In Exodus 21:28, “If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull must be stoned to death and its meat must not be eaten.” Which sounds like fair justice at work – death for death, punishment in kind – but how come “the owner of the bull will not be held responsible”? Shouldn’t he be punished too, since it was his bull?
But fair justice in Yahweh’s mind was only punishing the one causing the damage, which in this case was the bull, not the owner. On the other hand, verse 29, “If the bull was known for goring people and the owner had been warned about it but he hadn’t kept the animal penned,” then “both bull and owner must be put to death.”
Yahweh was introducing yet another critical aspect of justice, this time “placing the blame where it belongs,” because when damage is done and people are hurt and even killed, the cry for justice requires getting at the person (or animal) to blame and “if there is serious injury,” verse 23, “you are to take life for life.” That would mean death for the bull in the first case. since it was purely the bull to blame, but death for the owner too if it was his own dismissive attitude to safety that led to a person being killed.
And once that blame had been placed where it belonged, there was no appeal or leniency allowed, and no explanations or excuses accepted for why it happened either. Maybe the bull had sat on a thistle a few minutes before the goring, or he’d woken up in an ugly mood after eating something a bit off the night before. And maybe the owner of the bull had been distracted from keeping his dangerous bull penned, or the neighbour who’d warned him about his bull was a pig-headed hypocrite. But none of that was relevant. The only relevance to the case was placing the blame for the death where it belonged, and putting the person (or animal) to blame to death.
If, then, a mother murdered her children, should leniency and “understanding” be given because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis? No, because in a violent killing based on Yahweh’s definition of justice, the focus is purely on the killing, who did it, and the person who did it receiving the death penalty, “life for life.”
Were there ever circumstances that allowed a different penalty instead? Yes (verse 30). But again, no excuses, “The penalty must be paid”….(next blog)
