Laws relating to Justice.
Iudicial precepts concerning bondmen and bondvvemen. 12. Manslaughter and striking: killing and cursing of parents. 23. The lavv of like paine for a hurt, 28. of an oxe striking vvith his horne.
1These are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.Queste sono le leggi giudiciali, che tu ad essi proporrai.THESE are the iudgements which thou shalt propose to them.Hæc sunt judicia quæ propones eis. 2If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve thee; in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.Se comprerai uno schiavo ebreo, egli servirà a te per sei anni: il settimo se n'andrà libero gratuitamente.If thou bye an Hebrew seruant, six yeares shal be serue thee: in the seuenth he shal goe out free gratis.Si emeris servum hebræum, sex annis serviet tibi: in septimo egredietur liber gratis. 3With what raiment he came in, with the like let him go out: if having a wife, his wife also shall go out with him.Quale era la veste, con cui è venuto, con tal veste se n'andrà: se avea moglie, la moglie ancora se n'andrà insieme.With what rayment he entred in, with the like let him go out: if hauing a wise, his wife also shal goe out with him.Cum quali veste intraverit, cum tali exeat: si habens uxorem, et uxor egredietur simul. 4But if his master gave him a wife, and she hath borne sons and daughters; the woman and her children shall be her master’s: but he himself shall go out with his raiment.Che se il padrone gli avrà dato moglie, e questa avrà partorito figliuoli, e figliuole, la donna, e i figliuoli di lei saranno del padrone; ma quegli se n'andrà colla sua veste.But if his lord geue him a wife, and she beare sonnes & daughters: the woman and her children shal be her lordes: but himselfe shal goe out with his rayment.Sin autem dominus dederit illi uxorem, et pepererit filios et filias: mulier et liberi ejus erunt domini sui, ipse vero exibit cum vestitu suo. 5And if the servant shall say: I love my master and my wife and children, I will not go out free:Che se lo schiavo dirà: Io voglio bene al mio padrone, e alla moglie, e a' figliuoli, io non voglio partire colla libertà;And if the seruant say: I loue my lord and wife & children, I wil not goe out free:Quod si dixerit servus: Diligo dominum meum et uxorem ac liberos; non egrediar liber: 6His master shall bring him to the gods, and he shall be set to the door and the posts, and he shall bore his ear through with an awl: and he shall be his servant for ever.Il padrone lo presenterà agli dii, e accostatolo alla porta, forerà a lui l'orecchio con una lesina: e questi rimarrà suo schiavo per sempre.his lord shal present him to the goddes, and he shal be sette to the dore and the postes, and he shal bore his eare through with an awle: and he shal be his bondman for euer.offeret eum dominus diis, et applicabitur ad ostium et postes, perforabitque aurem ejus subula: et erit ei servus in sæculum.
7If any man sell his daughter to be a servant, she shall not go out as bondwomen are wont to go out.Se uno vende la propria figliuola al servigio altrui, ella non tornerà in libertà nel modo che vi tornan le schiave.If any man sel his daughter to be a seruant, she shal not goe out, as bondweman are wont to goe out.Si quis vendiderit filiam suam in famulam, non egredietur sicut ancillæ exire consueverunt. 8If she displease the eyes of her master to whom she was delivered, he shall let her go: but he shall have no power to sell her to a foreign nation, if he despise her.Se diviene sgradita agli occhi del suo padrone, a cui fu data, ei la licenzierà: e non avrà diritto di venderla ad altra gente, s'ei la disprezzò.If she mislike the eyes of her maister to whom she was deliuered, he shal dismisse her: but he shal not haue authoritie to sel her vnto a strange people, if he despise her.Si displicuerit oculis domini sui cui tradita fuerat, dimittet eam: populo autem alieno vendendi non habebit potestatem, si spreverit eam. 9But if he have betrothed her to his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.Che se l'avrà data in isposa al suo figliuolo, la tratterà come un'altra fanciulla.But if he despouse her to his sonne, he shal doe to her after the maner of daughters.Sin autem filio suo desponderit eam, juxta morem filiarum faciet illi. 10And if he take another wife for him, he shall provide her a marriage, and raiment, neither shall he refuse the price of her chastity.Ma se egli dà a lui un'altra sposa, provvederà di partito la fanciulla, e di vestimenta, e non negherà il prezzo della verginità.And if he take an other wife for him, he shal prouide her a mariage, and rayment, and thē price of her chastitie he shal not denie.Quod si alteram ei acceperit, providebit puellæ nuptias, et vestimenta, et pretium pudicitiæ non negabit. 11If he do not these three things, she shall go out free without money.Che se egli non farà queste tre cose, ella se n'anderà gratis, senza pagamento di prezzo.If he doe not these three thinges, she shal goe out gratis without monie.Si tria ista non fecerit, egredietur gratis absque pecunia. 12He that striketh a man with a will to kill him, shall be put to death.Chi percuoterà un uomo, uccidendolo volontariamente, morrà senza remissione.He that striketh a man wilfully to kil him, dying let him die.Qui percusserit hominem volens occidere, morte moriatur. 13But he that did not lie in wait for him, but God delivered him into his hands: I will appoint thee a place to which he must flee.Che se non l'ha fatto appostatamente, ma Dio ha fatto, che quegli cadesse nelle sue mani, io ti determinerò il luogo, in cui debba fuggire.But he that did not lye in waite for him, but God deliuered him into his handes: I wil appoint thee a place whereunto he ought to flee.Qui autem non est insidiatus, sed Deus illum tradidit in manus ejus, constituam tibi locum in quem fugere debeat.
