“One who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death, but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen; then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee. If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.
Parallel Translations
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“One who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death,
but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen; then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee.
If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.
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He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.
And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.
But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.
Show all 3 translations
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He that smiteth a man, so that he dieth, shall surely be put to death.
And if a man lie not in wait, but God cause it to come to hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he may flee.
And if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from Mine altar, that he may die.
Cross-references (33)
- Genesis 9:6 (v12) Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image.
- Leviticus 24:17 (v12) “ ‘He who strikes any man mortally shall surely be put to death.
- Joshua 20:2-9 (v13) “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Assign the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by Moses, that the man slayer who kills any…
- Matthew 26:52 (v12) Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place, for all those who take the sword will die by the sword.
- Numbers 35:30-31 (v12) “ ‘Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be slain based on the testimony of witnesses; but one witness shall not testify alone…
Show all 32 cross-references
- 1 Samuel 24:18 (v13) You have declared today how you have dealt well with me, because when Yahweh had delivered me up into your hand, you didn’t kill me.
- 1 Kings 2:28-34 (v14) This news came to Joab; for Joab had followed Adonijah, although he didn’t follow Absalom. Joab fled to Yahweh’s Tent, and held onto the…
- Numbers 35:16-24 (v12) “ ‘But if he struck him with an instrument of iron, so that he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. If he…
- Deuteronomy 4:41-43 (v13) Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, that the man slayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor…
- Deuteronomy 19:1-13 (v13) When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations whose land Yahweh your God gives you, and you succeed them and dwell in their cities and in their…
- 1 Samuel 24:4 (v13) David’s men said to him, “Behold, the day of which Yahweh said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, and you shall do…
- 1 Samuel 24:10 (v13) Behold, today your eyes have seen how Yahweh had delivered you today into my hand in the cave. Some urged me to kill you; but I spared you;…
- Deuteronomy 19:11-13 (vv12, 14) But if any man hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises up against him, strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one…
- Exodus 20:13 (v12) “You shall not murder.
- Numbers 35:10-34 (v13) “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall appoint for…
- 2 Samuel 12:13 (v12) David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against Yahweh.” Nathan said to David, “Yahweh also has put away your sin. You will not die.
- Hebrews 10:26 (v14) For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins,
- Numbers 15:30-31 (v14) “ ‘But the soul who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native-born or a foreigner, blasphemes Yahweh. That soul shall be cut off…
- Numbers 35:20-21 (v14) If he shoved him out of hatred, or hurled something at him while lying in wait, so that he died, or in hostility struck him with his hand,…
- Deuteronomy 1:43 (v14) So I spoke to you, and you didn’t listen; but you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh, and were presumptuous, and went up into the…
- Deuteronomy 17:12-13 (v14) The man who does presumptuously in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before Yahweh your God, or to the judge, even…
- Deuteronomy 18:22 (v14) When a prophet speaks in Yahweh’s name, if the thing doesn’t follow, nor happen, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet…
- Deuteronomy 27:24 (v14) ‘Cursed is he who secretly kills his neighbor.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
- 2 Samuel 3:27 (v14) When Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the middle of the gate to speak with him quietly, and struck him there in the…
- 2 Samuel 16:10 (v13) The king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Because he curses, and because Yahweh has said to him, ‘Curse David;’ who…
- 2 Samuel 20:9-10 (v14) Joab said to Amasa, “Is it well with you, my brother?” Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. But Amasa took no heed…
- 1 Kings 1:50-51 (v14) Adonijah was afraid because of Solomon; and he arose, and went, and hung onto the horns of the altar. Solomon was told, “Behold, Adonijah…
- 2 Kings 11:15 (v14) Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds who were set over the army, and said to them, “Bring her out between the ranks. Kill…
- Psalms 19:13 (v14) Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I will be upright. I will be blameless and…
- Isaiah 10:7 (v13) However he doesn’t mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations.
- Micah 7:2 (v13) The godly man has perished out of the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his…
- 2 Peter 2:10 (v14) but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to…
32 distinct cross-references across this passage (33 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (18 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv13–14 Though a man be killed at unawares, yet it…
Though a man be killed at unawares, yet it is God’s providence that it should so be.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv12–14 Exo 21:12 He that smiteth a man, so that…
Exo 21:12 He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.
Ver. 12. Shall be surely put to death.] {See Trapp on "Gen 9:6"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv12–14 He that smiteth a man knowingly and wilfully, as…
He that smiteth a man knowingly and wilfully, as appears by the next verse, neither the friends of the party slain, nor the magistrate, shall give him a pardon, or accept a ransom for him, Num 35:31.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v12 Here is, I. A law concerning murder. He had…
Here is, I. A law concerning murder. He had lately said, Thou shalt not kill; here he provides, 1. For the punishing of wilful murder (Exo 21:12): He that smiteth a man, whether upon a sudden passion or in malice prepense, so that he die, the government must take care that the murderer be put to death, according to that ancient law (Gen 9:6), Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. God, who by his providence gives and maintains life, thus by his law protects it; so that mercy shown to a wilful murderer is real cruelty to all mankind besides: such a one, God here says, shall be taken even from his altar (Exo 21:14), to which he might flee for protection; and, if God will not shelter him, let him flee to the pit, and let no man stay him. 2. For the relief of such as killed by accident, per infortunium - by misfortune, or chance-medley, as our law expresses it, when a man, in doing a lawful act, without intent of hurt to any, happens to kill another, or, as it is here described, God delivers him into his hand; for nothing comes to pass by chance; what seems to us purely casual is ordered by the divine Providence, for wise and holy ends secret to us. In this case God provided cities of refuge for the protection of those whose infelicity it was, but not their fault, to occasion the death of another, Exo 21:13. With us, who know no avengers of blood but the magistrates, the law itself is a sufficient sanctuary for those whose minds are innocent, though their hands are guilty, and there needs no other.
II. Concerning rebellious children. It is here made a capital crime, to be punished with death, for children either, 1. To strike their parents (Exo 21:15) so as either to draw blood or to make the place struck black and blue. Or, 2. To curse their parents (Exo 21:17), if they profaned any name of God in doing it, as the rabbies say. Note, The undutiful behaviour of children towards their parents is a very great provocation to God our common Father; and, if men do not punish it, he will. Those are perfectly lost to all virtue, and abandoned to all wickedness, that have broken through the bonds of filial reverence and duty to such a degree as in word or action to abuse their own parents. What yoke will those bear that have shaken off this? Let children take heed of entertaining in their minds any such thought or passions towards their parents as savour of undutifulness and contempt; for the righteous God searches the heart.
