The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Personal Injury Laws
Exodus 21:12–36 — Personal Injury Laws. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
12Whoever strikes and kills a man must surely be put to death.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mak·kêh wā·mêṯ ’îš mō·wṯ yū·māṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
One-striking a-man so-that-he-die — dying he-shall-be-made-to-die.
Where the English smooths the original
The death penalty for murder had already received Divine sanction in the injunctions given to Noah ( Genesis 9:6 ).
God, who by his providence gives and maintains life, by his law protects it. A wilful murderer shall be taken even from God's altar.
The principle of retribution, jus talionis, which is the only one that embodies the idea of justice, lies at the foundation of these threats.
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 manCambridge locates the earliest executor of this sentence in the gôʼêl, the kinsman-redeemer-avenger, not yet the State — the same office that lies behind the cities of refuge (v. 13) and, redemptively, behind the kinsman-redeemer theme fulfilled in Christ.
13If, however, he did not lie in wait, but God allowed it to happen, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.
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wa·’ă·šer lō ṣā·ḏāh wə·hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm ’in·nāh lə·yā·ḏōw wə·śam·tî lə·ḵā mā·qō·wm ’ă·šer yā·nūs šām·māh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-who did-not lie-in-wait, and-the-God caused-it-to-meet to-his-hand — then-I-will-appoint for-you a-place where he-may-flee there.
Where the English smooths the original
deliver ] in the Heb. a rare word, meaning properly, as Arabic shews, bring opportunelyCambridge documents the rare verb the BSB renders "allowed to happen" — its root force is to bring opportunely, not merely to permit.
God, and not man, God without the man’s contrivance or design; for otherwise, in a general sense and way, God delivered Christ into the hands of Judas and the Jews
Though a man be killed unawares, yet it is God's providence that it should so be.
God' s providence does in fact bring about the meetings which men call accidental. I will appoint thee a place . When we first hear of the actual appointment, the number of the places was six - three on either side of Jordan.The Pulpit Commentary names the institution this verse seeds: the six cities of refuge (Numbers 35; Deuteronomy 19; Joshua 20) — the structural thread tracked below.
14But if a man schemes and acts willfully against his neighbor to kill him, you must take him away from My altar to be put to death.
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wə·ḵî- ’îš ḇə·‘ā·rə·māh yā·ziḏ ‘al- rê·‘ê·hū lə·hā·rə·ḡōw tiq·qā·ḥen·nū mê·‘im miz·bə·ḥî lā·mūṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-if a-man acts-with-cunning against his-neighbor to-kill-him with-guile — from-with My-altar you-shall-take-him to-die.
Where the English smooths the original
God so abhors murder that he will rather venture the pollution of his own altar than the escape of the murderer.
The Mosaic Law regarded this scruple as a superstition, and refused to sanction it.
There was no place of safety for the guilty murderer, not even the altar of Yahweh. Thus all superstitious notions connected with the right of sanctuary were excluded.
15Whoever strikes his father or mother must surely be put to death.
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ū·mak·kêh ’ā·ḇîw wə·’im·mōw mō·wṯ yū·māṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-one-striking his-father and-his-mother — dying he-shall-be-made-to-die.
Where the English smooths the original
The parent is viewed as God’s representative, and to smite him is to offer God an insult in his person.
The severity of the law is very remarkable, and strongly emphasises the dignity and authority of parents.
children were not to be put to death for the first offence of this kind, but if, after repeated admonitions from their parents, they still persisted in their undutiful carriageBenson balances the severity with Deuteronomy 21:18 — the penalty followed only persistent, incorrigible rebellion, not a single offence.
16Whoever kidnaps another man must be put to death, whether he sells him or the man is found in his possession.
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wə·ḡō·nêḇ ’îš mō·wṯ yū·māṯ ū·mə·ḵā·rōw wə·nim·ṣā ḇə·yā·ḏōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-one-stealing a-man — and-he-sells-him, or he-is-found in-his-hand — dying he-shall-be-made-to-die.
Where the English smooths the original
It appears from 1 Timothy 1:9-10 , that this law was not meant to be of a merely temporary nature, but of standing force.
Man-stealing was also no less a crime, being a sin against the dignity of man, and a violation of the image of God.
Kidnapping, or stealing men to make them slaves, was a very early and very wide-spread crime. Joseph' s brothers must be regarded as having committed it ( Genesis 37:28 )
17Anyone who curses his father or mother must surely be put to death.
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ū·mə·qal·lêl ’ā·ḇîw wə·’im·mōw mō·wṯ yū·māṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-one-belittling his-father and-his-mother — dying he-shall-be-made-to-die.
Where the English smooths the original
It is cited in Matthew 15:4 = Mark 7:10 .Cambridge marks the New Testament citation: Christ quotes this very law against the Pharisees' korban-evasion of it.
yet if he smites them with his tongue, reviles and reproaches them, speaks evil of them, wishes dreadful imprecations upon them
The severity of the sentence indicates that in God' s sight such sins are of the deepest dye.
18If men are quarreling and one strikes the other with a stone or a fist, and he does not die but is confined to bed,
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wə·ḵî- ’ă·nā·šîm yə·rî·ḇun ’îš ’eṯ- wə·hik·kāh- rê·‘ê·hū bə·’e·ḇen ’ōw ḇə·’eḡ·rōp̄ wə·lō yā·mūṯ wə·nā·p̄al lə·miš·kāḇ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-if men quarrel, and-strikes a-man [eth] his-neighbor with-a-stone or with-the-fist, and-he-does-not die but-falls to-bed —
Where the English smooths the original
fist ] Isaiah 58:4 †. So LXX. Vulg. Di.: the Heb. ’egrôph has also this sense in the Talm.Cambridge fixes the rare word ʼegrôph ("fist") and its only parallel, Isaiah 58:4 — the verbal basis of the thread.
the other would be innocent, he should "only give him his sitting and have him cured," i.e., compensate him for his loss of time and the cost of recovery.
