11

7 ‘If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as male servants do. 8 If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her. 9 If he selects her for his son, he must grant her the rights of a daughter. 10 If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights. 11 If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money.

A. Find Out:

1. How is a woman servant to be dealt with differently? v.7
2. What must happen if she doesn’t please the master? v.8a
3. What must not happen to her? v.8b
4. What is her status if she is to marry his son? v.9
5. What protection is given in cases of second wives? v.10
6. What is to happen if these things don’t happen? v.11

B. Think:

1. Who does the first “If” apply to? What situation is it supposing?
2. Who do the 2nd to 4th “If” apply to? What are they saying?
3. How is the 5th “If” a general protection?

C. Comment:

       In Laws that seem so far from modern life we need to remember that God is providing protection in a world very different and in some ways less civilized than our own. The word “If”, that we’ve picked up a number of times in the questions above, indicates possibilities.

       The first one refers to a Hebrew father who has fallen into abject poverty (for that’s only when this was allowed) and who is seeking to care for his children. Arranged marriages, although alien to most of us, often work better than the short-term relationships we so often see. Here the father, in exchange for money, puts his daughter into the family of another to work “in service”. This is so that she can prove herself, and it acts as a prelude to becoming the wife of the master, or even of his son. It was a practice of the Middle East and so the laws here are to protect her.

      The final “If” (v.11) says that if the Master isn’t willing to fulfil the 2nd to 4th conditions, she is to be released without payment, i.e. the contract is annulled on both sides. If she doesn’t prove herself, so that Master decides not to marry her, she is to be returned to her family and the money repaid (v.8). If she is to marry the son, then she is to be given every right as a daughter, not as a servant (v.9). If the master takes a second wife, as sometimes happened then, this first girl is not to lose out in any way. These are laws to protect her in that day.

D. Application:

1. Culture sometimes abuses. God always seeks to protect.
2. Hard times sometimes create less than admirable circumstances.

Passage: Exodus 21:12-17

12 ‘Anyone who strikes a person with a fatal blow is to be put to death. 13 However, if it is not done intentionally, but God lets it happen, they are to flee to a place I will designate. 14 But if anyone schemes and kills someone deliberately, that person is to be taken from my altar and put to death.

15 ‘Anyone who attacks their father or mother is to be put to death.

16 ‘Anyone who kidnaps someone is to be put to death, whether the victim has been sold or is still in the kidnapper’s possession.

17 ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.

A. Find Out:

1. Who shall be executed? v.12
2. Yet what is a possibility? v.13
3. So what is the clear Law about in respect of killing another? v.14
4. What other 3 groups are to be executed? v.15-17

B. Think:

1. How is murder and manslaughter differentiated?
2. How are verses 15 & 17 reflections of the Ten Commandments?
3. Why do you think the law of v.16 was included?

C. Comment:

     In a society that has decided capital punishment is inappropriate, we may find it difficult to accept the thought of execution for certain crimes. Several things need to be suggested. First, these Laws are God’s Laws. The Maker who is all wise and all-loving knows best and perhaps, therefore, in the course of time, we may see as a society, that actually removing capital punishment has been detrimental and will be reinstated. In respect of terrorist bombers, we have accepted that on occasion “shoot to kill” is a better alternative to having the bomber explode a bomb that kills dozens of people, so it is really a matter of degree. Perhaps the absence of capital punishment in our society is actually a sign of our godlessness and our shallow value of life. In nations with ‘harsh’ laws, the overall crime rate is usually considerably lower than in nations with liberal regimes.

     Verses 12 to 14 distinguish between murder (purposeful) and manslaughter (accidental). Verse 16 is against slavery, the removal of life from an individual, in reality. Verse 15 (alternative) suggests attacking with the intent to kill. The spiritual reality of v.17, as it was understood by God and early Israel, is that a curse is not merely words but a decree that has effect, something we perhaps have much to learn about. Thus the censure is of a child who brings down their parents. In each case death is for the removal of life where that has been a purposeful, wrongly motivated thing.

D. Application:

1. God sees the wrong removal of another’s life in the severest terms.
2. Wrong removal of another’s life warrants death in God’s eyes.

Passage: Exodus 21:18-27

18 ‘If people quarrel and one person hits another with a stone or with their fist and the victim does not die but is confined to bed, 19 the one who struck the blow will not be held liable if the other can get up and walk around outside with a staff; however, the guilty party must pay the injured person for any loss of time and see that the victim is completely healed.

20 ‘Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, 21 but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property.