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III. Here is a law against man-stealing (Exo 21:16): He that steals a man (that is, a person, man, woman, or child), with design to sell him to the Gentiles (for no Israelite would buy him), was adjudged to death by this statute, which is ratified by the apostle (Ti1 1:10), where men-stealers are reckoned among those wicked ones against whom laws must be made by Christian princes.
IV. Care is here taken that satisfaction be made for hurt done to a person, though death do not ensue, Exo 21:18, Exo 21:19. He that did the hurt must be accountable for damages, and pay, not only for the cure, but for the loss of time, to which the Jews add that he must likewise give some recompence both for the pain and for the blemish, if there were any.
V. Direction is given what should be done if a servant died by his master's correction. This servant must not be an Israelite, but a Gentile slave, as the negroes to our planters; and it is supposed that he smite him with a rod, and not with any thing that was likely to give a mortal wound; yet, if he died under his hand, he should be punished for his cruelty, at the discretion of the judges, upon consideration of circumstances, Exo 21:20. But, if he continued a day or two after the correction given, the master was supposed to suffer enough by losing his servant, Exo 21:21. Our law makes the death of a servant, by his master's reasonable beating of him, but chance-medley. Yet let all masters take heed of tyrannizing over their servants; the gospel teaches them even to forbear and moderate threatenings (Eph 6:9), considering with holy Job, What shall I do, when God riseth up? Job 31:13-15.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv12–14 He that smiteth a man, so that he die,....…
He that smiteth a man, so that he die,.... The Targum of Jonathan is, that smites a man or daughter of Israel with the sword; but there is no need to restrain the words either to persons of any certain nation, nor to any instrument with which a person may be smitten as to die: but any human person, man, woman, or child, of whatsoever nation, and they smitten with anything whatever, that issues in their death:
shall surely be put to death; by the order of the civil magistrate, and by the hand of such as shall be appointed by him; for this is the original law of God, Gen 9:6.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv13–14 Verse 13. I will appoint thee a place whither…
Verse 13. I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.] From the earliest times the nearest akin had a right to revenge the murder of his relation, and as this right was universally acknowledged, no law was ever made on the subject; but as this might be abused, and a person who had killed another accidentally, having had no previous malice against him, might be put to death by the avenger of blood, as the nearest kinsman was termed, therefore God provided the cities of refuge to which the accidental manslayer might flee till the affair was inquired into, and settled by the civil magistrate.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv12, 14 Exo 21:12-13. He that smiteth a man — Knowingly…
Exo 21:12-13. He that smiteth a man — Knowingly and wilfully, as appears from the next verse; shall be surely put to death — Neither the friends of the person slain nor the magistrate shall give him a pardon, or accept a ransom for him, Num 35:31. If God deliver him into his hand — As the Scriptures teach us to acknowledge God in every thing that falls out, so when a man is killed by what we call accident, without any intention of the agent, he is said to have been delivered into his hand by God, without whose divine foresight and permission the event could not have happened. I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee — It is probable, that while the Israelites were in the wilderness the place of refuge was the camp of the Levites or the altar. Afterward, it is well known, certain cities were appointed for that purpose.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv12–13 The case of murder of a free man and…
The case of murder of a free man and of a bondman. See Exo 21:20 note. The law was afterward expressly declared to relate also to foreigners, Lev 24:17, Lev 24:21-22; compare the marginal references.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv12–14 With a will. The Hebrew and Septuagint do not…
With a will. The Hebrew and Septuagint do not express this, but the context shews it to be necessary. --- Death, by the sword, as people soliciting idolatry to others were also. Eighteen crimes were punished with lapidation, ten with fire, or melting lead poured down their throats, and six with strangling. The royal tribunals always commanded the criminal’s head to be struck off. (Calmet) --- When the punishment is not defined, stoning must be understood; (Rabbins and Selden, Syned ii. 13.) at least when it is said, his blood be upon him. But when it is only determined that he shall die, Grotius understands he must be strangled, with towels put round the malefactor’s neck, while he stands up to the knees in a dunghill; (Drusius) as he does also when he is to be killed with melted lead. Murder was punished by the ancient Greeks with exile. (Plato, &c.) "At that time it was deemed unlawful to inflict a capital punishment upon any, who, however criminal, were still men." (Lartant 2.) But as these crimes became more frequent, God enacts this law of retaliation, blood for blood, Genesis ix. 6. Ten paces from the place of execution, the criminal Hebrew had to confess his sin. (Maimonides) (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv12–14 12. Smiteth a man, so that he die —…
12. Smiteth a man, so that he die — This is a general law for intentional murder, and demands the punishment declared in Gen_9:6. See also notes on Exo_20:13.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv12–14 12. Murder. The same general principle is laid down…
12. Murder. The same general principle is laid down in P, Gen_9:6, Num_35:30 f., and in H, Lev_24:17.
shall be put to death] The execution of this penalty was the duty not, as in communities in which a more advanced stage of civilization has been reached, of the State, but of the ‘Avenger of blood,’ i.e. of the nearest kinsman of the murdered man, upon whom, according to primitive ideas, the duty of vindicating his rights devolved, 2Sa_14:11, Deu_19:6; Deu_19:12, Num_35:19; Num_35:21; Num_35:27 (P). See Goel in DB. or EB.