In such cases punishment could not be inflicted by retaliation—the usual penalty under the Mosaic Law ( Exodus 21:24-25 )—without a risk of killing the man, which would have been an excessive punishment.Ellicott explains why this case takes a fine, not talion: an eye-for-eye blow could itself kill, exceeding the fault — the very ceiling-principle of vv. 24–25.
19then the one who struck him shall go unpunished, as long as the other can get up and walk around outside with his staff. Nevertheless, he must compensate the man for his lost work and see that he is completely healed.
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ham·mak·keh wə·niq·qāh ’im- yā·qūm wə·hiṯ·hal·lêḵ ba·ḥūṣ ‘al- miš·‘an·tōw raq yit·tên šiḇ·tōw wə·rap·pō yə·rap·pê
Literal — word-for-word from the original
if he-rises and-walks-about outside upon his-staff — then-he-who-struck shall-be-held-clean; only his-cessation he-shall-give, and-healing he-shall-heal.
Where the English smooths the original
the loss of his time ] a necessary paraphrase of the Heb. shibtô , which may be derived from either yâshab , to ‘sit down,’ or shâbath , to ‘desist,’ ‘cease’Cambridge exposes the rare noun shibtô behind "for his lost work" — its ambiguous root underlies the paraphrase.
he was free from the liability to a criminal charge
The charge of murder was not to be kept hanging over a man indefinitely. If the injured person recovered sufficiently to leave his bed, and get about by the help of a stick, the injurer was to pay his fine and be quit of his offence
20If a man strikes his manservant or maidservant with a rod, and the servant dies by his hand, he shall surely be punished.
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wə·ḵî- ’îš ’eṯ- yak·keh ‘aḇ·dōw ’ōw ’eṯ- ’ă·mā·ṯōw baš·šê·ḇeṭ ū·mêṯ ta·ḥaṯ yā·ḏōw nā·qōm yin·nā·qêm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-if a-man strikes [eth] his-servant or [eth] his-maidservant with-the-rod, and-he-dies under his-hand — avenging it-shall-be-avenged.
Where the English smooths the original
Now, for the first time—so far as we know—was the life of the slave protected.
it is the very earliest trace of such protection in legislation, and it stands in strong and favorable contrast with the old laws of Greece, Rome, and other nations.
The law was therefore confined to the abuse of this authority in outbursts of passion
21However, if the servant gets up after a day or two, the owner shall not be punished, since the servant is his property.
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’aḵ ’im- ya·‘ă·mōḏ yō·wm ’ōw yō·w·ma·yim lō yuq·qam kî hū ḵas·pōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
However if a-day or two he-stands — it-shall-not be-avenged, for he-is his-silver.
Where the English smooths the original
By the civil magistrate, but before God he is a murderer.Geneva's marginal gloss refuses to let civil acquittal stand as moral acquittal — before God the master may still be a murderer.
There is no ground whatever for restricting this regulation, as the Rabbins do, to slaves who were not of Hebrew extraction.
No special callousness to the sufferings of slaves is implied.The Pulpit Commentary reads "his money" not as contempt but as the legal presumption against intent (cf. v. 19): a man does not lightly destroy his own costly property, so survival is taken as proof the blow was corrective, not murderous.
22If men who are fighting strike a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, but there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband demands and as the court allows.
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wə·ḵî- ’ă·nā·šîm yin·nā·ṣū wə·nā·ḡə·p̄ū hā·rāh ’iš·šāh yə·lā·ḏe·hā wə·yā·ṣə·’ū yih·yeh wə·lō ’ā·sō·wn ‘ā·nō·wōš yê·‘ā·nêš ka·’ă·šer hā·’iš·šāh ba·‘al yā·šîṯ ‘ā·lāw wə·nā·ṯan bip̄·li·lîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-if men struggle and-strike a-pregnant woman and-her-children come-out, and-there-is-no harm — being-fined he-shall-be-fined, as the-woman's husband lays on-him, and-he-shall-give by-arbiters.
Where the English smooths the original
the translators have understood the words as meaning that the fruit, the premature birth of which was caused by the blow, if not yet developed into a human form, was not to be regarded as in any sense a human beingKeil reports — and rejects — the LXX/Philo reading that made the penalty hinge on whether the fetus was "formed," insisting yeled means a full human being.
It is a reasonable conjecture that the law of retaliation was much older than Moses, and accepted by him as tolerable rather than devised as rightful.
the clever suggestion of Budde, בנפלים for בפלילים deserves consideration, he shall pay it for the untimely birthCambridge surfaces a live textual question: the rare word for "arbiters" may be an emendation away from "for the untimely birth."
23But if a serious injury results, then you must require a life for a life—
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wə·’im- ’ā·sō·wn yih·yeh wə·nā·ṯat·tāh ne·p̄eš ta·ḥaṯ nā·p̄eš
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-if harm there-is — then-you-shall-give life under life,
Where the English smooths the original
Not the private person, which would have introduced infinite mischiefs and confusions, but the magistrate
Probably the law was not now enacted for the first time, but was an old tribal institution, like the law of the "avenger of blood."
Our Lord quotes Exodus 21:24 as representing the form of the law, in order to illustrate the distinction between the letter and the spirit Matthew 5:38 .