14If a man kill his neighbour on set purpose, and by lying in wait for him: thou shalt take him away from my altar that he may die.Se uno appostatamente, e insidiosamente avrà ucciso il suo prossimo, lo strapperai dal mio altare per farlo morire.If a man of sette purpose kil his neighbour, and by lying in waite for him: thou shalt plucke him out from mine Altare, that he may die.Si quis per industriam occiderit proximum suum, et per insidias: ab altari meo evelles eum, ut moriatur. 15He that striketh his father or mother, shall be put to death.Chi batterà il padre, o la madre, sarà messo a morte.He that striketh his father or mother, dying let him die.Qui percusserit patrem suum aut matrem, morte moriatur. 16He that shall steal a man, and sell him, being convicted of the guilt, shall be put to death.Chi avrà rubato un uomo, e l'avrà venduto, convinto del delitto sia messo a morte.He that shal steale a man, and sel him, being conuicted of the trespasse, dying let him die.Qui furatus fuerit hominem, et vendiderit eum, convictus noxæ, morte moriatur. 17He that curseth his father or mother, shall die the death.Chi maledirà il padre, o la madre sua, sia messo a morte.He that curseth his father, or mother, dying let him die.Qui maledixerit patri suo, vel matri, morte moriatur. 18If men quarrel, and the one strike his neighbour with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:Se due uomini vengono a rissa, e uno percuote il suo prossimo con un sasso, o col pugno, e questi non muoia, ma sia stato giacente in letto:If men fal at wordes, and the one strike his neighbour with a stone or with his fist, and he die not, but lye in his bedde:Si rixati fuerint viri, et percusserit alter proximum suum lapide vel pugno, et ille mortuus non fuerit, sed jacuerit in lectulo: 19If he rise again and walk abroad upon his staff, he that struck him shall be quit, yet so that he make restitution for his work, and for his expenses upon the physicians.Se (poi) si leverà, e anderà fuori appoggiato al suo bastone, il percussore sarà esente dalla pena; con questo però, che rifaccia i danni, e quello che fu speso pe' medici.if he rise, and walke abrode vpon his stafe, he that did strike shal be quitte, yet so that he make restitution for his worke, and for his expenses vpon the phisicians.si surrexerit, et ambulaverit foris super baculum suum, innocens erit qui percusserit, ita tamen ut operas ejus et impensas in medicos restituat. 20He that striketh his bondman, or bondwoman, with a rod, and they die under his hands, shall be guilty of the crime.Chi batterà Io schiavo o la schiava col bastone talmente, che muoiano tra le sue mani, sarà reo di delitto.He that striketh his man or mayde seruant with a rodde, and they die in his handes, he shal be guiltie of the crime.Qui percusserit servum suum, vel ancillam virga, et mortui fuerint in manibus ejus, criminis reus erit.
21But if the party remain alive a day or two, he shall not be subject to the punishment, because it is his money.Ma se sopravvivono un giorno, o due, egli non sarà soggetto a pena, perché è roba sua.But if the partie remayne aliue a day or two, he shal not be subiect to punishment, because it is his money.Sin autem uno die vel duobus supervixerit, non subjacebit pœnæ, quia pecunia illius est. 22If men quarrel, and one strike a woman with child and she miscarry indeed, but live herself: he shall be answerable for so much damage as the woman’s husband shall require, and as arbiters shall award.Se alcuni vengono a rissa, e uno percuote una donna gravida, che abortisce, ma resta in vita, quegli rifarà il danno, secondo la richiesta del marito, e il giudizio degli arbitri.If certaine fal at wordes, and one strike a woman with child, and she in deede aborte, but her selfe liue: he shal be subiect to so much damage as the womans husband shal require, and as arbiters shal award.Si rixati fuerint viri, et percusserit quis mulierem prægnantem, et abortivum quidem fecerit, sed ipsa vixerit: subjacebit damno quantum maritus mulieris expetierit, et arbitri judicaverint. 23But if her death ensue thereupon, he shall render life for life,Ma se quella ancora viene a morire, renderà vita per vita,But if her death doe ensue thereupon, he shal render life for life,Sin autem mors ejus fuerit subsecuta, reddet animam pro anima, 24Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,Occhio per occhio, dente per dente, mano per mano, piede per piede,eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foote for foote,oculum pro oculo, dentem pro dente, manum pro manu, pedem pro pede, 25Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.Scottatura per iscottatura, ferita per ferita, contusione per contusione.adustion for adustion, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.adustionem pro adustione, vulnus pro vulnere, livorem pro livore. 26If any man strike the eye of his manservant or maidservant, and leave them but one eye, he shall let them go free for the eye which he put out.Se uno ferirà il suo schiavo, o la sua schiava in un occhio, e li farà loschi, darà loro la libertà per ragione dell'occhio, che ha loro cavato.If any man strike the eye of his manseruant or maidseruant, and leaue them but one eye, he shal make them free for the eye which he put out.Si percusserit quispiam oculum servi sui aut ancillæ, et luscos eos fecerit, dimittet eos liberos pro oculo quem eruit. 27Also if he strike out a tooth of his manservant or maidservant, he shall in like manner make them free.E se ancor romperà un dente allo schiavo, o alla schiava, darà loro parimente la libertà.Also if he strike out a tooth of his manseruant or maydseruant he shal in like maner make them free.Dentem quoque si excusserit servo vel ancillæ suæ, similiter dimittet eos liberos.
28If an ox gore a man or a woman, and they die, he shall be stoned: and his flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall be quit.Se un bue ferisce col corno un uomo, o una donna, e ne restino uccisi, sarà lapidato, e non si mangeranno le sue carni: il padrone però del bue sarà senza pena.If an oxe with his horne strike a man or a woman, and they die, he shal be stoned: and his flesh shal not be eaten, the owner also of the oxe shal be quitte.Si bos cornu percusserit virum aut mulierem, et mortui fuerint, lapidibus obruetur: et non comedentur carnes ejus, dominus quoque bovis innocens erit. 29But if the ox was wont to push with his horn yesterday, and the day before, and they warned his master, and he did not shut him up, and he shall kill a man or a woman: then the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.Ma se il bue cozzava già da qualche tempo, e ne fu ammonito il padrone, e questi nol tenne rinchiuso, se avvien, che ammazzi un uomo, o una donna, sarà lapidato il bue, e messo a morte il padrone.But if the oxe were wont to strike from yesterday and the day before, and they warned his maister, neither did he shutte him vp, and he kil a man or a woman: both the oxe shal be stoned, and they shal put to death his owner also.Quod si bos cornupeta fuerit ab heri et nudiustertius, et contestati sunt dominum ejus, nec recluserit eum, occideritque virum aut mulierem: et bos lapidibus obruetur, et dominum ejus occident. 30And if they set a price upon him, he shall give for his life whatsoever is laid upon him.Ove poi siagli imposta pena pecuniaria, darà per riscattar la sua vita quanto gli sarà domandato.And if they sette a price vpon him, he shal geue for his life whatsoeuer he is asked.Quod si pretium fuerit ei impositum, dabit pro anima sua quidquid fuerit postulatus. 31If he have gored a son, or a daughter, he shall fall under the like sentence.Che se il bue avrà percosso un figliuolo, o una figlia, il padrone soggiacerà tuttora alla stessa sentenza.Also if with his horne he strike a sonne, or a daughter, he shal be subiect to the like sentence.Filium quoque et filiam si cornu percusserit, simili sententiæ subjacebit. 32If he assault a bondman or bondwoman, he shall give thirty sicles of silver to their master, and the ox shall be stoned.Se avrà percosso uno schiavo, o una schiava, saran dati trenta sicli d'argento al loro padrone; e il bue sarà lapidato.If he inuade abondman or bondwoman, he shal geue thirtie sicles of siluer to their maister, but the oxe shal be stoned.Si servum ancillamque invaserit, triginta siclos argenti domino dabit, bos vero lapidibus opprimetur.