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12–17. Capital offences. In v. 12 is laid down the general principle that death is the punishment for killing a man. If the act is unpre-meditated (manslaughter), the penalty is modified (v. 13), but retained in full in the case of the act being evidently intentional (v. 14). Kidnapping a fellow Israelite, and smiting or cursing a parent (vv. 15–17), are also treated as capital offences.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv12–14 (12-14) He that smiteth a man, so that he…
(12-14) He that smiteth a man, so that he die.—Homicide had been broadly and generally forbidden in the sixth commandment. But something more was necessary. Laws are for the most part inoperative unless they are enforced by penalties; and for every case of homicide the same penalty would not be fitting. Accordingly we have here, first, the assignment of the death penalty for homicide of the first degree, i.e., murder; and secondly, the provision of a refuge for homicide of the second degree, i.e., manslaughter, or death by misadventure. The death penalty for murder had already received Divine sanction in the injunctions given to Noah (Gen_9:6). Tradition, backed up by conscience, had made it an almost universal law. The Sinaitic legislation adopted the law into the national code, and lent it additional force by the proviso, which we know to have been carried out in practice (1Ki_2:28-34), that the
Murderer was even to be torn from God’s altar, if he took refuge there.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv12–14 Vers. 12-14. Homicide. Ver. 12 reiterates the Sixth Commandment,…
Vers. 12-14. Homicide. Ver. 12 reiterates the Sixth Commandment, and adds to it a temporal penalty shall surely be put to death." The substance of this law had already been given to Noah in the words, "Whoso sheddeth man"s blood, by man shall his blood be shed". (Gen_9:6) Real murder, with deliberate intent, was under no circumstances to be pardoned. The murderer was even to be torn from the altar, if he took refuge there, and relentlessly punished (ver. 14). See the case of Joab. (1Ki_2:28-34) But, if a man happened suddenly upon his enemy, without having sought the opportunity, and slew him (ver. 13), then the case was one not of murder, but at most of manslaughter, or possibly of justifiable homicide. No legal penalty was assigned to such offences. They were left to the rude justice of established custom, which required "the avenger of blood" to visit them with due retribution. According to the general practice of the Eastern nations, he might either insist on life for life or take a money compensation. With this custom, deeply ingrained into the minds of the Oriental people, the law did not meddle. It was content to interpose between the avenger of blood and his victim the chance of reaching an asylum. Places were appointed, whither the shedder of blood might flee, and where he might be safe until his cause was tried before the men of his own city, (Num_35:22-25) and afterwards, if the judgment were in his favour. Some particular part of the camp was probably made an asylum in the wilderness.
Vers. 12-14 and 20, 21. Laws on homicide.
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Here again, in the time of Moses, a custom, regarded as of absolute obligation upon all, held possession of the ground; and nothing was practicable hut some modification of it. The next-of-kin was "avenger of blood," and was bound to pursue every homicide to the bitter end, whether it was intentional and premeditated (i.e. , murder), or done hastily in a quarrel (i.e. , manslaughter), or wholly unintentional (i.e. , death by misadventure). Moses distinguished between deliberate murder, which the State was to punish capitally (vers. 12-14) and any other sort of homicide, which was left to the avenger of blood. In mitigation of the blood-feud, he interposed the city of refuge, whereto the man who had slain another might flee and be safe until his cause was tried. And in the trial of such persons he introduced the distinction between manslaughter and death by misadventure, allowing the avenger of blood to put the offender to death in the former case, but not in the latter. (Num_35:16-25) Mercy and truth thus went together in the legislation.
I TRUTH The primary truth is the sacredness of man"s life. In rude times, where it is everywhere "a word and a blow," very severe laws were necessary, if human life was not to be continually sacrificed; and so manslaughter was placed on a par with murder, made a capital offence; the sudden angry blow which caused death, though death might not have been intended, was to receive as its due punishment death at the hands of the "avenger of blood.
II MERCY. The "avenger of blood" was not allowed to be judge in his own cause. Cases of unpremeditated homicide were to go before the judges, who were to decide whether the death was intentional or by mischance. Mercy was to be shown to the man who had blood on his hands through accident. He was to be safe within the walls of the "city of refuge." Cities of refuge were multiplied, that one might be always within easy reach. Legislation should always seek to combine mercy with justice. Draconian enactments defeat their own purpose, since over-severe laws are sure not to be carried out. The moral sense revolts against them. Thus, when in our own country forgery was a capital offence, juries could not be got to convict of forgery. Laws should be in accordance with the conscience of the community, or they will cease to command respect. Good men will infringe them; and even courts will be slow to enforce obedience when they are infringed. Wise legislators will ever aim at embodying in the law the judgments of the more advanced conscience, and making it thus an instrument for elevating the moral sentiments of the community.
Vers. 12-18. Murder and related capital offences.
It is characteristic of the law of Moses that its first care, in the practical ordering of the Hebrew theocracy, is for the rights of the slave. These are dealt with in the opening paragraphs. The next laws relate to murder, to man-stealing, and to smiting and cursing of parents.
I MURDER (vers. 12-15). The same spirit of justice which attaches severe penalties to proved crimes, leads to the drawing of a sound line of distinction between voluntary and involuntary actions. Only for actions of the former class is the individual held responsible. Homicide which is purely accidental is not treated as a crime (ver. 13). Not only is the man who kills his neighbour inadvertently not punished with death, but the law interposes to protect him from the fury of such as might unjustly seek his life, by appointing for him a place of refuge. (Cf. Nu 35 De 19) The deliberate murderer, on the other hand, was to be taken even from God"s altar, and put to death (ver. 14). Deliberate murder implies "malice aforethought to kill but it was sufficient to expose a man to the penalty attaching to this crime, that he had been guilty of an act of violence, resulting in another"s death (ver. 12; cf. vers. 19, 23). Note on this law
1. The recognition of Divine Providence in the so-called accidents of life( ver. 13).
2. The sacredness attached to the human person. The religious ground ofthe enactment is given in. Gen_9:6 sheddeth man"s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man." "The true Shechinah is man" (Chrysostom)
3. The ethical character of the Hebrew religion. The altar is to afford nosanctuary to the murderer. The Bible knows nothing of a religion which is in divorce from morality. This law condemns by implication all connivance at, or sheltering of, immorality, under religious sanctions (Romish huckstering of pardons, etc.).
II MAN-STEALING (ver. 16). The statute is perfectly general. There is no evidence that it applied only to Hebrews, though these are specially mentioned in Deu_24:7. The stealing and selling of a Hebrew was a direct offence against Jehovah. (cf. Lev_25:42) "For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondsmen." The passage is a direct condemnation of the modern slave trade.
III SMITING AND CURSING OF PARENTS (vers. 15-17). These offences also were to be punished with death. The fact that they are bracketed in the law with murder and manstealing, gives a peculiar impression of their enormity. As if the statute book had said, after laying down the law for murder for the purposes of this law, the smiting or cursing of a father or a mother shall be regarded as equivalent to the taking of a life." And this view of the matter is, in a moral respect, hardly too strong. It would be difficult to say what crime a man is not capable of, who could deliberately smite or curse father or mother. As special reasons for the severity of the law, observe
1. Hebrew society rested largely on a patriarchal basis, and the duemaintenance of parental authority was a necessity of its existence. Just as it is found still that, whatever the form of social order, the spread of a spirit of insubordination to parents is the invariable prelude to a universal loosening of ties and obligations.