It was given to regulate the procedure of the public magistrate in determining the amount of compensation in every case of injury, but did not encourage feelings of private revenge.
24eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
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‘a·yin ta·ḥaṯ ‘a·yin šên ta·ḥaṯ šên yāḏ ta·ḥaṯ yāḏ re·ḡel ta·ḥaṯ rā·ḡel
Literal — word-for-word from the original
eye under eye, tooth under tooth, hand under hand, foot under foot,
Where the English smooths the original
25burn for burn, wound for wound, and stripe for stripe.
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kə·wî·yāh ta·ḥaṯ kə·wî·yāh pe·ṣa‘ ta·ḥaṯ pā·ṣa‘ ḥab·bū·rāh ta·ḥaṯ ḥab·bū·rāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
burn under burn, wound under wound, stripe under stripe.
Where the English smooths the original
The talio is a principle of punishment which was anciently, and still is, current widely in the world
it is much more agreeable to justice and equity that it should be lessened rather than increased
We are taught by these laws, that we must be very careful to do no wrong, either directly or indirectly. If we have done wrong, we must be very willing to make it good, and be desirous that nobody may lose by us.Henry lifts the talion to its devotional point: the same equity that caps revenge obliges the believer to repair every wrong he has done, directly or indirectly.
26If a man strikes and blinds the eye of his manservant or maidservant, he must let the servant go free as compensation for the eye.
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wə·ḵî- ’îš ’eṯ- yak·keh wə·ši·ḥă·ṯāh ‘ên ‘aḇ·dōw ’ōw- ’eṯ- ’ă·mā·ṯōw yə·šal·lə·ḥen·nū la·ḥā·p̄ə·šî ta·ḥaṯ ‘ê·nōw ‘ên
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-if a-man strikes [eth] the-eye-of his-servant or [eth] the-eye-of his-maidservant and-ruins it — to-freedom he-shall-send-him-away, under his-eye.
Where the English smooths the original
The master who inflicts any such permanent damage—from the least to the greatest—loses all property in his slave, and is bound at once to emancipate him.
Freedom was the proper equivalent for permanent injury.
This law was made to deter masters from using their servants with cruelty
27And if he knocks out the tooth of his manservant or maidservant, he must let the servant go free as compensation for the tooth.
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wə·’im- yap·pîl šên ‘aḇ·dōw ’ōw- ’ă·mā·ṯōw yə·šal·lə·ḥen·nū la·ḥā·p̄ə·šî ta·ḥaṯ šin·nōw šên
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-if the-tooth-of his-servant or the-tooth-of his-maidservant he-knocks-out — to-freedom he-shall-send-him-away, under his-tooth.
Where the English smooths the original
So God revenges cruelty in the even the least things.Geneva's gloss draws the merism's force: even the loss of a tooth — the least member — God will avenge with the slave's freedom.
these two being instanced in, the one as the chief, and the other as the meanest
In the case of the latter, if the master struck out an eye and destroyed it, i.e., blinded him with the blow, or struck out a tooth, he was to let him go free, as a compensation for the loss of the member. Eye and tooth are individual examples selected to denote all the membersKeil reads eye-and-tooth as a merism for the whole body: the slave-talion (vv. 26–27) reframes the freeman's eye-for-eye (vv. 24–25) into freedom-for-any-permanent-injury, greatest member to least.
28If an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox must surely be stoned, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the ox shall not be held responsible.
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wə·ḵî- šō·wr ’eṯ- yig·gaḥ ’îš ’ōw ’eṯ- ’iš·šāh wā·mêṯ haš·šō·wr sā·qō·wl yis·sā·qêl bə·śā·rōw wə·lō yê·’ā·ḵêl ’eṯ- ū·ḇa·‘al haš·šō·wr nā·qî
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-if gores an-ox [eth] a-man or [eth] a-woman, and-he-dies — stoning the-ox shall-be-stoned, and-not shall-be-eaten [eth] its-flesh; and-the-owner-of the-ox is-innocent.
Where the English smooths the original
29But if the ox has a habit of goring, and its owner has been warned yet does not restrain it, and it kills a man or woman, then the ox must be stoned and its owner must also be put to death.
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wə·’im šō·wr mit·tə·mōl šil·šōm nag·gāḥ hū biḇ·‘ā·lāw wə·hū·‘aḏ wə·lō yiš·mə·ren·nū wə·hê·mîṯ ’îš ’ōw ’iš·šāh haš·šō·wr yis·sā·qêl bə·‘ā·lāw wə·ḡam- yū·māṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-if an-ox given-to-goring he [was] from-yesterday three-days-ago, and-it-was-testified to-its-owner and-he-did-not keep-it-in, and-it-kills a-man or a-woman — the-ox shall-be-stoned, and-also its-owner shall-be-put-to-death.
Where the English smooths the original
having by his neglect contributed to a homicide, was "guilty of death."
It seems clear that under this law the representatives of the slain person might have exacted life for life
Guilty negligence on the part of its owner was reckoned a capital offence, to be commuted for a fine.
30If payment is demanded of him instead, he may redeem his life by paying the full amount demanded of him.
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’im- kō·p̄er yū·šaṯ ‘ā·lāw piḏ·yōn nap̄·šōw wə·nā·ṯan kə·ḵōl ’ă·šer- yū·šaṯ ‘ā·lāw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
If a-ransom is-laid upon-him — then-he-shall-give the-redemption-of his-life, according-to-all that is-laid upon-him.