33If a man open a pit, and dig one, and cover it not, and an ox or an ass fall into it,Se uno apre la cisterna, o la scava, e non la chiude, e vi cada dentro un bue, o un asino,If a man open a cesterne, and digge one, and doe not couer it, an oxe or an asse fal into it,Si quis aperuerit cisternam, et foderit, et non operuerit eam, cecideritque bos aut asinus in eam, 34The owner of the pit shall pay the price of the beasts: and that which is dead shall be his own.Il padrone della cisterna pagherà il prezzo degli animali: ma quello che sarà morto, sarà suo.the owner of the cesterne shal pay the price of the beastes: and that which died, shal be his owne.reddet dominus cisternæ pretium jumentorum: quod autem mortuum est, ipsius erit. 35If one man’s ox gore another man’s ox, and he die: they shall sell the live ox, and shall divide the price, and the carcass of that which died they shall part between them:Se un bue percuote il bue d'un altro, e questo venga a morire, si venderà il bue vivo, e si dividerà il prezzo: e il bue morto sarà tra essi diviso.If one mans oxe gore an other mans oxe, and he die: they shal sel the oxe that liueth, and shal diuide the price, and the carcasse of that which died they shal parte betwen them.Si bos alienus bovem alterius vulneraverit, et ille mortuus fuerit: vendent bovem vivum, et divident pretium, cadaver autem mortui inter se dispertient. 36But if he knew that his ox was wont to push yesterday, and the day before, and his master did not keep him in; he shall pay ox for ox, and shall take the whole carcass.Ma se quegli sapeva, che il bue cozzava già da qualche tempo, e il padrone non lo ha tenuto rinchiuso, renderà bue per bue, e avrà intero il bue morto.But if he knew that his oxe was wont to strike from yesterday and the day before, and his maister did not keepe him in: he shal render oxe for oxe, and shal take the carcasse whole.Sin autem sciebat quod bos cornupeta esset ab heri et nudiustertius, et non custodivit eum dominus suus: reddet bovem pro bove, et cadaver integrum accipiet.
21:1
Menochius
Judgments, or laws directing the civil conduct of the Israelites. (Menochius)
21:2
Servant, or slave. A man might sell himself and his children. But if they were females, under age, God prescribes how they are to be treated, ver. 7.
Bonfrere
Six years: in case he were bought immediately after the expiration of the Sabbatic law: none could be detained for a longer period. If a person lost his liberty in the fourth year after the general release, he would recover it in the space of two or three years at latest. (Haydock) (Bonfrere)
21:3
Calmet
Raiment. Hebrew Gaph may signify also the body. "If he come (with his body) alone, let him so depart," Septuagint. (Calmet)
21:6
Challoner
To the gods: Elohim. That is, to the judges, or magistrates, authorized by God. (Challoner)
In a matter of such consequence, great deliberation was requisite.
Posts, of his own house. This ceremony tended to punish the slave for neglecting his liberty, and shewed, that he should not pass the threshold any more without his master's leave.
21:7
Calmet
Go out, to work in the fields, according to Grotius; or rather, to enjoy her liberty. A father who sold his daughter, always expected that she should be the wife of the purchaser, or of his son. If this did not take place, she was free after six years, or before, if her master died. Constantine sanctioned the power of the Romans to sell their children. The Phrygians and Thebans had the like custom. (Calmet)
21:9
Haydock
Daughters. When she is old enough to be married, he shall give her a dowry like his own daughter, or like a free woman. (Haydock)
21:10
Marriage. This seems to insinuate that she was divorced: but the best commentators suppose, that the introduction of the second wife was not to infringe the rights of the first. Hebrew, "he shall not diminish her food, raiment, and dwelling," but treat her as his wife. The Athenians required husbands to visit their wives thrice a month.
Price, etc. A sufficient dowry, or the rights of marriage; "her company," (omilian.) Septuagint.
21:12
With a will. The Hebrew and Septuagint do not express this, but the context shews it to be necessary.
Calmet
Death, by the sword, as people soliciting idolatry to others were also. Eighteen crimes were punished with lapidation, ten with fire, or melting lead poured down their throats, and six with strangling. The royal tribunals always commanded the criminal's head to be struck off. (Calmet)
Calmet
When the punishment is not defined, stoning must be understood; (Rabbins and Selden, Syned 2:13.) at least when it is said, his blood be upon him. But when it is only determined that he shall die, Grotius understands he must be strangled, with towels put round the malefactor's neck, while he stands up to the knees in a dunghill; (Drusius) as he does also when he is to be killed with melted lead. Murder was punished by the ancient Greeks with exile. (Plato, etc.) "At that time it was deemed unlawful to inflict a capital punishment upon any, who, however criminal, were still men." (Lartant 2.) But as these crimes became more frequent, God enacts this law of retaliation, blood for blood, Genesis 9:6. Ten paces from the place of execution, the criminal Hebrew had to confess his sin. (Maimonides) (Calmet)
21:13
God. When a person was slain undesignedly, the Providence of God was to be adored in silence, as nothing happens without his permission. (Haydock) See Numbers 25:6.