2. Parents are regarded as standing to their children in the relation ofvisible representatives of Jehovah (see fifth commandment). This, in the Hebrew theocracy, gave to the crime of cursing or smiting a parent the character of a treasonable act. It was an offence against the majesty of Jehovah, and as such, required to be promptly avenged. On the same ground it was forbidden to revile magistrates, or curse the ruler of the people. (Exo_22:28) The law is a standing testimony to the heinousness attaching in the sight of God to the sin of filial disobedience. J.O.
Vers. 12-17. Capital offences.
As we look through the penalties specified for wrong-doing in chaps, 21, 22, we notice that they are divisible into two great classes. Some offences are punished by death, and others by some sort of compensation for the injury done. The graduated terms of imprisonment with which we are familiar, were not of course possible to the Israelites, and if possible, perhaps would not have seemed desirable. We notice that in this chapter five capital offences are specified; there were doubtless many besides; but these are enough to show the principles on which Jehovah acted in taking away the life of the offender.
I THE MURDERER PROPER. In chap. 20. we find the general command not to kill; and here is the instruction for the Israelites what to do with the man who deliberately and maliciously took away the life of a fellow-man. This, it is plain, was done under special authority and for special reasons. It was Jehovah"s regulation for his people in their then circumstances; but we must not quote it as applicable to the punishment of the murderer generally. If on the authority of this passage we are bound to punish the murderer by death, obviously we are bound to punish him who reviles his parents, in the same way. There were reasons then for putting the murderer to death which do not now apply. The principle underlying the enactment seems to be that murder is cue of the crimes which must be followed by the severest penalty man is disposed to inflict. So long as the infliction of a death penalty at all harmonises with the general consciousness of men, it is plain that any lesser penalty for murder is inadequate. But if once we get to the position and it is to be hoped we are ever getting nearer to it that only the sternest necessity justifies taking human life away, we shall then substitute perpetual imprisonment as the extreme penalty. We shall all feel then that murder is assuredly a crime which should condemn the perpetrator to life-long seclusion from the society of his fellow-men.
II THE SMITER OF FATHER OR MOTHER. Here we see how different are the principles underlying Divine law from those underlying human law. In a modern English court of justice the smiting of a parent might perhaps receive the highest penalty incurred for the commission of an assault; but it would never be exalted into a special offence. But God in his government of Israel makes an offence against a parent to be one of the first magnitude. The severe penalty specified here corresponds with the position occupied in the Decalogue by the commandment to honour parents. God we see is ever saying and doing things to set great honour on the family, and indicate great expectations from it. It has been a boldly proclaimed principle in all ages, never more proclaimed than now, and often with great arrogance and intolerance, that individuals and families exist for the State. But here in the state that is under God"s special governance provision is made that, in its punishments, that state shall honour parental authority and dignity. And of course when once smiting a parent was made into such a serious offence, it was but carrying the principle out to a logical and necessary conclusion to make the curse as great an offence. Generally, indeed, the rebellious reviling word of the lips would do more injury, inflict more pain, and be more promotive of insubordination than the blow of the hand. In the light of this enactment we see how much God expects from the parental relation. One, who in the Divine order of things, stood so high that smiting or cursing him was made a capital offence, must have been a man to whom Jehovah looked for great services, great contributions to the Divine glory, and to the prosperity of Israel.
III THE MAN-STEALER. Within the compass of the same chapter we find provision made for recognised and openly practised customs of servitude, and also for a kind of slavery which by the penalty attached to the procuring of it is indicated as one of the worst of crimes. There was slavery and slavery. There was the buying of men in such sort as is indicated in verse 2; there was also such stealing and selling as we find an actual instance of in Gen_37:28. Such crimes were evidently only too possible, and once committed, it might be very hard to discover the criminal or restore the captive to liberty. There was perhaps many a Joseph and when we consider his sufferings, and the sufferings of his father, weshall not wonder at the penalty attached to the crime. Then suppose an Israelite were to sell a brother Israelite to some band of Midian merchantmen, who would take him into a far country, what would the upshot be? Not only would he be lost to loving kindred, and shut out from the sight, of his dear native land, but excluded from religious privileges. God had brought out Israel from, the house of bondage, that in freedom, necessary freedom, they might find him their God, and become, in many privileges, his people. What a monstrous thing then for an Israelite, through cupidity or revenge, to sell away his brother from peculiar, from unique possibilities! He would not find in any other land the things which God intended him to have at home.
IV THE KNOWING OWNER OF A DANGEROUS BEAST. (Ver. 29.) Here is the sound principle a principle which goes deep in its application that a man is responsible for all foreseen consequences of an act whichit is in his power to prevent. Examine the illustrative instances mentioned. A man is the owner of a pushing ox, well known to be a brute of vicious and uncertain temper. The owner indeed has been made specially acquainted with the fact. He can then take one of the two courses, either put sufficient watch over the beast, as not knowing when it may be dangerous to human life and limb, or else in sheer recklessness determine to take the chance of all keeping right. How plain it is that a man of such a heedless spirit is not fit to have free course among his fellow-men! A human life, be it that of the veriest stranger, a mere waif and stray, or say that of an old man on the very verge of the grave, is of much more account than the life of an ox, though it be in the very prime of its strength and usefulness. The property even of a millionaire must perish sooner than the life of the poorest be imperilled. The owner of the ox is looked to here, just because the brute itself cannot be looked to. The master would not be held responsible for the action of a human servant as for that of a brute beast. And is it not plain that the announcement of this penalty here has a very stringent application to all self indulgence? When a man is told that his course of action, however profitable, however pleasant to himself, has been actually injurious to some and is likely to be injurious to others, what is he to do? If he would do as Christ wishes him the Christ who came to fulfil the law and the prophets he would straightway refrain from that course of action. Commercial profits and temporal pleasures will be dearly purchased by us, if one day we have to stand before the throne of him who judges righteous judgment, to answer for selfish, reckless trifling with the best interests of our neighbours The owner of the ox may say, "Let people keep out of my animal"s way and guard themselves." God, we see, did not admit that principle with regard to the pushing ox; nor will he with regard to our pushing business habits or our pushing pleasures our reckless resolution to get all we can for ourselves, at whatever risk of loss to those who may come in our way.