Where the English smooths the original
This is the only case where a money compensation, instead of capital punishment, was expressly allowed in the Mosaic law.
he was allowed to redeem his forfeited life by the payment of expiation money
the money offered for the life of a murdered man to appease a kinsman’s wrath
By the avenger of blood, the next akin to the party slain, who is willing to exchange the punishment, or by the judge.Benson names the one who sets the ransom: the gôʼêl, the kinsman-avenger of v. 12 — here willing to accept a covering-price in place of a forfeit life, the unique commutation the chapter allows.
31If the ox gores a son or a daughter, it shall be done to him according to the same rule.
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’ōw- yig·gāḥ ḇên ’ōw- ḇaṯ yig·gāḥ yê·‘ā·śeh lōw haz·zeh kam·miš·pāṭ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Whether a-son it-gores or a-daughter it-gores — according-to-this-judgment it-shall-be-done to-him.
Where the English smooths the original
names signifying their tender agePoole reads "son or daughter" as deliberately naming minors, so the ox-law's full force reaches the youngest life, not only adults.
There are other ancient nations in whose law books we find laws relating to the punishment of animals for killing or wounding a man, but not one of them had a law which made the owner of the animal responsible as well, for they none of them looked upon human life in its likeness of God.
If the sufferer were a child, the value of the life, and therefore the amount of the fine, would be less.
32If the ox gores a manservant or maidservant, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver to the master of that servant, and the ox must be stoned.
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’im- haš·šō·wr yig·gaḥ ‘e·ḇeḏ ’ōw ’ā·māh yit·tên šə·lō·šîm šə·qā·lîm ke·sep̄ la·ḏō·nāw wə·haš·šō·wr yis·sā·qêl
Literal — word-for-word from the original
If a-manservant the-ox gores or a-maidservant — silver, thirty shekels, he-shall-give to-his-master, and-the-ox shall-be-stoned.
Where the English smooths the original
The same sum was offered as his wages to the prophet who, in the allegory of Zechariah 11, represented the rejected ruler of his peopleCambridge traces the thirty-shekel slave-price into Zechariah 11:12 — the wage of the rejected shepherd, and thence (Matthew 26:15) the betrayal-price of Christ.
This was the price our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was sold at
Where this was the case, the death of the ox was still made indispensable, and thus far the same sacredness was made to attach to the life of the slave and of the freeman.The Pulpit Commentary holds the two truths together: the slave's worth is reckoned in coin (a fixed thirty shekels, not a varying fine), yet the ox still dies — his life is held as sacred as a freeman's even where his price is fixed.
33If a man opens or digs a pit and fails to cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,
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wə·ḵî- ’îš yip̄·taḥ bō·wr ’ōw kî- yiḵ·reh ’îš bōr wə·lō yə·ḵas·sen·nū šō·wr ’ōw ḥă·mō·wr wə·nā·p̄al- šām·māh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-if a-man opens a-pit, or if a-man digs a-pit, and-does-not cover it, and-falls there an-ox or a-donkey —
Where the English smooths the original
The legislation slides from rights of persons to rights of property easily and without effort
I have been astonished at the recklessness with which wells and pits are left uncovered and unprotected all over this countryCambridge cites Thomson's eyewitness of uncovered pits in the Levant — the very hazard this statute addresses, still current in the 19th century.
Cisterns, very necessary in Palestine, were usually closed by a flat-stone, or a number of planks. To obtain water from them, they had to be uncovered; but it was the duty of the man who uncovered them, to replace the covering when his wants were satisfied.
34the owner of the pit shall make restitution; he must pay its owner, and the dead animal will be his.
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ba·‘al hab·bō·wr yə·šal·lêm yā·šîḇ ke·sep̄ liḇ·‘ā·lāw wə·ham·mêṯ yih·yeh- lōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
the-owner-of the-pit shall-make-whole; silver he-shall-return to-its-owner, and-the-dead-thing shall-be his.
Where the English smooths the original
This law forbids not only to hurt, but to beware lest any be hurt.Geneva extracts the principle of positive duty: the law obliges not only against doing harm but toward preventing it — culpable negligence is itself sin.
Having paid the full value of the live animal, the owner of the well was entitled to make what he could by the carcass.
Having paid the full price of the slain beast, the owner of the cistern was entitled to its carcase.
35If a man’s ox injures his neighbor’s ox and it dies, they must sell the live one and divide the proceeds; they also must divide the dead animal.
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wə·ḵî- ’îš ’eṯ- šō·wr- yig·gōp̄ rê·‘ê·hū šō·wr wā·mêṯ ū·mā·ḵə·rū ’eṯ- ha·ḥay haš·šō·wr wə·ḥā·ṣū ’eṯ- kas·pōw wə·ḡam ’eṯ- ye·ḥĕ·ṣūn ham·mêṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-if strikes a-man's ox [eth] the-ox-of his-neighbor and-it-dies — then-they-shall-sell [eth] the-live ox and-halve [eth] its-silver, and-also [eth] the-dead one they-shall-halve.
Where the English smooths the original
Where no blame attached to the owner, the loss was to be equally shared.
not equally, for so the owner of the mischievous ox might be gainer by the mischief
If this admirable statute were faithfully administered now, it would prevent many angry, and sometimes fatal, feuds between herds-men
36But if it was known that the ox had a habit of goring, yet its owner failed to restrain it, he shall pay full compensation, ox for ox, and the dead animal will be his.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’ōw nō·w·ḏa‘ kî šō·wr mit·tə·mō·wl šil·šōm nag·gāḥ hū bə·‘ā·lāw wə·lō yiš·mə·ren·nū šal·lêm yə·šal·lêm šō·wr ta·ḥaṯ haš·šō·wr wə·ham·mêṯ yih·yeh- lōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Or if it-was-known that an-ox given-to-goring he [was] from-yesterday three-days-ago, and-its-owner did-not keep-it-in — making-whole he-shall-make-whole, ox under ox; and-the-dead-one shall-be his.
