Exodus 21:1
_Judgments, or laws directing the civil conduct of the Israelites. (Menochius)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Judgments, or laws directing the civil conduct of the Israelites. (Menochius)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Servant, or slave. A man might sell himself and his children. But if they were females, under age, God prescribes how they are to be treated, ver. 7. --- Six years: in case he were brought immediately after the expiration of the Sabbatic law: none could be detained for a longer period. If a person... [ Continue Reading ]
_Raiment. Hebrew Gaph may signify also the body. "If he come (with his body) alone, let him so depart," Septuagint. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_To the gods: Elohim. That is, to the judges, or magistrates, authorized by God. (Challoner) --- In a matter of such consequence, great deliberation was requisite. --- Posts, of his own house. This ceremony tended to punish the slave for neglecting his liberty, and shewed, that he should not pass th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Go out, to work in the fields, according to Grotius; or rather, to enjoy her liberty. A father who sold his daughter, always expected that she should be the wife of the purchaser, or of his son. If this did not take place, she was free after six years, or before, if her master died. Constantine san... [ Continue Reading ]
_Daughters. When she is old enough to be married, he shall give her a dowry like his own daughter, or like a free woman. (Haydock)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Marriage. This seems to insinuate that she was divorced: but the best commentators suppose, that the introduction of the second wife was not to infringe the rights of the first. Hebrew, "he shall not diminish her food, raiment, and dwelling," but treat her as his wife. The Athenians required husban... [ Continue Reading ]
With a will. The Hebrew and Septuagint do not express this, but the context shews it to be necessary. --- Death, by the sword, as people soliciting idolatry to others were also. Eighteen crimes were punished with lapidation, ten with fire, or melting lead poured down their throats, and six with stra... [ Continue Reading ]
_God. When a person was slain undesignedly, the Providence of God was to be adored in silence, as nothing happens without his permission. (Haydock) See Numbers xxv. 6._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Altar, if he should flee thither for safety. No asylum was allowed to such murderers. Thus Joab was slain by Solomon, 3 Kings ii. 31. (Menochius)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Striketh, even though death should not ensue. But some require a grevious wound, and that the son should be twice admonished, Deuteronomy xxi. 18. Parricide seemed a crime so shocking and unnatural, that neither Moses nor Solon made any express law against it._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Curseth, or speaking injuriously. The Athenians put such in prison._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Staff, as people in health do, or even as a convalescent. In the mean time the other person was confined, and subjected to the law of retaliation, if the sick man lost either limb or life, ver. 24. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Money, which purchased the slave. Hence, as he will be punished in some degree, and it is not absolutely certain that the slave died of his wounds, his master shall not be put to death. "They are slaves, (says Seneca, ep. 47,) but they are our fellow-slaves. " We have one common origin, and one mas... [ Continue Reading ]
But live herself. So Josephus also reads, Antiquities iv. 8. But Philo and the Septuagint have, "of a child unformed;" and ver. 23, "But if the child be formed, ( exeikonismenon, animated and organized) he shall give soul for soul;" as if all were referred to the child, which the Vulgate explains of... [ Continue Reading ]
_Eye. "This law tended to restrain, not to encourage, fury and revenge." (St. Augustine, contra Faust. xix. 25.) Some explain it, as if a sum of money could only be required, equivalent to the ransom of an eye, in case a person should be under a necessity of losing or of redeeming it. (Muis; Jonatha... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER XXI.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Stoned, that he may do no more harm, and that the owner may be punished at least by this loss. (Haydock) --- Sentence was passed by the 23 judges. By the Roman law, the animal which struck a man was forfeited to him (Calmet); and its master had to make good all damages. (Justinian iv. 9.)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Bond man, &c., of any of those uncircumcised nations, (Jonathan) whom it was lawful to put to death; and hence their life was esteemed of less value. (Haydock) --- Sicles. Septuagint, "didrachmas." This was the price of a slave, for which our Saviour was sold: that of a free-man was double. (Calmet... [ Continue Reading ]