Ex. 21: Other laws: Slavery, Injury, Bulls

Was God done with just giving them the ten commandments? Oh no. There is much more to life than just ten statutes to live by. Starting in chapter 21, God tells Moses more standards to give to the Israelites.

Slavery/Servants
A servant bought and paid for will serve for six years, and is free to go in the seventh year. He will not be separated from his wife if he has one already. However, if the master provides the servant with a wife, that wife and any children belong to the master.

If a servant does not want to be set free, and thereby separated from his wife and children whom he loves, then the master will have to take him before the judges to verify it. An awl driven through the ear of the slave into the door post signifies that he is a servant for life.

If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not allowed to go free like men after six years. If she isn't pleasing to her new master, he must let her be redeemed, traded. Because of this broken faith, the master cannot sell her to foreigners. If the master gives her as a wife to his son, she must be given full birthrights as a daughter. If this son marries another (a second?) woman, he has no right to abandon the servant he married. If he does, then the servant girl can go free, without having to buy her freedom.

Slavery is obviously a hotly debated topic, and I am trying to see both sides of it biblically. I wonder how slaves were treated before these statutes were handed down. My guess is not well. And I thought, Where do they get slaves? Possibly from conquered nations, or if someone sells one to them, as mentioned in Ex. 21:7. Why would God create laws regulating treatment of slaves if He didn't allow for it? If human lives are valuable to God, why are some more valuable than others? I'm thinking of the races on earth whose sole purpose was to test the Israelites, like the Egyptians. This is clearly something I'll need a bigger picture of. What is the point that I am potentially missing? Am I in some way a slave? Or am I in some way a master?

Personal Injuries
In a land not overrun by attorneys, God made the law pretty cut and dried, and simple to follow.

For example, anyone who kills another man receives the death penalty. God said so. In cases of manslaughter, the man is to flee to a place God will designate. This would be a case-by-case thing for God to deal with. The death penalty was also the punishment for killing mom or dad, kidnapping, kidnapping with intent to sell, or cursing mom or dad. That's a serious offense. Nowadays, what would happen if someone cursed his parents? Likely there is no law on the books regarding that...anywhere. Kidnapping? OJ is still alive.

If someone beats up a guy, but the guy lives, but he is bedridden, then the smiter is not responsible if the smitee eventually gets up and walks around with his staff. However, the smiter has to see to it that the smitee is healed and paid back for his trouble. That would make someone think twice before relentlessly pummeling someone. If he had to see to it that whoever he beat down made it back to full health (as opposed to, I don't know, being imprisoned) I think that would be a pretty good deterrent.

If someone beats up a slave and kills him or her, he will be punished. But if the slave is ok in a day or two, no big deal, as the slave is property. Again something that stings my bleeding heart, but is this simply not the way it was? The system?

I laughed at verses 22-25. Because I just pictured a fight getting so out of hand that it would injure a pregnant woman. Not that injuring a pregnant chick is funny, but two dudes whaling on each other to that extreme is cause for snickering. And here is a place in the Bible where it says "eye for an eye..."

If someone damages or knocks out an eye or a tooth of a servant, that servant is allowed to go free as compensation for his eye or tooth.

Also, check this out. If a bull gores someone to death, the bull will be stoned, and the meat uneaten. If said bull has made a habit of goring people, resulting in an unheeded warning from the owner, and it kills someone, the bull and the owner will be put to death. Unless the owner owes money. Then if he pays, his life will be spared by this redemption. In goring a slave, the bull-owner has to pay 30 shekels of silver to the slave-owner. Is 30 shekels a lot? Additionally, if a bull gores another man's bull and it dies, they have to sell the live one and divide the money and the dead animal equally. Goring-habit bulls in this situation lead to the habitual offender bull's owner having to pay, animal for animal, and the dead one is his to keep.

Just take care of your animals, people.

Also, we need to take care of how we dig our pits. If I dig a pit or leave one uncovered, and your donkey or ox falls into it, then I'm on the hook for the cost of it. But at least the carcass is mine.

Thus saith the LORD.