Where the English smooths the original
because the owner of the vicious ox took no care of him, though it was well known he was mischievous
an ox of equal value with that slain ox, or the price and worth of it.
If we have done wrong, we must be very willing to make it good, and be desirous that nobody may lose by us.Henry closes the property-laws on their devotional point: full restitution is not mere legal liability but the believer's active desire that no one suffer loss through him.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The code opens not with property but with blood. Matthew Henry states the governing axiom: “God, who by his providence gives and maintains life, by his law protects it. A wilful murderer shall be taken even from God's altar.” The Hebrew preaches the same in its grammar: five times across these verses the capital sentence falls in the same emphatic shape — the infinitive absolute stacked before the finite verb, מוֹת יוּמָת (môwṯ yûmāṯ, “dying he shall be made to die”), for the murderer (v. 12), the parent-striker (v. 15), the kidnapper (v. 16), and the curser (v. 17). The repetition is the point: striking a parent, stealing a man, cursing a parent are set verbally on a par with murder. Keil & Delitzsch reads the principle beneath them all — “the principle of retribution, jus talionis, which is the only one that embodies the idea of justice, lies at the foundation of these threats.” Within the homicide-law a distinction is drawn that Cambridge calls “noteworthy” and “not found in Homer”: between intentional murder and the man who “did not lie in wait” (the rare verb ṣāḏāh, H6658, v. 13). For the latter, refuge; for the former, no asylum even at God's altar (mizbḯî, v. 14) — Joseph Benson: “God so abhors murder that he will rather venture the pollution of his own altar than the escape of the murderer.” All of this, the voices agree, is the re-issue under Sinai of the charge to Noah, Genesis 9:6 (so Ellicott, Gill, Keil).
Verse 13 forces the synthesis layer to weigh its words. The manslayer “did not lie in wait, but God allowed it to happen” — yet the Hebrew verb ʼinnāh (H579) is stronger than “allowed.” Cambridge documents that it is “in the Heb. a rare word, meaning properly, as Arabic shews, bring opportunely” — God brought the death to his hand. The voices uniformly read this as providence, not chance: Geneva, “Though a man be killed unawares, yet it is God's providence that it should so be.” But the doctrine is fenced. Matthew Poole guards it from misuse with a striking parallel: “God, and not man… God delivered Christ into the hands of Judas and the Jews, who did advisedly and maliciously kill him.” That is, the same providence that governs an accidental death does not excuse a guilty one — the very distinction the chapter is built to make (vv. 13 vs. 14). The synthesis affirms only what the text and the voices jointly hold: divine sovereignty over the event, human innocence in the accident, human guilt in the ambush.
The heart of the chapter is a series of cases in which, the commentators repeatedly observe, the Mosaic law stands ahead of its world. On the slave struck dead (v. 20), Charles Ellicott: “Now, for the first time — so far as we know — was the life of the slave protected,” and Albert Barnes: “it is the very earliest trace of such protection in legislation… in strong and favorable contrast with the old laws of Greece, Rome, and other nations.” Yet the synthesis must not soften what the Hebrew leaves hard: v. 21 calls the slave kaspôw, “his money,” and Geneva's gloss is the necessary counter-weight — acquittal is “by the civil magistrate, but before God he is a murderer.” The talion itself (vv. 23–25), built on the relentless preposition taḥaṯ (“under, in place of”), the voices nearly unanimously read as a judicial maximum, not a license for revenge: JFB, the later Jews “mistook it for a moral precept, and were corrected by our Lord”; Poole, “Punishments may be less, but never should be greater than the fault”; Barnes, the believer is “not to exact eye for eye… but to love his enemies, and to forgive all injuries.” And the talion is at once broken for the slave: a master who destroys eye or tooth must free him (vv. 26–27) — Barnes, “Freedom was the proper equivalent for permanent injury.” The case of the pregnant woman (v. 22) the synthesis flags as genuinely contested (see apparatus): the rare word ʼāsôwn (“harm”) and the LXX's “formed/unformed” reading divide the sources, and Keil argues forcefully that yeled “only denotes a child, as a fully developed human being.”
The chapter closes by extending the sanctity of blood downward — to the animal that kills and the man who was careless. An ox that gores a person to death is stoned in the very grammar of a capital criminal (sāqôwl yissāqêl, the talion-formula's twin), and its flesh forbidden: Keil, “it was laden with the guilt of murder, and therefore had become unclean”; JFB, the design is “sanctifying human blood, and representing all injuries affecting life in a serious light.” Keil marks what is unique in the world's law codes: “not one of them had a law which made the owner of the animal responsible as well, for they none of them looked upon human life in its likeness of God.” For the negligent owner whose vicious beast was “testified” against (v. 29), even a capital sentence — commutable, uniquely, by a kōp̄er, a ransom (v. 30): JFB, “the only case where a money compensation… was expressly allowed in the Mosaic law.” The slave gored is valued at thirty shekels (v. 32) — Gill, “the price our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was sold at,” Cambridge tracing it through Zechariah 11:12. And the property cases (vv. 33–36) carry the same moral spine — Geneva: “This law forbids not only to hurt, but to beware lest any be hurt.” The whole edifice, Ellicott notes, “slides from rights of persons to rights of property easily and without effort.”