21:14
21:15
Striketh, even though death should not ensue. But some require a grevious wound, and that the son should be twice admonished, Deuteronomy 21:18. Parricide seemed a crime so shocking and unnatural, that neither Moses nor Solon made any express law against it.
21:17
Curseth, or speaking injuriously. The Athenians put such in prison.
21:19
Calmet
Staff, as people in health do, or even as a convalescent. In the mean time the other person was confined, and subjected to the law of retaliation, if the sick man lost either limb or life, ver. 24. (Calmet)
21:21
Haydock
Money, which purchased the slave. Hence, as he will be punished in some degree, and it is not absolutely certain that the slave died of his wounds, his master shall not be put to death. "They are slaves, (says Seneca, ep. 47,) but they are our fellow-slaves." We have one common origin, and one master over us all, Job 31:13. (Haydock)
Christen
Many nations tolerated the murder of slaves by their masters. But this was contrary to reason and humanity, (Calmet) and condemned by many of the Roman laws. (Christen.)
21:22
Calmet
But live herself. So Josephus also reads, Antiquities 4:8. But Philo and the Septuagint have, "of a child unformed;" and ver. 23, "But if the child be formed, (exeikonismenon, animated and organized) he shall give soul for soul;" as if all were referred to the child, which the Vulgate explains of the mother. To destroy the life of either was punished with death. "She who first taught the art of expelling the tender foetus, deserved to perish by her own malice." (Ovid) (Calmet)
Haydock
The precise time when the soul begins to animate the body is so very uncertain, that, after conception, the person who should cause a miscarriage wilfully, would expose himself to incur the guilt of murder. Josephus, contra Apion ii., shews how the Jews abhorred such wickedness. The Romans punished it with death. (Haydock)
Haydock
Homicidii festinatio est prohibere nasci. (Tertullian, apol.) Onkelos says, that "if the mother should not die of the stroke, the offender was to satisfy the husband by paying a fine, to be awarded by the husband, or by the judges: but in case the mother died, he should render life for life:" (Calmet) in which decision he agrees with the Vulgate. (Haydock)
Calmet
The Hebrew is ambiguous, "If death ensue not." (Calmet)
21:24
Muis
Eye. "This law tended to restrain, not to encourage, fury and revenge." (St. Augustine, contra Faust. 19:25.) Some explain it, as if a sum of money could only be required, equivalent to the ransom of an eye, in case a person should be under a necessity of losing or of redeeming it. (Muis; Jonathan)
Calmet
Retaliation was not left to the injured party's discretion. The judge was to decide. Christ enjoins what is more perfect, ordering us to turn the left cheek, when we have received a blow on the right. The canon law inflicts the punishment of retaliation upon the calumniator. (Calmet)
21:28
Haydock
Stoned, that he may do no more harm, and that the owner may be punished at least by this loss. (Haydock)
21:32
Haydock
Bond-man, etc., of any of those uncircumcised nations, (Jonathan) whom it was lawful to put to death; and hence their life was esteemed of less value. (Haydock)
Calmet
Sicles. Septuagint, "didrachmas." This was the price of a slave, for which our Saviour was sold: that of a free-man was double. (Calmet)
21:6
To the gods.... Elohim. That is, to the judges, or magistrates, authorized by God.
21:1
Iudicial lawes do instruct in particular, ••w to kepe the commandments of the second table, pertaining to our neighboures.
21:2
Paying nothing.
21:6
The Iudges authorized by God.
21:2
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 5.43
But what need is there to point out how agreeable to sound reason, and unattended with injury either to master or slave, was the law that one of the same faith should not be allowed to continue in slavery more than six years?
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 2.10
… And Judas, though he was a good tree and wrought miracles like the other Apostles, afterwards turned traitor and brought forth evil fruit? The truth is that a good tree does not bear evil fruit, nor an evil tree good fruit, so long as they continue in their goodness, or badness. And if we read that every Hebrew keeps the same Passover, and that in
21:6
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.17.1
… “God does not desire whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices, but He will have His voice to be hearkened to. Behold, a ready obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” David also says: “Sacrifice and oblation Thou didst not desire, but mine ears hast Thou perfected;
21:10
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 69.5
… The apostle came of the Jews and the primitive Christian church was gathered out of the remnants of Israel. Paul knew that the Law allowed men to have children by several wives,
21:12
St Jerome † AD 420 Against the Pelagians 1.28
Exod. xxi. 12, 13 . The guilt of one who slays another unawares.
21:13
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.16.1
… “Also I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord, that sanctify them.” And in Exodus, God says to Moses: “And ye shall observe My Sabbaths; for it shall be a sign between Me and you for your generations.”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Defence of His Flight. (Apologia de Fuga.) 11
… As the Scripture then relates these things of the Saints, what excuse will they be able to invent for their wickedness? To reproach them with cowardice would be an act of madness, and to accuse them of acting contrary to the will of God, would be to shew themselves entirely ignorant of the Scriptures. For there was a command under the law
21:15
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 11.9
… and he that speaketh evil of father or mother let him die the death.”
21:17
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 De Decretis. (Defence of the Nicene Definition.) 7
… though here, in this sense too, their irreligion will be quite as great. For if by unoriginated they mean what has no origin of being, nor is originated or created, but eternal, and say that the Word of God is contrary to this, who comprehends not the craft of these foes of God? who but would stone
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Synodal Letter to the Bishops of Africa. (Ad Afros Epistola Synodica.) 1
… What then do such men deserve, but to be called Arians, and to share the punishment of the Arians? For they were not afraid of God, who says, ‘Remove not the eternal boundaries which thy fathers placed ,’ and ‘He that speaketh against father or mother, let him die the death
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 7.15
… But when they put no obstacle to godliness in our way, if we are ever carried away by ingratitude, and, forgetting their benefits to us, hold them in contempt, then the oracle will have place which says, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 51
… For, “honor,” saith He, “thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest live long upon the earth.” And again, “He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.”