V From the instances given, we may easily infer WHAT OTHER OFFENCES OF THE SAME KIND WOULD BE PUNISHED IN THE SAME WAY. Wherever there was anything peculiarly presumptuous or daring, there the occasion for death seems to have been found. That which most deeply affects the constitution of society is to be treated with the greatest severity. One man might kill another; but because it was misadventure, he would escape with temporary inconvenience. Another man, for no more than the utterance of the tongue, has to die the death. Thus, even in a scheme of government which had so much to do with outward acts as had God"s government of Israel, we have regulations which got their severity almost entirely from the evidenced state of heart on the part of the transgressor. In purely human laws the magnitude of the actual offence is always taken into account; there must be some tangible injury to person or property. But it is the very glory of these illustrative penalties here, that cursing father or mother is punished with as much severity as the actual taking away of life. How true it is from these five instances that God"s thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor his ways as our ways! Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v12 Shall be surely put to death.
Exo_21:12-14
Shall be surely put to death.
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Cases of homicide
I. Homicide in effect. He that hateth his brother is a murderer. Anger in the heart gives unconscious malicious power to the will. The man is responsible for the effects of his anger, even though these effects are more disastrous than he intended.
II. Homicide by mistake. Cities of refuge. And in the final adjustment of human affairs, merciful consideration will be dealt out to those who have done vast mischief by mistake; upon sins of ignorance will fall the blessed light of Divine mercy. Embrace the glorious truth that through the sternest code the Divine love cannot help revealing its gracious tendencies.
III. Homicide by design. Death is to be his portion. Life is Gods most sacred gift. He bestows largely for its unfolding. He provides many safeguards for its preservation. (W. Burrows, B. A.)
Capital crimes in the Mosaic code
Complaint has been made against Moses on account of the number of crimes made capital in his code. But great injustice has been done him in this particular. The crimes punishable with death by his laws were either of a deep moral malignity or such as were aimed against the very being of the state. It will be found, too, on examination, that there were but four classes of capital offences known to his laws--treason, murder, deliberate and gross abuse of parents, and the more unnatural and horrid crimes arising out of the sexual relation. And all the specifications under these classes amounted to only seventeen; whereas it is not two hundred years since the criminal code of Great Britain numbered one hundred and forty-eight crimes punishable with death--many of them of a trivial nature, as petty thefts and trespasses upon property. But no injury simply affecting property could draw down upon an Israelite an ignominious death. The Mosaic law respected moral depravity more than gold. Moral turpitudes, and the most atrocious expressions of moral turpitude, these were the objects of its unsleeping severity. (E. C. Wines, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v12 MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_21:12-14
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_21:12-14
CASES OF HOMICIDE
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A rude state of society requires rough measures for the repression of crime and for the preservation of social order; and in considering the stern severity of the Mosaic code, we must try to project ourselves into that aboriginal state of society, and pronounce our judgments accordingly. Laws which were required in those early times ought not to be needful in these days. It is well that, through the spread of Gospel principles, justice is being more and more tempered by mercy. But mercy must not be allowed to supplant justice. And there is a danger lest in our pity for the man we restrain justice with regard to the criminal.
I. Homicide in effect.—The first case is that of the man who strikes his fellow; strikes in anger, but not with a murderous intention, and yet death is the result of the angry blow. Such a man shall be surely put to death. This is one of the most severe cases of punishment in those early periods. But it is a stern practical comment upon the New Testament words, “He that hateth his brother is a murderer.” Let us then learn to avoid angry feelings towards our brother men. Anger in the heart gives unconscious malicious power to the will. The blow directed by an angry man may be more severe than his better self would approve. The man, then, is responsible for the effects of his anger, even though these effects are more disastrous than he intended. The preservation of the physical life is important, but much more the preservation of the moral life in all its purity.
II. Homicide by mistake.—If a man kill his fellow, not in consequence of an angry blow, but by reason of a stroke given through mischance, then there is to be merciful provision for his safety. It a man kill his fellow through misadventure, then the city of refuge is to be opened for his reception. And cities of refuge were afterwards provided. Into those cities the avenger of blood could not enter. And in the final adjustment of human affairs, merciful consideration will be dealt out to those who have done vast mischief by mistake; upon sins of ignorance will fall the blessed light of Divine mercy. Embrace the glorious truth that through the sternest code the Divine love cannot help revealing its gracious tendencies.
III. Homicide by design.—The last mentioned, in verse fourteen, is a case of real murder. Here are all the marks of the murderer. There is the breaking through, in ebullient rage, the sacred restraints which protect one’s neighbour as God’s image. There is to be no hope for such a man. He is even to be torn away from God’s altar. Death is to be his portion. It is a strange fact that through all times, with very few exceptions, the Mosaic law of death for death has so largely prevailed. A few monarchs have abolished capital punishment; but soon the stern decree has been re-enacted. It is sad to hang a man, but in saying this we seem to forget that it is a sadder thing to murder a man. The sufferer of capital punishment has not such severe measure dealt out to him as the victim who has suddenly been deprived of life. The repression of crime, and not revenge, is the purpose of wisely-constructed and justly-administered penal codes; and if the abolition of capital punishment tend to the diminution of murder, then we do not see that the Bible stands in the way of such a course. Learn the exceeding preciousness of life. How awful to kill the body! More awful still the conduct of those who go about destroy moral life! It is dreadful to be a soul murderer. Life is God’s most sacred gift. He bestows largely for its unfolding. He provides many safeguards for its preservation.—W. Burrows, B.A.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exo_21:12-14. The life of man is dear to God to preserve it; man is God’s image.
Pride, presumption, and treachery, make men truly murderers.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_21:12-17
GOD’S INDIGNATION AGAINST THE UNFILIAL SPIRIT.—Exo_21:15-17
Nothing is more marked, in Old Testament and New Testament alike, than the imperative character of parental claims and filial duties. A special law incorporated in the moral code deals with this subject. These rights and duties arise from the peculiar relation in which parents stand between their children and God. God, through the parent, gives existence to the child, and makes through the same medium provision for its protection and nurture, and the supply of its moral, intellectual, and physical necessities. Parents must be regarded, therefore, as God’s delegated authorities, and must be respected as such. Offences against them God treats as offences against Himself, and punishes them as such. Our text deals with
(1) the unfilial spirit in two aspects; and
(2) with its uniform punishment. Some excellent remarks on this subject and the Rabbinical treatment of it will be found in an article by Dr. Ginsburg in “Cassell’s Bible Educator,” vol. i. pp. 153.
