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Text -- Exodus 21:1-17 (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 .
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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 |
PAPYRUS |
EZEKIEL, 2 |
EXODUS, THE BOOK OF, 2 |
PENTATEUCH, 2B |
EXODUS, THE BOOK OF, 3-4 |
PENTATEUCH, 3 |
Book |
Revelation |
BIBLE, THE, IV CANONICITY |
Israel |
SABBATICAL YEAR |
Crucifixion |
COVENANT, BOOK OF THE |
LAW IN THE OLD TESTAMENT |
LAW OF MOSES |
Servant |
MURDER |
SLAVE; SLAVERY |
SLAVE |
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
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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