22 ‘If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. 23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

26 ‘An owner who hits a male or female slave in the eye and destroys it must let the slave go free to compensate for the eye. 27 And an owner who knocks out the tooth of a male or female slave must let the slave go free to compensate for the tooth.

A. Find Out:

1. What situation is next envisaged? v.18
2. What should happen if there is only short term injury? v.19
3. What is the next situation and its outcome? v.20,21
4. What is the 3 rd situation and outcome for minor injury? v.22
5. Yet what about serious injury? v.23-25
6. How about injuries to servants? v.26,27

B. Think:

1. What is the general law, about minor injuries inflicted?
2. What happens when major injuries are inflicted?

C. Comment:

      From capital crimes the Law moves to minor injuries and four situations are envisaged, two involving fights and two involving slaves or servants.

      First, the fight situations: the Law recognises that sinful men will have upsets and disagreements and in the heat of the moment it will turn violent. Murder & manslaughter have already been covered, so now we consider lesser injuries incurred during such upsets. If it is a temporary injury caused, then the one causing it must compensate the other for the loss of his time. That is the extent of it.

      Should the pregnant wife of one of the men (for that is the likely scenario) seek to intervene and stop the fight and be injured and give birth prematurely but there is no other injury, then a fine shall be imposed on the other man for having caused it, assessed as a compromise of what the husband demands and the court agrees. For more serious injuries caused, the penalty is to match the injury. This is a ‘limiting law’, given to limit there being revenge.

     Second, injuries to servants and slaves: if a slave is killed by a master the laws of murder and manslaughter will apply. If it is a temporary injury there is to be no penalty. If a servant is injured the penalty to compensate for that injury is that the servant is to be released. As one commentator has said, slavery in Israel was ‘rural, domestic and small scale’, yet it still was concerned for the welfare of such workers.

D. Application:

1. Sinful men need the law to restrain them.
2. The law protects and provides for bad situations.

Passage: Exodus 21:28-36

28 ‘If a bull gores a man or woman to death, the bull is to be stoned to death, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the bull will not be held responsible. 29 If, however, the bull has had the habit of goring and the owner has been warned but has not kept it penned up and it kills a man or woman, the bull is to be stoned and its owner also is to be put to death. 30 However, if payment is demanded, the owner may redeem his life by the payment of whatever is demanded. 31 This law also applies if the bull gores a son or a daughter. 32 If the bull gores a male or female slave, the owner must pay thirty shekels[g] of silver to the master of the slave, and the bull is to be stoned to death.

33 ‘If anyone uncovers a pit or digs one and fails to cover it and an ox or a donkey falls into it, 34 the one who opened the pit must pay the owner for the loss and take the dead animal in exchange.

35 ‘If anyone’s bull injures someone else’s bull and it dies, the two parties are to sell the live one and divide both the money and the dead animal equally. 36 However, if it was known that the bull had the habit of goring, yet the owner did not keep it penned up, the owner must pay, animal for animal, and take the dead animal in exchange.

A. Find Out:

1. What is to happen if a bull kills a person? v.28
2. What is to happen if the bull is known to be dangerous? v.29,30
3. What distinction is there between family victims and slaves? v.31,32
4. What happens if an animal dies from a man’s carelessness? v.33,34
5. What happens if a bull kills another bull? v.35
6. How does it vary if the bull was known to be dangerous? v.36

B. Think:

1. How would you sum up verses 28 to 32?
2. How would you sum up verses 33 to 36?

C. Comment:

      The law of “Strict Liability” in our land says that if you bring something onto your land known to be dangerous if it escapes off, and it does escape, you are liable for the damage caused if you do allow it to escape. This is the law behind these verses here. They deal with, first of all, a bull killing a human being, and then a bull killing another bull.

     The first element of this law considers a person being killed by a bull not normally known to be one especially dangerous. Bulls are naturally dangerous by their size and temperament and so a measure of care is required if you go onto another’s land and encounter his bull. There is danger, which may be why the law is only a bull’s life for the human’s life. It gets worse if it is known that the bull is particularly savage and the owner allows it to escape and it kills another. The owner’s life is thus forfeit but the family of the dead person may take compensation instead if they wish. If a slave was killed the compensation goes to the owner for his loss.

      The law then moves on to cover the loss of animals by the carelessness of others, where the careless person simply buys the dead animal for its full value. If it’s a bull killing a bull, they sell the live bull and share the money and carcass. However if the bull was known to be especially dangerous the dead animal must be bought by the other owner. Straight compensation applies in each case.

D. Application:

1. We have a duty of care with dangerous animals.
2. Compensation is fair if you’ve lost out through carelessness.