Read under Sola Scriptura, Exodus 21:12–36 is a single sustained argument that life is the LORD's, and therefore answerable. The casuistic “if… then…” cases look like dry tort law, but a theology runs underneath every clause. First, the value of a life is fixed by its Source, not its status: the same chapter that calls a slave his master's “money” (v. 21) still stones the ox that kills that slave (v. 32) and frees him for a lost tooth (v. 27) — because the body it injured bears God's likeness, the reason Genesis 9:6 gave and this chapter assumes. Second, the law is forever distinguishing intent from accident (vv. 13–14, 18–19, 20–21, 28–36): the heart of the actor decides the weight of the deed, the very principle the Sermon on the Mount will carry inward (Matthew 5). Third, the talion — “life under life, eye under eye” — is not vengeance but its cap: it exists to make the punishment fit, never exceed, the fault, and the voices show it was already being paid in silver, not blood, where blood was not just. What strikes the fallible reader most is the single exception in v. 30: every other capital case forbids a ransom (Numbers 35:31), but the man whose ox killed by his negligence may give kōp̄er — a covering, a redemption-price for his forfeit life. The whole chapter thus draws a line it cannot itself cross: human blood is so sacred that nothing can buy back the murderer's life — and yet a forfeit life can, in one case, be covered by a ransom. Scripture will spend the rest of its pages telling us whose ransom that finally is. This reading is offered to be tested against the text, not set above it.
Every law here measures a life by its Maker, not its market — which is why the slave's tooth and the freeman's eye are weighed on the same scale. (An interpretive line from the synthesis layer, not a verse of Scripture.)
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The talion-formula of vv. 24–25 is the Torah's own recurring legal maxim. The Verifier confirms the link to Leviticus 24:20 through the shared lexemes šên (tooth, H8127), taḥaṯ (in place of, H8478), and ʼayin (eye, H5869), and to Deuteronomy 19:21 through šên, regel (foot, H7272), ʼayin, and yâd (hand, H3027) — the same body-part-under-body-part architecture in all three. Cambridge notes the principle “was anciently, and still is, current widely in the world” (the Twelve Tables, Hammurabi). Tiered structural / thematic, not verbal: the shared words are common nouns re-used to state one legal pattern across the codes, not a rare-phrase quotation.
Exodus 21:24 · Exodus 21:25 · Leviticus 24:20 · Deuteronomy 19:21
basis: Verifier (Ex 21:24 ↔ Deut 19:21): shared H8127 šên (48 vv), H7272 regel (230 vv), H5869 ʼayin (827 vv), H3027 yâd (1445 vv); (Ex 21:24 ↔ Lev 24:20): shared H8127, H8478 taḥaṯ, H5869 — common legal vocabulary stating one pattern, no quotation-claim
Verse 25's last two nouns are genuinely rare: peṣaʻ (wound, H6482, seven verses) and chabbûrâh (stripe/welt, H2250, six verses). The Verifier returns this pair together as the shared basis with Genesis 4:23 (Lamech's boast, “a man… to my wound… a young man to my stripe”), Isaiah 1:6 (“wounds and bruises”), and Proverbs 20:30 (“stripes that wound”). Because both lexemes are low-frequency and they recur as a set, the link rises to a verbal / quotation tier: this is not coincidental overlap but a shared, distinctive word-pair. The synthesis notes the somber arc — the same vocabulary the talion uses to limit revenge (v. 25) is what Lamech used to boast of disproportionate revenge (Gen 4:23), the very thing the talion exists to stop.
Exodus 21:25 · Genesis 4:23 · Isaiah 1:6 · Proverbs 20:30
basis: Verifier (Ex 21:25 ↔ Gen 4:23 / Isa 1:6 / Prov 20:30): shared rare pair H2250 chabbûrâh (6 vv) + H6482 peṣaʻ (7 vv) — two low-frequency lexemes recurring together, a distinctive verbal cluster
The hinge-word of the pregnant-woman law is ʼāsôwn (harm, H611) — a strikingly rare noun, occurring in only five verses in all Scripture. The Verifier confirms its recurrence in Genesis 42:4, 42:38, and 44:29 — every other occurrence — where Jacob dreads that some ʼāsôwn (“mischief”/“harm”) might befall Benjamin on the road to Egypt. Because the word is so rare and is shared verbatim, this is a confirmed verbal link. The connection matters interpretively: the same ominous word that names a father's fear of losing a son names the “serious injury” (vv. 22–23) whose presence or absence decides whether the talion applies — and the disputed scope of ʼāsôwn (death of the mother? of the child? any grave harm?) is the crux of the abortion debate over this passage (see apparatus).
Exodus 21:22 · Exodus 21:23 · Genesis 42:4 · Genesis 42:38 · Genesis 44:29
basis: Verifier (Ex 21:22 ↔ Gen 42:4 / 42:38 / 44:29): shared rare lexeme H611 ʼâçôwn (5 vv — every occurrence in Scripture); a genuinely rare word shared verbatim
The “fist” of v. 18 is ʼegrôph (H106), one of the rarest nouns in the Hebrew Bible — it occurs in only two verses. The Verifier confirms the single parallel, Isaiah 58:4, where false fasters “strike with the fist of wickedness.” Cambridge independently fixes the link: “fist ] Isaiah 58:4 †. So LXX. Vulg.… the Heb. ʼegrôph has also this sense in the Talm.” With a frequency of two, this is a textbook verbal / quotation-tier tie. The synthesis observes the irony the shared word exposes: Exodus regulates the fist that flies in a sudden brawl; Isaiah condemns the fist deliberately raised on a fast-day — the same rare word, the brawler's reflex and the hypocrite's calculated blow.
