Глава 21

1–11. Laws regarding male and female slaves. 12–32. Laws clarifying the commandment “thou shalt not kill.” 33–36. Laws clarifying the commandment “thou shalt not steal.” Ex.21:1. And these are the laws that you will declare to them: Exodus 21:2. If you buy a Hebrew slave, let him work [for you] for six years, and in the seventh [year] let him be freed for free; According to the law, an impoverished Jew could be bought as a slave for non-payment of a debt (Lev. 25:39), as well as a thief who was unable to pay for what was stolen (Ex. 22:3). The six-year term of slavery (Deut. 15:12, 18, Jer. 34:14) is assigned in accordance with the commandment about six days of work and rest on the seventh day. The seventh year of the slave's emancipation is not the seventh anniversary, but the seventh from the beginning of the slavery of each individual slave. If it were the seventh jubilee, then the slave would have to serve not six years, but as much time as was left before him from the moment he entered slavery, in some cases a month, even less. And indeed the law directly states that in the seventh year of jubilee, slaves are with their masters and do not receive freedom (Lev. 25:4-6). At the end of the six-year service, the slave was released not only “for free”, without ransom, since during this time he earned double the wages of a mercenary (Deut. 15:18), but also received from the owner everything necessary for establishing his own household: from the herds, from the threshing floor and the winepress (Deut. 15:14). Exodus 21:3. if he came alone, let him go out alone; and if he is married, let his wife go out with him; Exodus 21:4. if his master gave him a wife and she bore him sons or daughters, then let her wife and children remain with her master, and he will go out alone; In the first case (Ex. 21:3), the wife is considered as the property of the slave husband, and therefore he went free with her, his property. In the second (Ex. 21:4) she is the master’s property, due to which, when her husband is released, she remains with the children in the master’s house. Exodus 21:5. but if the servant says: I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go free, Exodus 21:6. then let his master bring him [before the gods] and place him at the door or doorpost, and his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he will remain his slave forever. ***** A Jew who, while in a state of slavery, married his master’s slave and therefore does not have the right to be freed in the seventh year with his entire family, out of love for his wife and children, can remain a slave forever, i.e. until the fiftieth year of jubilee (Lev.25:39–41). Another action, which also eliminated the possibility of various abuses, was to pierce the slave's ear with an awl at the doorpost or door of the house in which he wished to serve (Deut. 15:16–17). The slave was, as it were, attached to his master's house. Exodus 21:7. If someone sells his daughter as a slave, she cannot go out like slaves go out; As can be seen from Deut. 15:17 and Jer. 34:9–11, 16, Jewish slaves were freed on the same basis as Jewish slaves. Therefore, the general rule: a slave “cannot go out as slaves go out,” means not just slaves, but slave-concubines. Exodus 21:8. if she does not please her master and he does not betroth her, let him allow her to be redeemed; but [the lord] has no power to sell it to a foreign people when he himself has neglected it; When a Jewish woman, bought as a concubine and becoming one, is subsequently rejected by the master, then he, as guilty of her dishonor, must help her redeem herself, give her up cheaper to someone who wants to buy her, but not to a pagan, marriage with whom is prohibited (Deut. 7:3). Exodus 21:9. if he betroths her to his son, let him deal with her according to the right of daughters; Having given a Jewish slave as a concubine to his son, the master should consider her not as a slave, but as a daughter. Exodus 21:10. if he takes another for him, then she should not be deprived of food, clothing and marital cohabitation; If there are other concubines who appeared later, she is not deprived of her rights as a wife and her means of livelihood. Exodus 21:11. and if he does not do these three things for her, let her go for nothing, without ransom. If the owner of the house does not allow the concubine he rejected to be ransomed, does not consider her, his son’s concubine, as a daughter and, if the son has other concubines, deprives her of cohabitation with him, then if these three conditions are not met, she receives the right to leave him without ransom. Exodus 21:12. Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death; Verses 12–32 contain laws that clarify the commandment “thou shalt not kill”: killing intentionally and unintentionally; various cases of injury, as harming the life of a neighbor. Deliberate murder in all its forms (Num. 35:16–21), whether it is committed by a Jew or a stranger (Lev. 24:22), is punishable by the common law of bloody revenge by death: “the avenger of blood can himself kill the murderer as soon as he meets him” (Num. 35:19, 21). Exodus 21:13. but if someone did not intend evil, and God allowed him to fall under his hands, then I will appoint with you a place where [the murderer] can escape; Applied in the case of deliberate murder, the right of bloody revenge does not take place in the case of unintentional, rash murder (Num. 35:22–23, Deut. 19:4–5, 1 Sam. 24:18). An involuntary murderer is not subject to death sentence (Deut. 19:6), and society itself must save him from the hand of the avenger of blood (Num. 35:25), giving him the right to flee to a place “appointed by God,” to one of the cities of refuge (Num. 35:11, etc.). The law on involuntary killers, limiting the right of bloody revenge, softened the rudeness of morals. Exodus 21:14. and if anyone with the intention of killing his neighbor treacherously [and runs to the altar], then take him from My altar to die. An insidious, deliberate murderer, deprived of the right to hide in one of the cities of refuge (Deut. 19:11–12), cannot be saved from death even at the altar (1 Kings 2:28–34). Demanding that Israel destroy evil from their midst (Deut. 19:19–20), the Lord himself cannot protect it in the place of His dwelling, in the tabernacle or church, at the altar. Exodus 21:15. Whoever strikes his father or his mother must be put to death. As can be seen from Deut. 21:18–21, the father and mother themselves abandon the bad son. An intolerant family member who scolds the feelings inspired by nature, he is also intolerant in society - he is expelled from his environment, stoned. Ex.21:16. Whoever steals a man [from the children of Israel] and [having enslaved him] sells him, or he is found in his hands, he must be put to death. Freedom is no less precious than