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Text -- Exodus 21:1-36 (NET)
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Strongs On/Off
Context
The Decisions
21:1 “These are the decisions that you will set before them:
Hebrew Servants
21:2 “If you buy a Hebrew servant , he is to serve you for six years , but in the seventh year he will go out free without paying anything .
21:3 If he came in by himself he will go out by himself ; if he had a wife when he came in , then his wife will go out with him.
21:4 If his master gave him a wife , and she bore sons or daughters , the wife and the children will belong to her master , and he will go out by himself .
21:5 But if the servant should declare, ‘I love my master , my wife , and my children ; I will not go out free ,’
21:6 then his master must bring him to the judges , and he will bring him to the door or the doorposts , and his master will pierce his ear with an awl , and he shall serve him forever .
21:7 “If a man sells his daughter as a female servant , she will not go out as the male servants do .
21:8 If she does not please her master , who has designated her for himself, then he must let her be redeemed . He has no right to sell her to a foreign nation , because he has dealt deceitfully with her.
21:9 If he designated her for his son , then he will deal with her according to the customary rights of daughters .
21:10 If he takes another wife, he must not diminish the first one’s food , her clothing , or her marital rights .
21:11 If he does not provide her with these three things, then she will go out free , without paying money .
Personal Injuries
21:12 “Whoever strikes someone so that he dies must surely be put to death .
21:13 But if he does not do it with premeditation , but it happens by accident , then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee .
21:14 But if a man willfully attacks his neighbor to kill him cunningly , you will take him even from my altar that he may die .
21:15 “Whoever strikes his father or his mother must surely be put to death .
21:16 “Whoever kidnaps someone and sells him, or is caught still holding him, must surely be put to death .
21:17 “Whoever treats his father or his mother disgracefully must surely be put to death .
21:18 “If men fight , and one strikes his neighbor with a stone or with his fist and he does not die , but must remain in bed ,
21:19 and then if he gets up and walks about outside on his staff , then the one who struck him is innocent , except he must pay for the injured person’s loss of time and see to it that he is fully healed .
21:20 “If a man strikes his male servant or his female servant with a staff so that he or she dies as a result of the blow , he will surely be punished .
21:21 However , if the injured servant survives one or two days , the owner will not be punished , for he has suffered the loss.
21:22 “If men fight and hit a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely , but there is no serious injury , he will surely be punished in accordance with what the woman’s husband demands of him, and he will pay what the court decides .
21:23 But if there is serious injury , then you will give a life for a life ,
21:24 eye for eye , tooth for tooth , hand for hand , foot for foot ,
21:25 burn for burn , wound for wound , bruise for bruise .
21:26 “If a man strikes the eye of his male servant or his female servant so that he destroys it, he will let the servant go free as compensation for the eye .
21:27 If he knocks out the tooth of his male servant or his female servant , he will let the servant go free as compensation for the tooth .
Laws about Animals
21:28 “If an ox gores a man or a woman so that either dies , then the ox must surely be stoned and its flesh must not be eaten , but the owner of the ox will be acquitted .
21:29 But if the ox had the habit of goring , and its owner was warned , and he did not take the necessary precautions , and then it killed a man or a woman , the ox must be stoned and the man must be put to death .
21:30 If a ransom is set for him, then he must pay the redemption for his life according to whatever amount was set for him.
21:31 If the ox gores a son or a daughter , the owner will be dealt with according to this rule.
21:32 If the ox gores a male servant or a female servant , the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver , and the ox must be stoned .
21:33 “If a man opens a pit or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,
21:34 the owner of the pit must repay the loss. He must give money to its owner , and the dead animal will become his.
21:35 If the ox of one man injures the ox of his neighbor so that it dies , then they will sell the live ox and divide its proceeds , and they will also divide the dead ox.
21:36 Or if it is known that the ox had the habit of goring , and its owner did not take the necessary precautions, he must surely pay ox for ox , and the dead animal will become his.