21:18
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 2.15
… allowable, without rash assertion, to venture upon a modest and hesitating conjecture from this passage, if it is possible to understand it of one person of the Trinity, why do we not rather understand the Holy Spirit to be spoken of, since the Law itself also, which was given there, is said to have been written upon tables of stone with the finger of God,
21:19
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 188
XI. The man who is guilty of unintentional homicide has given sufficient satisfaction in eleven years. We shall, without doubt, observe what is laid down by Moses in the case of wounded men, and shall not hold a murder to have been committed in the case of a man who lies down after he has been struck, and walks again leaning on his staff.
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 25
… This cannot be so, assuredly it cannot! Nor would He choose to waste so much pains. “For to this end (he says) he also died,” as if any one were to say, Such an one will not have the heart to despise his servant. For he minded his own purse. (Cf.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philemon 2
This is the part of well-disposed servants, not only in His mercies, but in His corrections, and in punishments wholly to submit to Him. For how is it not absurd, if we bear with masters beating their servants, knowing that they will spare them, because they are their own;
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Tertullian † AD 220 An Answer to the Jews 3
… For the wont of the old law was to avenge itself by the vengeance of the glaive, and to pluck out “eye for eye,” and to inflict retaliatory revenge for injury.
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 2.18
But what parts of the law can I defend as good with a greater confidence than those which heresy has shown such a longing for?—as the statute of retaliation, requiring eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and stripe for stripe.
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 4.16
… Well, but Christ plainly teaches a new kind of patience, when He actually prohibits the reprisals which the Creator permitted in requiring “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,”
Tertullian † AD 220 On Exhortation to Chastity 6
… Laxity is always allowed to the beginning (of things). The reason why any one plants a wood and lets it grow, is that at his own time he may cut it. The wood was the old order, which is being pruned down by the new Gospel, in which withal “the axe has been laid at the roots.” So, too, “Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth,”
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 7.25
Celsus then extracts from the Gospel the precept, “To him who strikes thee once, thou shalt offer thyself to be struck again,” although without giving any passage from the Old Testament which he considers opposed to it. On the one hand, we know that “it was said to them in old time, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth;”
Archelaus † fl. AD 278 The Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes 40
… Again, he maintained that there Moses took silver and gold from the Egyptians when the people fled out of Egypt; whereas Jesus delivered the precept that we should lust after nothing belonging to our neighbour. Then he affirmed that Moses had provided in the law, that an eye should be given in penalty for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth;
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 16
In the next place, they criticise the law in the old covenant, which bids put out “an eye for an eye,” and “a tooth for a tooth;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 21.11
… Is there any one of these which may be compressed into a brevity proportioned to the rapid commission of the offence, so that no longer time may be spent in its punishment than in its perpetration, unless, perhaps, reparation? For this requires that the offender suffer what he did, as that clause of the law says, “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 19.25
25. Nor, again, is there any opposition between that which was said by them of old time, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," and what the Lord says, "But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but if any one smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also," and so on.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.20
… , do not alienate your goodwill from him who asks it, both because your money will be useless, and because God will not pay you back, inasmuch as the man has done so; but when you do that from a regard to God’s precept, it cannot be unfruitful with Him who gives these commands.
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 21.4
… and with an oath by the Divine name he exclaimed: “I lift up my hand to the Lord Most High, who made heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread to a shoe’s latchet of all that is thine.” So we know that David went beyond the requirement of the law, as, though Moses commanded that vengeance should be taken on enemies,
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 21.32
… saying: “If a man strike thee on one cheek, offer him the other also; and to him who will contend with thee at the law and take away thy coat, give him thy cloak also.”
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Origen † AD 254 Origen De Principiis 1.8.4
… and in support of these assertions they generally quote some pretended statements of Scripture, such as, that a beast, to which a woman has unnaturally prostituted herself, shall be deemed equally guilty with the woman, and shall be ordered to be stoned; or that a bull which strikes with its horn,
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Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.39
… because in truth He shews not to multitudes the secrets of inmost brightness ( Exod. xxxiv. 33, 35 ). Hence it is enjoined on him by the Divine voice that if any one should dig a cistern, and not cover it, and an ox or ass should fall into it, he should pay the price (
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He calls "judgments" the judicial precepts, which God prescribes in these three chapters, namely XXI, XXII, XXIII, for governing the people justly and peacefully, and for settling disputes among the Hebrews; just as the ceremonial precepts are called those which God prescribed to the people for worshipping Him rightly through sacrifices and other sacred rites and ceremonies: in two things therefore the nature of judicial precepts properly consists, says St. Thomas, I II, Question CIV, article 1, first, that they pertain to the ordering of men toward one another; second, that they do not have binding force from reason alone, but from the institution of God. Note, that among these judicial precepts, certain moral ones also, which are of natural law, are mixed in, especially those which pertain to judges, which are therefore also rightly called "judgments": such is that one in chapter XXIII, verse 1: "Thou shalt not receive the voice of a lie;" and verse 2: "Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do evil;" and verse 7: "Thou shalt flee from a lie;" and verse 9: "Thou shalt not molest a stranger," etc. Finally at the end, namely chapter XXIII, verse 14, he adds certain ceremonial precepts, namely concerning the celebration of three principal feasts, of the Passover, of unleavened bread, of first fruits, etc.
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He calls "servant" not a hired laborer, but a slave: for the former is usually hired, the latter bought and sold, as if to say, If thou buy a Hebrew, so that he be to thee as a slave, he shall serve thee only six years, nor shall he be able to serve beyond that: for in the seventh year (thus I willing it, and saying here) he must be sent away free. IN THE SEVENTH (year) HE SHALL GO OUT FREE FOR NOTHING. — Note, that this seventh year is not to be reckoned from the purchase of the servant, but one and the same year of remission was for all, just as one and the same day was the Sabbath for all Hebrews; therefore a period of seven years of liberty was established, one continually succeeding another (just as one jubilee continually succeeded another), so that in every seventh year recurring thus, all servants of the Hebrews were to be manumitted: wherefore a Hebrew, who was sold into servitude in the first year of this seven-year period, he ought to serve six years; but he who was sold in the sixth year of this seven-year period, he went out free in the following year, as being the seventh; it was similar in the jubilee, as I shall say in Leviticus, chapter XXV. I shall recount the mysteries of the seven-year period in Deuteronomy, chapter V, verse 12. HE SHALL GO OUT FREE, — so that thou mayest know that he is not so much a servant, as free, namely freed by me from Egyptian servitude, and bound to my servitude. See Leviticus, chapter XXV, verse 39.