Exodus 21:18 · Isaiah 58:4
basis: Verifier (Ex 21:18 ↔ Isa 58:4): shared H106 ʼegrôph (in 2 vv — its only two occurrences); confirmed by Cambridge's own cross-reference
The ox-laws turn on a specific verb, nâgach (to gore/butt with the horns, H5055, only ten verses), paired with šôwr (ox, H7794). The Verifier confirms the verbal cluster with Deuteronomy 33:17 — Joseph's blessing, “with [his horns] he shall gore the peoples” — sharing both nâgach and šôwr; because nâgach is rare, that tie is verbal. Standing behind the whole ox-section is Genesis 9:5, the Noahic word “at the hand of every beast will I require [the blood of man],” which Barnes, Keil, Gill, and JFB all name as its root; that link rests only on the common word ʼîš (man, H376) and on shared idea, so it is tiered structural / thematic, not verbal.
Exodus 21:28 · Deuteronomy 33:17 · Genesis 9:5
basis: Verifier (Ex 21:28 ↔ Deut 33:17): shared rare H5055 nâgach (10 vv) + H7794 shôwr (69 vv) — a verbal cluster; (Ex 21:28 ↔ Gen 9:5): only H376 ʼîš shared — the Noahic-charge link is thematic, asserted by the voices, not lexical
Verse 30 allows the negligent ox-owner to pay a kōp̄er (ransom, H3724) as the pidyôn nap̄šôw, “the redemption of his life” — and pidyôwn (H6306) is a rare noun, only three verses. The Verifier confirms the link to Psalm 49:8, sharing pidyôwn with the great refrain that “the redemption of their soul is costly” — no man can pay it for his brother. Because pidyôwn is rare and shared, the lexical tie is verbal; but the synthesis flags the opposite directions of the two texts: Exodus says a forfeit life can here be ransomed by money, Psalm 49 says a life cannot be ransomed by any wealth at all. The shared word sets up a deliberate theological tension that points beyond both (see Christ section), so the thread is presented with that caveat rather than as a simple equation.
Exodus 21:30 · Psalm 49:8
basis: Verifier (Ex 21:30 ↔ Ps 49:8): shared rare H6306 pidyôwm (3 vv); confirmed verbal, but the two texts use it in contrasting senses (a life ransomed vs. a life that cannot be ransomed) — noted, not over-equated
The fixed compensation for a gored slave is šəlōšîm šəqālîm — thirty shekels of silver (vv. with H7970, H8255, H3701). The Verifier returns Zechariah 11:12 as sharing šəlōšîm (thirty), keçeph (silver), and the conditional ʼim — the wage weighed out to the rejected shepherd, “thirty pieces of silver.” Cambridge draws the line explicitly: “The same sum was offered as his wages to the prophet who… represented the rejected ruler of his people.” Tiered structural / thematic: the shared words (“thirty,” “silver”) are common, and what binds the texts is the recognized motif — thirty shekels as the value of a slave — not a rare-phrase quotation. The trajectory to the betrayal-price (Matthew 26:15) is developed under Christ.
Exodus 21:32 · Zechariah 11:12
basis: Verifier (Ex 21:32 ↔ Zech 11:12): shared H7970 šəlôwšîm (163 vv), H3701 keçeph (343 vv), H518 ʼim — common words carrying a shared motif (the thirty-shekel slave-price), not a rare quotation
God's promise in v. 13 to “appoint… a place where he may flee” (yānûs, H5127 nûwç) is the seed of the cities-of-refuge legislation. The Verifier confirms the tie to Numbers 35:11 through nûwç (flee, 141 vv) and šâm (there, H8033), where the cities are designated “that the manslayer who kills any person unawares may flee there.” Barnes, Gill, and Benson all read v. 13 as anticipating Numbers 35 / Deuteronomy 19 / Joshua 20. Tiered structural / thematic: the connection is a developed legal institution sharing ordinary narrative vocabulary (“flee,” “there”), confirmed by the voices but not carried by a rare lexeme.
Exodus 21:13 · Numbers 35:11
basis: Verifier (Ex 21:13 ↔ Num 35:11): shared H5127 nûwç (141 vv), H8033 šâm (732 vv) — common words; the link is the developed refuge-institution affirmed by the voices, hence structural/thematic
Albert Barnes records the New Testament's own use of this verse: “Our Lord quotes Exodus 21:24 as representing the form of the law, in order to illustrate the distinction between the letter and the spirit (Matthew 5:38).” JFB agrees the later Jews “mistook it for a moral precept, and were corrected by our Lord.” This is a real, explicit Gospel citation — but the Verifier returns no shared original-language lexeme, and rightly: Greek (Matthew) and Hebrew (Exodus) cannot share a Strong's number, so a “verbal” tier is impossible by the rules. The connection is genuine and important, yet because the basis is a Greek-to-Hebrew citation that the Verifier cannot lexically confirm, it is tiered flagged — verify source: the citation is attested in the voices and the Gospel text, not in a shared lexeme.