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Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics
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Names, People and Places:
Dictionary Themes and Topics:
Daughter |
EXODUS, THE BOOK OF, 3-4 |
SABBATICAL YEAR |
Israel |
EZEKIEL, 2 |
BIBLE, THE, IV CANONICITY |
PAPYRUS |
Book |
Revelation |
PENTATEUCH, 3 |
PENTATEUCH, 2B |
Crucifixion |
COVENANT, BOOK OF THE |
PUNISHMENTS |
EXODUS, THE BOOK OF, 2 |
LAW OF MOSES |
LAW IN THE OLD TESTAMENT |
Servant |
SLAVE |
MURDER |
more
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expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes -> Exo 21:1; Exo 21:2; Exo 21:2; Exo 21:2; Exo 21:2; Exo 21:2; Exo 21:3; Exo 21:3; Exo 21:3; Exo 21:4; Exo 21:5; Exo 21:5; Exo 21:6; Exo 21:6; Exo 21:7; Exo 21:7; Exo 21:8; Exo 21:8; Exo 21:8; Exo 21:8; Exo 21:8; Exo 21:9; Exo 21:10; Exo 21:10; Exo 21:10; Exo 21:11; Exo 21:12; Exo 21:12; Exo 21:12; Exo 21:12; Exo 21:13; Exo 21:13; Exo 21:14; Exo 21:15; Exo 21:16; Exo 21:16; Exo 21:16; Exo 21:17; Exo 21:18; Exo 21:19; Exo 21:19; Exo 21:19; Exo 21:19; Exo 21:19; Exo 21:20; Exo 21:20; Exo 21:20; Exo 21:21; Exo 21:21; Exo 21:21; Exo 21:22; Exo 21:22; Exo 21:25; Exo 21:26; Exo 21:26; Exo 21:26; Exo 21:27; Exo 21:28; Exo 21:28; Exo 21:28; Exo 21:28; Exo 21:29; Exo 21:29; Exo 21:30; Exo 21:31; Exo 21:31; Exo 21:31; Exo 21:32; Exo 21:32; Exo 21:32; Exo 21:34; Exo 21:34; Exo 21:34; Exo 21:35; Exo 21:35; Exo 21:36; Exo 21:36
NET Notes: Exo 21:1 There follows now a series of rulings called “the decisions” or “the judgments” (הַמִּש...
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NET Notes: Exo 21:2 The adverb חִנָּם (hinnam) means “gratis, free”; it is related to the verb “to be gracious, show...
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NET Notes: Exo 21:3 The phrase says, “if he was the possessor of a wife”; the noun בַּעַל (ba’al) can mean “po...
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NET Notes: Exo 21:4 The slave would not have the right or the means to acquire a wife. Thus, the idea of the master’s “giving” him a wife is clear ̵...
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NET Notes: Exo 21:5 Or taken as a desiderative imperfect, it would say, “I do not want to go out free.”
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NET Notes: Exo 21:7 The word אָמָה (’amah) refers to a female servant who would eventually become a concubine or wife; the sale price ...
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NET Notes: Exo 21:8 The deceit is in not making her his wife or concubine as the arrangement had stipulated.
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NET Notes: Exo 21:9 Or “after the manner of” (KJV, ASV); NRSV “shall deal with her as with a daughter.”
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NET Notes: Exo 21:10 See S. Paul, “Exodus 21:10, A Threefold Maintenance Clause,” JNES 28 (1969): 48-53. Paul suggests that the third element listed is not mar...
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NET Notes: Exo 21:11 The lessons of slavery and service are designed to bring justice to existing customs in antiquity. The message is: Those in slavery for one reason or ...
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NET Notes: Exo 21:13 Heb “and God brought into his hand.” The death is unintended, its circumstances outside human control.
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NET Notes: Exo 21:14 The word עָרְמָה (’ormah) is problematic. It could mean with prior intent, which would be connected wi...
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NET Notes: Exo 21:15 This is the same construction that was used in v. 12, but here there is no mention of the parents’ death. This attack, then, does not lead to th...
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NET Notes: Exo 21:16 Literally “and he is found in his hand” (KJV and ASV both similar), being not yet sold.
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NET Notes: Exo 21:17 The form is a Piel participle from קָלַל (qalal), meaning in Qal “be light,” in Piel “treat lightly, c...
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NET Notes: Exo 21:19 The word appears to be the infinitive from the verb “to sit” with a meaning of “his sitting down”; some suggest it is from the...
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NET Notes: Exo 21:21 This last clause is a free paraphrase of the Hebrew, “for he is his money” (so KJV, ASV); NASB “his property.” It seems that i...
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NET Notes: Exo 21:25 The text now introduces the Lex Talionis with cases that were not likely to have applied to the situation of the pregnant woman. See K. Luke, “E...
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NET Notes: Exo 21:26 Interestingly, the verb used here for “let him go” is the same verb throughout the first part of the book for “release” of the...
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NET Notes: Exo 21:27 Heb “him”; the referent (the male or female servant) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
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NET Notes: Exo 21:29 Heb “he was not keeping it” or perhaps guarding or watching it (referring to the ox).
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NET Notes: Exo 21:30 The family of the victim would set the amount for the ransom of the man guilty of criminal neglect. This practice was common in the ancient world, rar...
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NET Notes: Exo 21:32 See further B. S. Jackson, “The Goring Ox Again [Ex. 21,28-36],” JJP 18 (1974): 55-94.
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