Today we'll conclude Chapter 21 by finishing our look at the personal injury laws provided in this section. We'll study the remainder of the penalties and fines imposed when one person harms another or when a person's animal harms a person or another animal.
We begin with a law dealing with injuries to an expectant mother. In this case it appears as if people are brawling or quarreling and perhaps the woman tries to intervene or perhaps she just accidentally gets struck by one of the fighters. "If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows." (Exodus 21:22) If the woman goes into labor too early due to getting drawn into the altercation, but both she and the baby come through fine, the person who struck her (the striking seems to be accidental according to the text), then the woman's husband can demand a fine be imposed on the offender. Even though the striking of his wife was accidental, very serious bodily harm could have occurred and the fine will hopefully deter the offender from such reckless behavior in the future. The offender is supposed to think twice from now on before engaging in a physical altercation with someone else.
If the man's wife or child suffers permanent injury or death, the same type of injuries are to be inflicted upon the offender. "But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise." (Exodus 21:23-25) While I did my background study for today's passage, I read two interesting points about verses 23-25 that I want to bring up next.
The first is that the Lord isn't going to allow what are called "punitive damages". If a brawler's arm flies back and strikes the woman in the eye while he's punching somebody else, for example, and the woman's eye is permanently injured, then the offender will suffer the same injury as payment for his reckless carelessness. But the woman's husband can't sue the offender for the punitive damages of things like emotional distress, loss of consortium, or loss of some of the work his wife may no longer be able to perform without two good eyes.
The second point is that the Israelites were always to be expecting the Messiah to come. They knew He would come through the descendants of Abraham, so if a person caused the loss of a male child in the womb, a person could be causing harm to the Promised One. Now don't get me wrong, I don't believe anyone or anything could have kept the Messiah from coming. I don't believe the Lord would have allowed harm to come to the Messiah before the appointed time for the Messiah to give His life for mankind. But no one was ever provided with an exact explanation of how the Messiah was coming or exactly how He would become the Redeemer and Deliverer and King, so the Israelites were to consider every pregnancy sacred because at any time the Messiah might be born. This created a culture that valued the sanctity of life in the womb. While we're on the subject of the sanctity of life, it's clear that here in Exodus 21 the Lord is granting rights to the unborn. If He didn't feel the lives of the unborn were important, He wouldn't have put penalties in place for causing the death of a child in the womb. I'm not going to get into political matters here or start a "pro life" versus "pro choice" debate, but we can see from our study today that the Lord considers the life of an unborn child important enough to put laws into place to protect that life and to impose penalties on the taking of that life even if the taking of the life wasn't intentional. I'll just leave that information here for us to ponder in our hearts while we move on to the remainder of today's text.
Yesterday we learned that in ancient cultures it was common for some slave owners to use corporal forms of discipline when a slave disobeyed him. We talked about how the Bible wasn't putting a stamp of approval on slavery but that the Bible is telling us what happened in the world in those days. In the same way we might write a history book about the United States, and that history book would include information on the period of time in which slavery was practiced in our country, but the history book wouldn't be putting a stamp of approval on the practice of slavery. The book would simply be telling us that these things happened. We don't find the Lord abolishing slavery here in the book of Exodus and we don't find Him putting a stop to it all over the ancient world on the pages of the Bible. The Lord gave man free will and man often does things he shouldn't with his free will, so we are going to come across situations in the Bible where people are doing things that aren't in their best interests or in the best interests of their fellow man. Because man often mistreats his fellow man, the Lord is establishing laws and rights and penalties to deal with such things. Our next paragraph is going to deal with situations in which a man causes a permanent injury to one of his slaves.