life, therefore its deprivation - the theft and sale by a Jew of his compatriot (Deut. 24:7) is equivalent to murder. Ex.21:17. Whoever curses his father or his mother must be put to death. Ex.21:18. When [two people] are quarreling, and one person hits the other with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die, but goes to bed, Exodus 21:19. then, if he gets up and leaves the house with a stick, the one who hit [him] will not be guilty of death; just let him pay for stopping his work and give him for his treatment. Verses 18–33 discuss various cases of mutilation. The penalties imposed for them correspond to the degree of the crime. He who beats his neighbor in a fight must reward him with what he deprived him of: pay him the amount of money that the victim could have earned if he had been healthy, and use his own funds to cure him. Exodus 21:20. But if someone hits his slave or his maidservant with a stick, and they die under his hand, then he must be punished; Ex.21:21. but if they survive a day or two, then they should not punish him, for this is his silver. For the murder of a male and female slave who died during punishment, the owner is not subject to death, but only to the punishment imposed by the court, either because a slave is not equated with a free man (Ex. 21:19, 23, 26, 29, 32), or because the owner was only punishing a foolish slave (Prov. 10:13), without intending to kill him. The master is even completely freed from punishment when the death of the slave is not a direct consequence of the beating: he dies a day or two after the beating. In this case, the punishment that is sufficient for the owner is that, by losing a slave, he loses the money paid for him and causes damage to himself: “this is his silver.” Exodus 21:22. When people fight and they hit a pregnant woman and she has a miscarriage, but there is no other harm, then take from the guilty the penalty that the woman’s husband imposes on him, and he must pay it through intermediaries; A penalty is assigned for a prematurely aborted child. Mediators are required to prevent the husband from making excessive demands. The Greek translation introduces a distinction in the degree of development of the miscarriage for which there is no basis in the Hebrew text. A miscarriage “not depicted” is a child that is not fully formed, it is not equated to a full person - and therefore only a penalty is assigned for its death. The miscarriage “depicted” is an externally formed child, and for its death, as for the death of an adult, the perpetrator is subject to death. Ex.21:23. and if there is harm, then give soul for soul, Exodus 21:24. an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, Exodus 21:25. burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. If the consequence of a fight, in addition to premature birth, will be injury to the pregnant woman herself, then in this case one must proceed according to the following rule: “a soul for a soul,” i.e., life for a life 16, an eye for an eye, etc. Constituting a continuation of the previous speech, the words: “if there is harm, then” establish a general rule about retribution for injury (Lev. 24:20; Deut. 19:21; Matthew 5:38). The evil caused by one Jew to another must be punished by the same evil - retribution is simple, sensitive and capable of powerfully preventing the crime. Ex.21:26. If a man strikes his servant in the eye, or his maidservant in the eye, and hurts it, he shall let them go free for the eye; Exodus 21:27. and if he knocks out a tooth of his manservant or his maidservant, let him set him free for the tooth. The general rule determining the degree of punishment for mutilation does not apply to slaves, but changing it limits the arbitrariness and cruel treatment of their masters. Ex.21:28. If an ox gores a man or woman to death, then the ox is stoned and its meat is not eaten; but the owner of the ox is not to blame; The ox is killed as an animal dangerous to human life and, moreover, according to divine definition (Gen. 9:5, Num. 35:33). Not freed from blood, its meat is not eaten according to the general law, which requires that meat be eaten without blood (Lev. 17:10–14). The owner who did not know about the vigor of his ox (Ex. 21:29) is not to blame. But the stoning of the ox and the prohibition to benefit from its meat caused such significant damage to the owner that they naturally encouraged him not to be indifferent to the question: does the ox have a tendency to butt? Exodus 21:29. but if the ox was gore yesterday and the day after, and its owner, having been notified of this, did not guard it, and he killed a man or woman, then stone the ox and put his owner to death; The owner of the ox is put to death for his careless attitude towards the life of his neighbor. The culprit of death is not so much the irrational animal as he himself, who had the opportunity to eliminate it by appropriate measures. The severity of the punishment completely destroyed the possibility of indifference to the animal’s alertness and forced them to care about the safety of their neighbors. Ex.21:30. If a ransom is imposed on him, he shall give the ransom for his soul that is imposed on him. Ex.21:31. Whether a son is gored or a daughter is gored, it is according to the same law to deal with him. Death is replaced by a ransom, perhaps on the basis that the householder’s guilt lies only in carelessness, but not in malice. Ex.21:32. If an ox gores a manservant, then his master shall be paid thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. 30 shekels is, in all likelihood, the purchase price of a slave, just as 50 shekels is the ransom price of an adult (Lev. 27:3). Exodus 21:33. If anyone opens a pit, or if he digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, Ex.21:34. then the owner of the pit must pay, give the silver to their owner, and the corpse will be his. The owner of an uncovered pit compensates for the loss caused to his neighbor by carelessness. Ex.21:35. If someone's ox gores his neighbor's ox to death, let him sell the live ox and divide its price in half; also let the murdered one be divided in half; Solidarity of interests forces us to share misfortune in half. Ex.21:36. and if it was known that the ox was gore both yesterday and the next day, but its owner [having been notified of this] did not guard it, then he must pay ox for ox, and the one killed will be his. Only the one who carelessly and carelessly treats his neighbor’s property is to blame for the losses, and therefore he alone suffers the damage. That is, [before the judges]. – Ps.81:1–2, 6. The term “soul”, used in the Bible to denote the vital force, with the removal of which a living being dies, is used instead of the expression “life”: Ps 106.5, 55.7, Jonah 2.8, Lamentations 1.11, 19, 1 Kings 17.21. You might be interested in: