Exodus 20:22-26

The Book of the Covenant

This section comprises a number of laws designed to regulate the life of an agricultural community living under comparatively simple conditions. The laws are mainly of a civil order with a small admixture of rudimentary religious enactment (see e.g. Exodus 20:23; Exodus 23:10;). The principle of their arrangement is not clear, but the three sections Exodus 21:23; Exodus 22:1; Exodus 23:1 seem to be amplifications of the sixth, eighth, and ninth commandments of the Decalogue respectively. The Book of the Covenant occupies an intermediate position between the brief and general principles enunciated in the Decalogue and the minute and detailed legislation set forth elsewhere in the Pentateuch. For the relationship between the legislation of Moses and that of earlier civilisations, see Intro. § 2, and art. 'Laws of Hammurabi.'