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The Septuagint, the Chaldean, Vatablus and recent interpreters commonly translate, if with a body, that is, alone and unencumbered, he came, with his body, that is alone, let him go out, and that aptly opposes what follows: "If having a wife, and the wife shall go out with him." But St. Jerome, most skilled in Hebrew, translated more correctly and fully, and saw more acutely not one thing, as the former wish, but two things are here commanded, namely that the servant should not be sent away torn or naked, nor without a wife, so that the wife also becomes free with him, and clothing so honorable be given to him going out as he had when he entered: for this was plainly fitting and proper. Add that in the Hebrew there is not guph, that is body, but gaph, that is wing, that is raiment, which like a wing covers the body; such metaphors are customary among the Hebrews.
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As if to say, The wife shall remain a servant of the master, from whom the wife had been given to the servant: consequently the master will retain also the offspring of her; for the offspring follows the womb, as the axiom of Jurists has it in this matter. Thus Oleaster, Cajetan, Lipomanus. It appears that here the marriage between the servant and the maidservant was dissolved, both because the servant effected a divorce from the wife and children: for the servant went out free, but the maidservant with her offspring remained a servant of the master of her lord; and because it is added: "But if the servant shall say, I love my master, and my wife and children (I do not wish to be separated from them by divorce), I will not go out free, his master shall bring him to the gods" (judges), who shall pierce his ear with an awl, and thus he shall become a servant forever. Hence it is clear that in the old law marriages were very imperfect, when spouses were so easily separated, the husband going out free, loosed and freed from the care of wife and children; the wife remaining a servant of the same master, to whom master therefore both the maidservant and the education and care of her offspring fell; nor is this surprising: for at that time marriage did not have the character of a Sacrament, on account of which especially now in the new law it is plainly indissoluble, by the sanction of Christ, Matthew, chapter XIX, verses 5 and 9.
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Hebrew Elohim, which signifies God as judge and governor of all things, and hence also angels and judges who participate in this judicial and gubernatorial power of God. Thus it is said in Exodus chapter XXII, verse 28: "Thou shalt not speak ill of the gods (judges), and thou shalt not curse the prince of thy people;" and Psalm LXXXI, verse 1, God says to judges: "I have said, You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High." Let judges think on this, and know that they are gods, but let men not fear them, but only the one God, whose place they hold, and whose authority they exercise. IT SHALL BE APPLIED TO THE DOOR AND DOOR-POSTS, — namely of the house of the master; for there, and not at the gate of the city, where judges are accustomed to sit, it is evident from Deuteronomy chapter XV, verse 12 that this ought to be done. By this application of the servant to the door and door-posts of the master's house, it was signified that this servant was bound to the master's house as it were perpetually and fixedly, so that he could never leave that house without the master's permission: thus Theodoret. St. Thomas and Cajetan add that this application and perforation of the ear was appointed for this servant as a punishment and disgrace for his neglect of liberty, and therefore he was bound to perpetual servitude. AND THE MASTER SHALL BORE HIS EAR WITH AN AWL, — so that by this symbol the servant might be admonished of perpetual obedience, by which he ought to receive and execute the commands of the master. Thus Theodoret. Again by this symbol the servant was admonished that he would be bound to hear and obey many harsh, grave and troublesome commands of the master, which would pierce his ears no less than an awl. The same was appointed for a maidservant, Deuteronomy chapter XV, verse 12. AND HE SHALL BE HIS SERVANT FOR EVER. — "For ever" does not signify only eternity, but also a very long space of time, which for the Hebrews was fifty years. "He shall therefore be a servant for ever," that is, he shall be a servant until the year fifty of the jubilee: for in the jubilee all Hebrew servants were set free, as is evident from Leviticus XXV, 40: thus St. Jerome in chapter IV to the Galatians, where he adds that olam, that is, for ever, is here written without vau, to signify the jubilee year: for when it is written with vau, it often signifies eternity. Tropologically, this servant is he who wishes to remain in the active life in this life, so that he may be free in the seventh year, and in the heavenly jubilee; his ear is bored with an awl when his mind is struck by the subtlety of the fear of God from the preacher: concerning which matter see more in St. Gregory, homily 3 on Ezekiel.
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Namely with a promise of betrothal, by which the master, buying a Hebrew daughter as a maidservant, promised to take her as a wife, at least a secondary one. SHE SHALL NOT GO OUT AS MAIDSERVANTS ARE WONT TO GO OUT, — namely, as female servants born of the Gentiles, for example Moabites or Idumeans; for these indeed always remained servants, nor were they freed from servitude in the jubilee, unless they were redeemed by a price, as is evident from Leviticus XXV, 46; or certainly unless an eye or a tooth had been struck out by the master: for then on account of the injury and harm inflicted upon her she went out free; for God sanctions this here in favor of the faith and nation of the Hebrews, so that thus He might provide for the daughters of poor Hebrews concerning marriage and their condition.
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In Hebrew it is, who had betrothed her to himself. The moderns translate it quite the opposite way, who had not betrothed her, because in Hebrew it is lo, with aleph, which is an adverb of negation. But the interchange of the letters he and vau is familiar, and consequently the Masoretes noted many, namely fifteen, places of Scripture in which lo with aleph is said to be for lo with vau, that is, to him or for himself; and from those places they agree that this passage is one, the Chaldean and Septuagint, indeed also Vatable and the more learned Rabbis. The sense therefore is, as if he should say: If the master who bought a Hebrew daughter had betrothed her to himself, but afterwards she displeased him, then the master ought to let her go free; or, as the Hebrew and Septuagint have it, he ought to redeem her, that is, to free her from servitude, if indeed he had used her as a wife; but if not, he shall cause her to be redeemed, that is, he shall sell or hand her over to another Hebrew, yet on the condition that he himself shall take her as a wife: for he could not sell her to a foreign people, that is to the Gentiles, as follows. Thus Abulensis.