I. The unfilial spirit in two aspects.
1. He that smiteth his father or his mother (Exo_5:15).
(1.) A child may smite his parent literally, as in the case of those brutes we read of in the newspapers every week.
(2.) A child may smite his parents’ authority by rebellion in thought, word, or deed; e.g., Absalom.
(3.) A child may smite his parents’ wealth by extravagance or carelessness; e.g., ancient and modern spendthrifts.
(4.) A child may smite his parents’ character by an incautious revelation of domestic secrets.
(5.) A child may smite his parents’ health and, by misconduct, bring their grey hairs with sorrow to the grave; e.g., Joseph’s brethren.
(6.) A child may smite his parents’ heart, and break it by disobedience and wilfulness; e.g., sons of Eli
In all these instances (2–6) a child may effectually smite his parents’ without lifting a finger.
2. “He that curseth (lit. revileth) his father or his mother.”
(1.) A child may revile his parents by an assertion of personal independence; as in the case of the prodigal demanding his portion of goods and taking his journey into a far country.
(2.) A child may revile his parents by speaking of them in a careless and irreverent way. What else is it when a youth refers to his father as “the governor,” and to his mother as the “old lady”?
(3.) A child may revile his parents by speaking to them in a familiar or impertinent way.
(4.) A child may revile his parents by treating their counsels with contempt; and
(5.) Alas! a child may revile his parents by cursing them to their face.
II. The uniform punishment of the unfilial spirit.—“Shall surely be put to death.” The letter of this condemnation is now repealed, but its spirit lives on through the ages.
1. An unfilial child dies to the respect of civilised society. All the unwritten codes of humanity agree in condemning it as an unpardonable sin to treat one’s parents with disrespect.
2. An unfilial child is morally dead. If the sign of the moral life is “love of the brethren,” how dead must he be in whom filial respect and love is extinct! It would be easy to show
(1) how all that deserves the name of intelligence,
(2) veneration,
(3) natural affection, and all the higher faculties of the soul, are utterly destroyed before a man can “smite” or “revile” his father or his mother.
3. An unfilial child, inasmuch as he breaks a moral law, and a law that partakes of the qualities of both tables and combines them, dies in a more terrible sense. “The soul that sinneth” (sin is the transgression of the law) “it shall die.”
In conclusion—
(1.) A word to parents. “Provoke not your children unto wrath.” Don’t do anything calculated to excite those distempers which may express themselves in “smiting” or “reviling”; but “train them up in the way they should go,” “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
(2.) A further word to children. “Obey and honour your parents in all things in the Lord.” If there is anything you may deem objectionable, remember (a) your own inexperience, and (b) your indebtedness to those who have given you life and who have preserved and provided for it till now.
PARENT-SMITERS AND MEN-STEALERS
We do not observe any deep metaphysical or psychological reasons for the order and number of these laws. There does not seem to be any great regard for logical order in the Hebrew spirit. We may simply discover the instructive and very suggestive circumstance that the three crimes mentioned in these verses are placed in the same category, and have meted out to them the same awful penalty. Thus, it appears that the man who curses his father or his mother is no better than the man-stealer. And in this respect the social code of Christian England is scarcely equal to the moral code of the Mosaic economy. It is not indeed to be deplored that the penalty of death is less frequently inflicted in these times than in the days of the past; but it is to be lamented that reverence for parents is not now-a-days a virtue very strenuously insisted upon. We should not now think of placing the curser of parents, or even the smiter of parents, on the same level with the man-stealer. Those who make a trade of kid-napping are now reprobated; but cursers of fathers and of mothers are at least not regarded as criminals, if indeed they are not welcomed into good society. There is, however, a similarity of spirit in the two characters. There is a closer connection between the curser of parents and the man-stealer than we may at first imagine. Let us study them together, as placed before us in Holy Writ, and learn to avoid the evils.
I. The crime of cursing father or mother. The order now proposed for discussion as logical is to commence with cursing father or mother, then smiting father or mother, and then man-stealing. This crime of cursing father or mother is one of the letters of the Mosaic economy that has been in too large a measure dropped out of the moral alphabet of modern society. There is a needs be that it stand out in brighter colours. It is not by any means a desirable circumstance that, practically, we are behind the Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Egyptians in this particular. We read out to our children the words, “Honour thy father and thy mother,” but society does not on a large scale reprobate those who curse their fathers and their mothers. There are fathers and mothers who entail upon their children a heritage of woe; and we must feel pity for such children, and not be very much surprised if there is a tendency to curse their parents. It is difficult for us to be hard upon those children whose parents, either by their folly or by their wickedness, have entailed upon them a depraved physical or moral nature. Oh, let us be gentle in our speech towards those whose parents have been vile, reckless, and worthless! What a severe lot it is for those children whose homes are the abodes of wretchedness, or the hotbeds of crime! Still, crime in others is no excuse for our crimes. Cursing father or mother is to be condemned under all circumstances. (a.) It is to be condemned, for it is a reflection upon the human authors of our being. And thus it is in a sense a reflection upon God Himself. Instead of thanking God for our creation, we are practically cursing God that ever we were born. There is a great deal in life for which to be thankful; and most shun the process of giving up life. Why, then, should we curse those who have brought us into life? Why should we curse the dear mother whose gentle voice has hushed our sorrowful wailing into peaceful slumbers? Why should we curse the father whose strong hand has shielded from danger and ministered to our necessities? (b.) It is to be condemned, for it is a disparagement of God’s vicegerent. If there is any being in this world placed by God in a position of authority, it is the father. He is the type of the eternal Father. He is God’s true representative on earth. The house is his kingdom, and the children are his subjects, and he has an undoubted right to sway the sceptre of a divinely-constituted authority. How great, then, is the crime of that child who curses his father; who despises God’s representative; who resists the lawful control of God’s vicegerent! Is it much to be wondered at that the penalty for this crime in that early society was death? (c.) It is to be condemned, for it is a subversion of the good order of society. The family constitution is the primal form of government. All true governments are but its development. The true ideal of a nation is that of a family of which the king is the head and father. And our kingdom is established for this, among other reasons, that the throne is built upon the thrones set up in happy English homes. Rightly conducted family life is essential to national life and national prosperity. Rebellion in the household is rebellion in the nation. Cursing the father leads to cursing the king. Anarchy in the home means anarchy in the state, and destruction to the community. We have regretted the fact that we seem behind some other nations in not branding the cursing of parents as a crime of deepest dye; but we have to rejoice in the salutary influence of so many Christian homes, which have been the safeguard of our nation; and we are extremely jealous lest the safeguard should be removed or its power diminished.
