CHAPTER XXI _Laws concerning_ servants. _They shall serve for only seven_ _years_, 1, 2. _If a servant brought a wife to servitude with him, both should go_ _out free on the_ seventh _year_, 3. _If his master had given him a wife, and she bore him children, he_ _might go out free an the sevent... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:2. _IF THOU BUY A HEBREW SERVANT_] Calmet enumerates _six_ different ways in which a Hebrew might lose his liberty: 1. In extreme _poverty_ they might sell their liberty. Leviticus 25:39: _If thy brother be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee_, c. 2. A _father_ might _sell his childr... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:3. _IF HE CAME IN BY HIMSELF_] If he and his wife came in together, they were to go out together: in all respects as he entered, so should he go out. This consideration seems to have induced St. Jerome to translate the passage thus: _Cum quali veste_ _intraverat, cum tali exeat_. "He... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:4. _THE WIFE AND HER CHILDREN SHALL BE HER MASTER'S_] It was a law among the Hebrews, that if a Hebrew had children by a Canannitish woman, those children must be considered as Canaanitish only, and might be sold and bought, and serve for ever. The law here refers to such a case only... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:6. _SHALL BRING HIM UNTO THE JUDGES_] אל האלהים _el haelohim,_ literally, _to God_; or, as the Septuagint have it, προς το κριτηριον Θεου, _to the judgment of God_; who condescended to dwell among his people; who determined all their differences till he had given them laws for all ca... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:7. _IF A MAN SELL HIS DAUGHTER_] This the Jews allowed no man to do but in extreme distress - when he had no goods, either movable or immovable left, even to the clothes on his back; and he had this permission only while she was _unmarriageable_. It may appear at first view strange t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:9. _BETROTHED HER UNTO HIS SON, HE SHALL DEAL WITH HER_] He shall give her the same dowry he would give to one of his own daughters. From these laws we learn, that if a man's son married his servant, by his father's consent, the father was obliged to treat her in every respect as a _... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:11. _THESE THREE_] 1. Her _food_, שארה sheerah, her _flesh_, for she must not, like a common slave, be fed merely on _vegetables_. 2. Her _raiment _- her private wardrobe, with all occasional necessary additions. And, 3. The _marriage debt _- a due proportion of the husband's time... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:13. _I WILL APPOINT THEE A PLACE WHITHER HE SHALL FLEE._] From the earliest times the nearest akin had a right to revenge the murder of his relation, and as this right was universally acknowledged, no law was ever made on the subject; but as this might be abused, and a person who had... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:14. _THOU SHALT TAKE HIM FROM MINE ALTAR_] Before the cities of refuge were assigned, the altar of God was the common _asylum_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:15. _THAT SMITETH HIS FATHER, OR HIS MOTHER_] As such a case argued peculiar depravity, therefore no mercy was to be shown to the culprit.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:16. _HE THAT STEALETH A MAN_] By this law every man-stealer, and every receiver of the stolen person, should lose his life; no matter whether the latter stole the man himself, or gave money to a _slave captain_ or _negro-dealer_ to steal him for him.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:19. _SHALL PAY_ FOR _THE LOSS OF HIS TIME, AND SHALL CAUSE_ _HIM TO BE THOROUGHLY HEALED._] This was a wise and excellent institution, and most courts of justice still regulate their decisions on such cases by this Mosaic precept.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:21. If the slave who had been beaten by his master died under his hand, the master was punished with death; see Genesis 9:5-1. But if he survived the beating a _day_ or _two_ the master was not punished, because it might be presumed that the man died through some other cause. And all... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:22. _AND HURT A WOMAN WITH CHILD_] As a _posterity_ among the Jews was among the peculiar promises of their covenant, and as every man had some reason to think that the Messiah should spring from _his_ family, therefore any injury done to a woman with child, by which the fruit of her... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:24. _EYE FOR EYE_] This is the earliest account we have of the _lex talionis_, or law of _like for like_, which afterwards prevailed among the Greeks and Romans. Among the latter, it constituted a part of the _twelve tables_, so famous in antiquity; but the punishment was afterwards... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:26. _IF A MAN SMITE THE EYE, C._] See the following verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:27. _IF HE SMITE OUT HIS - TOOTH_] It was a noble law that obliged the unmerciful slaveholder to set the slave at liberty whose eye or tooth he had knocked out. If this did not teach them _humanity_, it taught them _caution_, as one rash blow might have deprived them of all right to... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:28. _IF AN OX GORE A MAN_] It is more likely that a _bull_ is here intended, as the word signifies _both_, see Exodus 22:1; and the Septuagint translate the שור _shor_ of the original by ταυρος, _a_ _bull_. Mischief of this kind was provided against by most nations. It appears that... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:30. _IF THERE BE LAID ON HIM A SUM OF MONEY - THE RANSOM OF_ _HIS LIFE_] So it appears that, though by the law he forfeited his _life_, yet this might be commuted for a _pecuniary_ mulct, at which the life of the deceased might be valued by the magistrates.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:32. _THIRTY SHEKELS_] Each worth about three shillings English; see Genesis 20:16. So, counting the shekel at its _utmost_ value, the life of a slave was valued at _four pounds ten_ _shillings_. And at this price these same vile people valued the life of our blessed Lord; see Zechari... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Exodus 21:33. _AND IF A MAN SHALL OPEN A PIT, OR - DIG A PIT_] That is, if a man shall open a _well_ or _cistern_ that had been before closed up, or dig a new one; for these two cases are plainly intimated: and if he did this in some public place where there was danger that men or cattle migh... [ Continue Reading ]