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As if to say: If the father, besides the daughter whom he bought for his son, both as a maidservant and as a wife, shall moreover give another wife to his son, then he shall provide that the right of the first daughter, namely the maidservant, shall be secure in marriage; and therefore he shall provide for her first, nuptials, that is, the use of matrimony; for thus authors sometimes distinguish nuptials from matrimony, and take them metonymically for the nuptial act or of matrimony, as if to say: The father shall provide that the son shall not deny to this his wife, a maidservant, the right of conjugal union, but shall render to her the debt of marriage; this is evident from the Hebrew. Second, he shall provide for her fitting garments. Third, he shall provide for her the price of chastity, that is, food and sustenance due to a wife. Whence the Hebrew, Chaldean and Septuagint clearly have: Food, raiment and conjugal rights thou shalt not diminish to her. For God commands that, although a second wife be taken by the master's son, yet to the first her place and her right shall be secure in these three goods of marriage already mentioned; but if he be unwilling to provide these three things, then he shall let her go free, as follows.
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Not so much the master, as the master's son — SHE SHALL GO OUT FREE WITHOUT MONEY. — Take these three things together. Therefore if the son provided food and clothing to the Hebrew maidservant daughter, but denied her the third, the daughter whom he had bought was to be dismissed free; and this without payment; similarly, if he provided the second and third, but denied the first, or having given the first refused the second, in like manner he was bound to dismiss the daughter free.
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The Hebrew texts more fully have: he that striketh a man so that he dieth, shall be punished with death. For here is established the penalty of retaliation and death upon the voluntary homicide. Note: "To strike" throughout the books of Kings and other histories is taken in the completed act, according to Canon 22, for lethal striking, and is the same as to kill. Note secondly, "a man," namely both Gentile and Jew: for it is false what Rabbi Solomon says, that only he who kills a Jew is subject to this law and to death; for also he who killed a servant was subject to death, as is evident from verse 20.
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Verse 12 dealt with voluntary homicide; here it deals with casual homicide, or rather Abulensis thinks it deals with purely casual homicide, namely that which happens without the fault of the killer. But this does not sufficiently accord with what precedes and follows. I say therefore that here is dealt with casual homicide, in which however some fault or negligence, or imprudence, or even vengeance intervenes: to such a one the right of asylum was given. A similar law and grace of asylum in sacred places the Canons among Christians established for the casual homicide, and conversely denied the same to the voluntary homicide, and ordered him to be dragged from the altar, as is commanded here in verse 14, as is evident in the chapter Inter alia, title De immunit. Eccles. Note: For "God delivered him into his hands," in Hebrew it is, God made him meet in the hands of him, as if in him who killed not thinking, God made the wicked man fall into the hand or weapon of him, that he might give him the deserved penalties of his crimes. For the discourse here is of homicide by chance, or committed from unforeseen occasion, where previously the slaughter was not plotted or intended: then indeed Scripture in its manner refers the slaughter which happened to the highest providence of God, which orders all human things to just punishment or reward. Whence it follows that in such cases the just vengeance of God, especially in the old law, was wont to watch over and bring it about that in the guilty and wicked such chance and slaughter would befall. Rightly therefore is this slaughter attributed, not so much to the killer, as to God, because the effect is not usually attributed to the accidental cause, but to the per se cause, that is not to chance or fortune, or to the casual agent, who did not intend this effect, namely the slaughter; but to God, who directs all causes, even fortuitous ones, and who intended this slaughter as a kind of punishment, and inflicted it upon the wicked through this chance. Thus Abulensis.
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Even not lethally, on account of the atrocious impiety toward a parent. After this law, some Codices and Interpreters immediately add the law concerning him that curseth his parents. But the Hebrew texts place before it the law concerning kidnapping; so also the Chaldean, and the Latin Complutensian and Roman. Nor is it surprising that in these laws the order is not so well observed: for we see this happen in many places, as is evident in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiasticus: for these laws were written miscellaneously, and as it were in military fashion.
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This is the penalty for kidnapping, that is, the theft of a man, whether he be free or a servant; especially if he be a Hebrew; for servants, equally as the free, were avenged by death for slaughter; therefore also kidnapping, especially because the Hebrews were servants only for a time: for either in the seventh year, or in the fiftieth year of jubilee they became free.
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That is with any weapon, or manner: for commonly those quarreling strike with a stone, which they have at hand, or with their fist.
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"Innocent," that is, exempt and free from the penalty of retaliation of death, because by this sign, that the struck man walked abroad after receiving the blow, it is presumed that his death did not come from the striking, but from elsewhere. YET SO THAT HE SHALL RESTORE HIS WORK AND HIS EXPENSES FOR PHYSICIANS. — In Hebrew it is shivto, that is his sitting, that is the cessation and lost work, namely the gain of labor which the injured party lost, he shall pay, and shall care for him to be healed. For the Hebrew shivto is an infinitive with a suffix, from the root yashav, that is he sat. Pagninus however renders shivto as his cessation, from the root shavat, that is he ceased; but the sense comes to the same thing: for to sit is to cease.
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SHALL BE GUILTY OF CRIME (of homicide, and consequently of the penalty of death).
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BECAUSE THE MONEY IS HIS, — that is to say, Because it is possessed by the master who struck him, as a slave bought with money. The condition of male and female slaves was miserable, especially under harsh masters: hence the law of striking mitigates the penalty here, so that if the master has not struck the slave so enormously that certain death immediately follows, he is not subject to punishment, because he killed his own chattel, which he possesses just as he would an ox or a horse. And now civil laws say that the body of a slave, just as the body of an animal, is assessable at a price; but the body of a free person receives no assessment, as is evident from the last law in the Digest, Concerning those who have poured out or thrown down.
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Who wished to come between the quarreling men, or to help her husband.