"An owner who hits a male or female slave in the eye and destroys it must let the slave go free to compensate for the eye. And an owner who knocks out the tooth of a male or female slave must let the slave go free to compensate for the tooth." (Exodus 21:26-27) Is the Lord saying it's okay for a man to hit a slave? Of course not. But He knows some men are godless and cruel and will do such things, so He puts penalties in place for this type of behavior. Also, these penalties are intended to deter a man from ever striking a slave. Several days ago we discussed various reasons why a person might end up in slavery, although we were speaking of the Hebrews and not of other peoples of the ancient world. Slavery was practiced by every culture on earth at that time, as far as we know, and in other cultures a man could do as he pleased with his slaves and no one would bat an eye. But the Hebrews weren't to behave this way. If a Hebrew became indebted to another Hebrew, he was to serve only six years and go free the seventh year and he was not to be mistreated in any way during his time in the service of another. If a Hebrew purchased slaves from somewhere outside of his own culture, I assume those slaves were to remain with the man for life unless granted their freedom at the man's discretion or because of certain laws that compelled him to set them free under certain conditions, but he was not to be abusive toward them while they were with him. This is why the Lord says something like, "If you become angry with your slave and strike him in anger, and if you cause a serious injury to him, you must give him his freedom. You will be losing your investment and all the work this person would have performed in the future. So think twice before raising your hand to him.". The Lord is trying to prevent the master from ever using physical discipline at all.
We finish up today's study by talking about the penalties for injuries caused by domestic animals. "If a bull gores a man or woman to death, the bull is to be stoned to death, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the bull will not be held responsible." (Exodus 21:28) If the bull attacks and kills a person it must not be allowed to live, presumably because it will repeat this type of behavior. The owner could not have known it would do such a thing and he is not to lose his life because his bull took someone else's life, not unless the bull has exhibited violent tendencies in the past. "If, however, the bull has had the habit of goring and the owner has been warned but has not kept it penned up and it kills a man or woman, the bull is to be stoned and its owner is also to be put to death. However, if payment is demanded, the owner may redeem his life by the payment of whatever is demanded. This law also applies if the bull gores a son or daughter. If the bull gores a male or female slave, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver to the master of the slave, and the bull is to be stoned to death." (Exodus 21:29-32)
"If anyone uncovers a pit or digs one and fails to cover it and an ox or donkey falls into it, the one who opened the pit must pay the owner for the loss and take the dead animal in exchange." (Exodus 21:33-34) Anyone who removes the covering over a hole and leaves it uncovered will be liable if someone's animal falls into it. If a person digs a hole and puts no protective covering in place, he will be liable if an animal falls into it. Flocks and herds roamed freely while grazing in those days, as did work animals such as donkeys and oxen, so it was important not to leave an open hole anywhere in the pastures or fields. If a person did so and caused injury or death to someone else's animal, he had to pay the person the price of obtaining a new donkey to ride or a new ox to pull the plow.
If a person owns an animal that attacks and kills someone else's animal, he is liable to the other person for the loss. "If anyone's bull injures someone else's bull and it dies, the two parties are to sell the live one and divide both the money and the dead animal equally." (Exodus 21:35) If the owner of the violent bull had no way of knowing his bull would attack and kill another, he and the owner of the dead bull are to divide the money of the sale of the live bull and they are to divide the meat of the dead bull. This means each man gets half the money and each man gets half the meat, making the two men square with each other. There is no need to go to court over such a matter. These two grown men are to handle this incident in a mature and responsible way, without dispute. The reason the owner of the violent bull doesn't have to pay the full price of a new bull is because he had no idea his bull would behave unpredictably like this. It's not his fault his bull suddenly charged at another bull and gored it to death. He didn't expect such a thing to happen.
But if the owner of the violent bull had reason to know his bull might attack someone else's, he must pay the full price of the dead bull to its owner. "However, if it was known that the bull had the habit of goring, yet the owner did not keep it penned up, the owner must pay, animal for animal, and take the dead animal in exchange." (Exodus 21:36) The owner of the dead bull can go right out and buy a new one. The owner of the violent bull can keep the meat of the dead bull but that's all he comes away with. The Bible doesn't say he can't take his own bull back home with him, so I'm assuming he can, but he will be expected to keep it penned up from now on when he's not using it for work.
Tomorrow we move on into the laws and penalties regarding thievery.
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