So if “a man hits his male or female slave so badly that the slave dies, should he be punished?” Well, yes, and rightly so according to Exodus 21:20. On the other hand, verse 21, “If the slave gets up after a day or two, his owner is not to be punished, since the slave is his property.”
It seems odd that Yahweh would be talking about “slavery” at all, having just freed the Israelites from slavery. But for years and years slavery was all they’d known, so Yahweh is getting a point across in terms they understood. And his point was very different to what they’d known, because in Egypt there’d be no punishment for beating a slave to death. Slaves were expendable, and if they didn’t fulfill their duties adequately, the slave owner had the right to inflict whatever punishment he liked, including death.
But in the “holy nation” Yahweh was developing with the Israelites, the right to punish as one liked was out of the question. And also in huge contrast to what the Israelites had known in Egypt, a slave owner who killed a slave would himself be punished with death (20).
On the other hand, Yahweh did give a slave owner the right to punish, “since the slave is his property” (21). In the custom of the time, a slave was bought, and being bought he was now the property of the one who’d bought him. In which case the slave owner had the right to expect the person he’d bought to do what he’d been bought for. Just as, in our terms, an employer has the right to expect the employees he pays to pull their weight. And if they don’t he has the right to fire them.
But Yahweh is also cautioning slave owners, picturing anyone with authority over others, against being so severe in their treatment of those under them that livelihoods and even lives are destroyed. Authority can be taken too far, creating resentment in others so strong it could turn into violence, risking not only the business and livelihood of the one in authority but possibly his life as well. Overreach, in other words, is self-destructive, and deserves to be so according to verse 20.
On the other hand, those in charge have the right to expect loyalty and respect so they can get the job done. And the right to punish resistance too, like any parent punishing a child for a rotten attitude affecting the whole family, but not punish so severely that it wrecks the relationship. But when such damage does unfortunately occur, Yahweh provided “The rule of compensation” to help out….(next blog)