II. The crime of smiting father or mother. The man who curses his parents is the man who is prepared to smite them when the occasion arises. That father cannot safely trust himself to that grown-up son who has ventured to curse, and thus shown his contempt for the parental authority. Under certain circumstances it may be right for the father to smite his son. There may be too much leniency, as well as too much severity, in the family; some modern fathers appear to have lost faith in the wisdom of Solomon’s proverbs. They spare the rod, and by bitter experience find that the child is spoiled. The father who never smites his son may thank God if that son never smites him. However, never use the rod in anger. Administer chastisement in the spirit of prayer, for the child’s good, and for the maintenance of authority. But it is not right for the son to smite the father. The son had better suffer undeserved physical injury than venture to smite his father or his mother. The reasons adduced for the condemnation of those who curse their parents, are still more cogent when applied to those hardened children who smite their parents. What a wretch is he who smites the mother that has given of her life for the promotion of his life; who has poured out all the vast wealth of her nature in order to nurture up to glorious manhood. The penalty of death for this crime has no place in our civil code; but the man who smites his father or his mother will find that the stroke has a recoil sooner or later. Years may elapse between the act of smiting and the fact of being smitten. But the return stroke, though long delayed, at last shall come with fearful pains. Better suffer thy right hand to be amputated than use it to strike thy father or thy mother.
III. The crime of man-stealing. We have seen that slavery was allowed to continue; but man-stealing was made subject to the penalty of death. Even in those rude states of society God taught the great lesson that He had made of one blood men of different nations, as well as men of the same nation. It is a crime to steal a man’s property. It is a crime to steal a man’s character by villanons slander. But the crime of crimes is to steal a man’s person. It is a striking fact that this Mosaic enactment has been exerting a powerful influence from age to age; and it has so worked that the kidnapper has never for long occupied a respectable position in society; and the time is fast hastening when the word may be eliminated from our language, and kindred words from all other languages. So great is this crime that the Apostle Paul numbers the men-stealers amongst those lawless and disobedient ones with special reference to whom the law is made. So great is this crime that there is in every rightly-constituted nature—yea, in every man not deeply sunk in sin and thoroughly hardened by iniquity—an instinctive horror of and shrinking from the man-stealer. Executioners appointed by human governments may not now put the man-stealer to death; but his doom is sealed. Fearful is the outlook. Unless he truly repent and forsake his way, his lamp too shall go out in fearful darkness. And the man who smites his father or his mother without any feeling of remorse, and without an earnest effort to restrain himself, is quite prepared to become the man-stealer when the opportunity presents itself; his depravity is sufficiently great to avail himself of the offered power of kidnapping his fellows.
Lessons.—
(1.) These three crimes taken together are suggestive of the genesis of crime. There is the indulgence of evil thinking, then this grows into evil speaking, and then comes evil acting. Inward cursing grows into outward cursing, and this culminates in crime of physical violence. The man who permits himself to curse his father inwardly, will not be long before he curses outwardly. In this respect cursing and smiting follow closely upon one another. And the man who smites his father or his mother is prepared to smite anybody else if there be provocation sufficient and no dread of consequences. The children who forsake their parents, when those parents are God-fearing, commence a downhill course from which return is difficult.
(2.) Gives a word of caution to parents. So live, and work; and pray that your children may not curse you, but have good reason to bless your memories. And, parents, remember that in after years children may think they have reason to curse you for being too indulgent as well as for being too severe.
(3.) Gives a word of caution to children. The wrongdoing of parents is no justification for the wrongdoing of children. Most likely a more severe penalty awaits the child who has been favoured with many privileges and has abused them, than the child whose privileges have been few, and who has accordingly gone astray. Do not dwell upon what your parents might have done for you if they had been different or had acted differently; but reflect upon the more pleasing part of their dealings with you. And try to make the best of unpropitious circumstances. He is the best general who knows how to retrieve mistakes. He is the world’s hero who fights his way through and surmounts difficulties, and achieves moral victories.—W. Burrows, B.A.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Homicide! Exo_21:12. Pause and look for a moment on these drops of gore that stain the fresh greensward of earth. It rests silent, but how significant, upon the ground! It lies there a memorial of the curse which God had pronounced on man, “Thou shalt surely die.” It lies a mirror, wherein sin may see its foul features most accurately represented, and whence the homicide may start back appalled at his own image. It is an awful thing to send any man into eternity, still more awful if he is unprepared. Anger is too often the fruitful cause of staining the human hand with the “red rain.” All perfumes will not sweeten this hand!
“Will all the mighty ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand?
No; this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.”
—Gilfillan.
Parricide! Exo_21:15. This was by the Roman law punished in a much severer manner than any other kind of homicide. After being scourged, the delinquents were sewn up in a leather sack with a live dog, a cock, a viper, and an ape, and then cast into the sea. Solon, in his laws, made none against parricide, conceiving it impossible that any one should be guilty of so unnatural a crime. And yet we are told that Tullia, the wife of Tarquin, drove over the corpse of Tullius, her own father; the wheels of her chariot, dashing through the pool of gore, besprinkling the garments of the parricide with a baptism of blood. By the order of Antipater, in his very presence—some say with his own hands—his mother Thessalonica was put to death because he thought she favoured his brother. When a Tahitian became tired of his aged parent, he would either place him in a separate hut to die of starvation, or thrust him through with a spear. Recently, in the south of France, a young man killed and buried his widowed mother in order to be owner of the little farm.
“Blood of the soul! Can all earth’s fountains
Make thy dark stain disappear!”
—Sigourney.
Slave-Taking! Exo_21:16. Men defended the modern slave-trade by Scripture allusions; but there was little or no analogy between the two. Ancient heathen nations made slaves either
(1) by sentence of courts for breach of the laws of the land; or
(2) by capture of soldiers in battle; and the Jews may have acted similarly. But there is no warrant for “slave-hunting;” and such pictures of the pursuit of African villagers as modern writers have lined in pathetic language, would have aroused emotions of horror in the Hebrew heart. In Africa, petty wars were got up. Slave-hunting parties were organised for the express purpose of surprising peaceful villages in the interior, capturing the inhabitants, and dragging them into perpetual slavery. These parties were generally headed by base Portuguese, who were assisted in their nefarious enterprise by such depraved negroes from the coast as would enlist for such service. England has, however, secured treaties with Egypt and Zanzibar and Malagasy, empowering her cruisers and soldiers to put down this iniquitous traffic with resolute hand.