Exodus 21:24 · Matthew 5:38
basis: Verifier (Ex 21:24 ↔ Matt 5:38): no shared original-language lexeme (cross-Testament Greek↔Hebrew); the link is an explicit NT citation attested by Barnes and JFB, argued not lexically asserted
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
Verse 32 fixes the value of a gored slave at thirty shekels of silver. John Gill, on this verse, makes the connection the whole tradition has heard: “This was the price our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was sold at.” Cambridge traces the bridge: the sum reappears in Zechariah 11:12 as the contemptuous wage weighed out to the rejected shepherd, and that prophecy is taken up when Judas bargains for “thirty pieces of silver” (Matthew 26:15), money later flung into the temple and spent on a potter's field (Matthew 27:3–10). The synthesis reads forward: the law that priced a slave's life at thirty shekels measures the depth of the Incarnation — the Lord of glory valued at the going rate for a chattel, the freeman of Leviticus 27:3 (fifty shekels) accepting the slave's price (cf. Philippians 2:7, “taking the form of a servant”). Attestation: widely-held — Gill states it on the verse, and the thirty-shekels typology is mainstream; but Hebrew šeqel and Greek ἀrgúria cannot share a Strong's number, so this is a thematic/typological bridge, not a verbal one.
Exodus 21:32 · Zechariah 11:12 · Matthew 26:15
Verse 30 is the chapter's startling exception: every other capital sentence here is unransomable (cf. Numbers 35:31, “you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer”), but the man whose negligence killed may give a kōp̄er — a covering, an expiation-price — as the pidyôn nap̄šôw, the redemption of his life. Keil & Delitzsch: “he was allowed to redeem his forfeited life by the payment of expiation money.” The same rare word pidyôwn stands in Psalm 49:8 to declare the limit of all such money: “the redemption of their soul is costly” — no man can pay it for his brother. The synthesis reads these two together as the law's own confession: a life truly forfeit cannot, in the end, be covered by silver. The New Testament answers with the only sufficient kōp̄er — the Son of Man who came “to give His life a ransom (λύτρον) for many” (Matthew 20:28), “redeemed not with corruptible things, as silver and gold… but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18–19). Attestation: widely-held in impulse (kōp̄er/ransom read toward atonement across the tradition); the link is figural and cross-Testament, not a shared Strong's number, so tiered typological.
Exodus 21:30 · Psalm 49:8 · Exodus 21:14
The talion-list ends with chabbûrâh — “stripe for stripe” (v. 25, H2250), a rare word for a welt or bruise. The same noun is the great word of Isaiah 53:5: “by His stripes (chabbûrâh) we are healed.” The synthesis reads this as the law's deepest reversal in Christ. Exodus 21 demands stripe for stripe — the wound repaid in kind, justice measured exactly; Isaiah announces a Servant who bears the chabbûrâh that was not His, repaying nothing in kind but absorbing the blow, so that the wounded are healed (the very verb râphâʼ the assailant of v. 19 must pay for). The law's strict taḥaṯ (“under/in place of”) finds its fulfillment when One stands in the place of the guilty — not eye under eye, but the innocent under the condemned. Attestation: novel in this precise framing (the synthesis draws the chabbûrâh / Isaiah 53:5 line itself); the substitutionary reading of Isaiah 53 is ancient and mainstream, but pairing it with the talion-word of Ex 21:25 is the synthesis layer's own fallible offering, marked as such.
Exodus 21:25 · Exodus 21:19 · Exodus 21:23
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
Honesty notes specific to this unit. (1) The pregnant-woman law (v. 22) is genuinely contested, and the synthesis takes no side the grammar settles for it. The Hebrew says, literally, “her children come out” (wᵉ-yāṣʼû yᵉlāḏehā) and “there is no ʼāsôwn (harm).” The LXX read it of a fetus “formed” vs. “unformed”; Keil & Delitzsch reject that as “arbitrary,” insisting yeled “only denotes a child, as a fully developed human being”; Onkelos and the Rabbins narrow ʼāsôwn to the mother's death alone, which Keil also disputes since vv. 23–25 demand “eye for eye,” not death only; and Cambridge even floats Budde's emendation binp̄ālîm (“for the untimely birth”) for the rare “arbiters” word. We report the dispute; the parses (a generic plural yeled, a rare ʼāsôwn) are given as sourced, and the modern application is left to the human ✦ layer. (2) Whether the slave-laws (vv. 20–21, 26–27, 32) cover Hebrew or only foreign slaves is disputed within the sources. Barnes and the “Jewish authorities” he follows, with the Targums and Jarchi, restrict them to foreign (Canaanite) slaves; Keil flatly disagrees — “There is no ground whatever for restricting this regulation… to slaves who were not of Hebrew extraction.” The synthesis reports both and asserts only what the bare text says (“his servant… his maid”). (3) The penalty of v. 20 (nâqam) is left undefined on purpose. The Rabbis read it as death by the sword; Cambridge and Keil both argue against this precisely because the text does not use the capital formula môwṯ yûmāṯ here, marking “a marked difference… between a slave and a free man.” We do not resolve what the law leaves to “the authorities” (Keil). (4) The Ex 21:24 ↔ Matthew 5:38 thread is flagged on purpose. It is a real, explicit Gospel citation (attested by Barnes and JFB), but it is Greek-quoting-Hebrew, so the Verifier returns no shared lexeme and a “verbal” tier is ruled out; it is tiered flagged — verify source, argued from the texts rather than asserted from a Strong's number. (5) All Christ-links here are cross-Testament or synthesis-drawn and therefore never “verbal.” The thirty-shekels typology is widely-held (Gill states it on the verse); the kōp̄er/ransom reading is widely-held in impulse; the chabbûrâh / Isaiah 53:5 pairing is the synthesis layer's own novel framing and is marked novel. None rests on a shared Strong's number, because Hebrew and Greek cannot share one. (6) The ʼâsôwn and pidyôwn threads are verbal because the lexemes are genuinely rare (five and three verses respectively); the talion and refuge threads are downgraded to structural/thematic because their shared words are common, even where the voices affirm the connection.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)