The law in your heart

Exodus 21

Welcome to the Daily Bible Chapter. My name is James Leroy Wilson and I invite you to join me as we discover new insights and new perspectives from a very old book.

Exodus 21

I’m reading Young’s Literal Translation (YLT) and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

In Exodus 18, Jethro counsels Moses to select judges. Judges need statutes. Chapter 21 is the beginning of the statutes.

It’s apparent that a form of slavery exists among the Israelites, indicating that even when they were all “slaves” to Pharaoh in Egypt, slavery was also practiced among them. The indications from this chapter is that the slavery was a form of debt repayment, at least among males, and was limited in duration (verses 2–6). Female slaves seemed to have been sold into slavery by their fathers, but they are given rights and protections (verses 7–11).

The rest of the chapter suggests fairly sensible laws. Richard J. Maybury identified two laws common to all religions, the second of which is, “do not encroach on other persons or their property.” Many of the laws in this chapter seem to be an extrapolation of it: Compensation for victims of injury or property damage, some grace for causing accidental death, but the death penalty to those who deliberately or negligently cause death.