“Proudly on Cressy’s tented wold
The lion-flag of England flew;
As proudly gleamed its crimson fold
O’er the dun heights of Waterloo;
But other lyres shall greet the brave;
Sing now, that we have freed the SLAVE.”
Selling Slaves! Exo_21:16. The Koran justifies slavery on two grounds only:
1. A religious war;
2. Captives in such war. The Sultan of Turkey declares that man is the most noble of all the creatures God has formed in making him free, therefore selling people is contrary to the will of the sovereign Creator. The Pasha of Egypt has also denounced slavery in the strongest terms. The Shah of Persia raised some religious objection to the abolition of the slave-trade, but he was met by the opinion of six of his chief Mollahs that selling male and female slaves is an abomination. It is worthy of remark that Mahomet strove to ameliorate the condition of the slave, and gradually to extirpate slavery itself, which from old times had taken root in Arabia as well as in many other countries.
“Dear as freedom is, and in my heart’s
Just estimation prized above all price,
I would much rather be myself the slave,
And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him.”
Slave-Sellers! Exo_21:16. The Banians of Zanz bar figure prominently in the literature connected with the East African slave-trade. These men are Hindus, i.e., natives of India. They are to be found in large numbers in Kattywar; but their stronghold is Pylitana. There they have beautiful temples, to which bauds of pilgrims periodically flock from other countries. They possess the most tender feelings for animals, and would run any risk to prevent cruelty to them. But though they have an elaborate system for the protection of even noxious creatures, they have no regard for human life. These are—along with the Bhatias—the slave-dealers in Zanzibar; and when they have acquired by this nefarious traffic a competency, they return to their native laud. Thus
“There’s naught so monstrous, but the mind of man,
In some condition, may be brought to approve.”
—Lillo.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v12 Concerning Murder and Bodily Injuries
Concerning Murder and Bodily Injuries
v. 12. He that smiteth a man, strikes him down with deliberate intention, so that he die, shall be surely put to death. The reference seems to be to a murder committed in the heat of anger or in a condition of intoxication.
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v. 13. And if a man lie not in wait, does not seek a man’s life with deliberate intent, but God deliver him into his hand, God permits it to happen in that manner that a man kills another by accident, then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. The Lord later designated certain cities as cities of refuge, Num 35:11; Deu 19:1-10.
v. 14. But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile, if he has deliberately planned the crime and carried it out in cold blood, thou shalt take him from Mine altar that he may die; in that case it would not even avail the murderer to seek the refuge of the sanctuary. Because he has broken down the sacred wall which protected his neighbor, therefore it would also, in his case, not be a violation of the altar of God to tear him away from its protection and put him to death.
v. 15. And he that smiteth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death. So highly was the honor of parents esteemed in the sight of God that the mere act of striking either of them was equivalent to manslaughter, to cold-blooded murder, and was punished accordingly.
v. 16. And he that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. Man-stealing, as a violent abuse of one’s neighbor’s person, of his dignity as a human being, was also placed on a plane with murder.
v. 17. And he that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. Since the cursing and reviling of parents flows from the same wicked disposition of mind as striking them,
v. 15. the same punishment is decreed by God.
v. 18. And if men strive together, in a quarrel which culminates in physical violence, and one smite another with a stone or with his fist, with a clod, and he die not, but keepeth his bed, is confined to his bed in consequence of the blow;
v. 19. if he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit, be released from the probable charge of manslaughter; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed; he shall make good the loss occasioned by the enforced idleness and pay the doctor bills and the medicine.
v. 20. And if a man smite his servant or his maid, his male or his female slave, with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished, be required to give satisfaction.
v. 21. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two before dying, and it be shown in this way that it was not the master’s intention to commit murder outright, he shall not be punished; for he is his money, the slave was the master’s property, and in such a case it would not stand to reason that he had deliberately and purposely killed the slave. The law was intended to prevent ruthless exhibitions of temper and cold-blooded murders.
v. 22. If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, the pregnant woman interposing between the quarreling men, so that her fruit depart from her, that a miscarriage occurs, and yet no mischief follow, if the woman herself is not injured and if her ability to bear children is not impaired, he shall be surely punished, that is, the guilty man, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine; the injured parties being awarded damages according to the merits of the case.
v. 23. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
v. 24. eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
v. 25. burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. That was the law of retaliation as it could be invoked by such as sought indemnity for injuries: the injured woman might demand expiation according to the degree of’ her hurt. That was the ordinance so far as free Israelites were concerned.
v. 26. And if a man smite the eye of his servant or the eye of his maid that it perish, he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake. No distinction is made between deliberate cruelty and an unintentional blow, the effect alone being registered.
v. 27. And if he smite out his man-servant’s tooth or his maid-servant’s tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth’s sake. The loss, not only of some member of the body, but even of a single tooth, as a result of the master’s treatment, entitled the slave to his freedom. So far as Christians are concerned, they know that they should not hurt nor harm their neighbor in his body. They will not insist upon any law of retaliation, as the granting of indemnities is a function of the government, but will keep in mind the Lord’s admonition to kindness and placableness.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v12 strikes a man
strikes a man
"hits a man" or "attacks a man"
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that person must surely be put to death
This can be stated in active form. AT: "you must certainly execute that person" or "you must certainly kill that person" (See: Active or Passive)
did not do it with premeditation
"did not plan to do it" or "did not do it on purpose"
I will fix a place to where he can flee
The purpose of choosing a place can be stately clearly here. AT: "I will choose a place that he can run away to be safe" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
according to a cunning plan
"after thinking carefully about it"
must take him
The word "him" refers to the one who killed his neighbor.
so that he may die
This can be stated in active form. AT: "so that you can kill him" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
neighbor
altar
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv12, 14 21:12-17 The crimes of murder, kidnapping, and dishonoring one’s…
21:12-17 The crimes of murder, kidnapping, and dishonoring one’s parents warranted the death penalty. A murderer forfeits his own life, and human life is so precious that even an accidental death cannot be overlooked. The place of refuge (see Num 35:6-28) was a place where an accidental killer could go so that the family of the deceased could not take vengeance (see study notes on Num 35:6-34).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.