Exodus 21:10

21:10 If he takes another wife, ¹  he must not diminish the first one’s food, ²  her clothing, or her marital rights. ³ 

Exodus 22:27

22:27 for it is his only covering – it is his garment for his body. ⁴  What else can he sleep in? ⁵  And ⁶  when he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am gracious.

[21:10]  ¹ tn “wife” has been supplied.

[21:10]  ² tn The translation of “food” does not quite do justice to the Hebrew word. It is “flesh.” The issue here is that the family she was to marry into is wealthy, they ate meat. She was not just to be given the basic food the ordinary people ate, but the fine foods that this family ate.

[21:10]  ³ sn See S. Paul, “Exodus 21:10, A Threefold Maintenance Clause,” JNES 28 (1969): 48-53. Paul suggests that the third element listed is not marital rights but ointments since Sumerian and Akkadian texts list food, clothing, and oil as the necessities of life. The translation of “marital rights” is far from certain, since the word occurs only here. The point is that the woman was to be cared for with all that was required for a woman in that situation.

[22:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “his skin.”

[22:27]  ⁵ tn Literally the text reads, “In what can he lie down?” The cloak would be used for a covering at night to use when sleeping. The garment, then, was the property that could not be taken and not given back – it was the last possession. The modern idiom of “the shirt off his back” gets at the point being made here.

[22:27]  ⁶ tn Heb “and it will be.”