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He shall give life for life (his own life for the life of the woman whom he killed), eye for eye, tooth for tooth, etc. — The same judgment held if the one striking had not killed the pregnant woman, but had knocked out her already animated offspring from her, so that he killed it. For he, being an infanticide, was liable to death just as a matricide. This the Septuagint teach and signify, who for the Hebrew ason, which our translator rendered death, appear to have read ishon, that is a little man (as we say in Flemish manneken for a boy); for they translate, if the boy be figured or formed, as if to say: If the offspring has perfect members, so that it be fully formed, and as it were a small man, or little man, then he who by his striking knocked out that offspring from the pregnant mother shall give life for life, that is his own life, of which the soul is the cause, shall give it for the life of the offspring, so that, just as he knocked it out and killed it, so he himself shall be killed. From these words of the Septuagint it is clear that the fetus, as soon as it is formed, is animated; therefore he is reckoned and punished here as a homicide who knocked it out: the same thing the Physicians teach. For a tropological interpretation concerning quarrelsome doctors, who by their questions and disputes wound and scandalize the Church and the faithful, see Origen and Ambrose in chapter XXII of Luke. From this law by parity, God then infers the general law of retaliation in all other cases, saying: "Eye for eye," etc., that is to say, If anyone has put out another's eye, he himself shall be blinded; he who has knocked out a tooth shall lose a tooth; he who has harmed a hand, etc. Which law, says St. Augustine, book XII Against Faustus, chapter XXV: "It is not the fuel of vengeance and fury, but the just limit;" for, as Tertullian says, book II Against Marcion, chapter XVIII: "Permission of retribution was a prohibition of provocation;" for Rhadamanthus pronounces it just in Aristotle, book V of the Ethics: "If anyone has done something unjustly, let him also suffer the same," if namely the persons be of the same sort and equal condition: for otherwise if a king strikes a peasant, he cannot justly be struck back by him. Hence also by this law shortly after, verse 26, the one striking a slave is excepted. Thus among the laws of the Twelve Tables was also this: "If he has broken a limb, unless he makes peace with him, let there be retaliation." See Gellius, book XX.
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Namely, having put out one eye, he made them one-eyed, or having one eye. Hence the Septuagint translate, ektyflōsē, that is, has blinded. The Hebrew words signify the same. Wherefore a one-eyed person is understood here differently than he is understood commonly, and in the common verse: The one-eyed man looks obliquely, but the cross-eyed man sees on high, The orbs lack orbs, the blind are deprived of light.
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SHALL BE BURIED WITH STONES, — not on account of the ox's fault (for this cannot exist in a brute animal), but as a terror and example to men, so that men may be more deterred from homicide by this. Hence even today pigs and other beasts, if they kill boys or men, are hanged or killed. God established a similar law, Genesis IX, 5. For the same reason God forbade in this verse that men eat the flesh of the homicidal ox, lest namely by the slaughter of the animal polluted by the killing of a man they be defiled, or acquire its ferocity by eating it. Moreover, what is said and ordained here concerning the ox, understand the same of the horned ram, the kicking horse, and every beast that has killed a man; for here the argument from parity and proportion holds.
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From the preceding time, namely; it is a synecdoche. Thus St. Augustine, Locutions 93. THEY TESTIFIED — that the ox was horned, that is to say, They declared the ox to be horned, and thus warned the master of the danger, so that he would shut up this ox, lest it strike someone. The Romans, as Plutarch testifies in Roman Questions, tied hay to the horns of horned oxen, by which those meeting it were warned to beware of it; and this because oxen and horses luxuriate and are wanton on account of satiety; hence the proverb: "It has hay on its horn: That horn strikes, beware," which is said of a man prepared for vengeance, and difficult to fight, such as M. Crassus was, before Caesar opposed him. NOR SHUT IT UP. — In Hebrew, nor guarded it.
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By the judge, who, the case being heard, on account of his slight negligence or fault, imposes on him not a capital but a monetary fine, especially because the parents and relatives of the deceased desire such a fine, then this master of the homicidal ox shall give and pay this fine imposed on him by the judge.
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In Hebrew it is "or shall dig": for he is equally guilty who uncovers and opens a covered pit, as he who digs one afresh, if he does not cover it again. These laws, like the other laws of this chapter and the following, have been transcribed into Canon Law, as appears in book V of the Decretals, title 36, On Injuries and Damage Done; for they are consonant with natural law and equity.
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Note: This law speaks only of that case in which an ox killed an ox, not of that in which an ox killed a sheep or a calf; for then it would not have been fair for an ox to be divided for a sheep or calf, which is of less value than an ox; hence then judges would decree a fine in proportion to the damage inflicted. What is said here of an ox, understand the same by parity of reasoning of a ram, horse, and any animal whatsoever. See the tropological sense in Rabanus, who interprets all these things of a wicked disciple and his teacher, either negligent or innocent.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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v. 9 « St emeris servum Hebraeum , sex annis serviet tibi ». Id non valere de servis non hebraeis, disce ex Lev. 25,14 sqq. « In septimo egredietur liber gratis ». Qui septimus annus non numeratur a tempore, quo servitudo incepit, sed est annus sabbatieus : cf. 23,11; Deut. 15,1. 19 (Tost.). Et rationem Deut. 15,15 dat Deus, quod Israel servierit in Aegypto ac tandem a Deo liberatus fuerit. Nostro textu annus sabbatieus omnino obiter attingitur : sane, sicut sabbatum, apud Hebraeos etiam ante Moysen in usu erat. Sex porro annis serviturus dicitur servus hebraeus, « i. e. usque ad sex annos, et nunquam plus » (Tost.), usque ad initium anni sabbalici.
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v. 3 « Cum quali veste intraverit, cum tali exeat ». ^3 secus habetur solum Prov. 9,9, ubi vertunt « dorsum collium civitatis ». Fortasse 2er. cogitabat chald. 95, cuius significationem ab ala avis transtulit ad alam vestimenti. Sed sensus unice verus est, quem exprimunt LXX Targ. Syr. : solus; quod patet ex opposito altero membro : « sz habens wxorem , et wxor egredietur simul ». ^n forte in tali oppositione expressio « intrare cum suo dorso » induebat sensum « intrare solus »? San y'532 videtur esse mendum.
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v. & « Sin autem dominus dederit illi uxorem » non hebraeam (Ps. [on.), nam. hebraea initio septimi auni cum ipso exire debuit, « e£ pepererit filtos et filias , mulier et liber? etus erunt domini sui, ipse vero exibit cum vestitu suo » — corrige solus et, uti videtur, matrimonio solutus (Ca?.).
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v. 5 « Quodsi dixerit servus : Diligo dominum meum, et uxorem ac liberos, non egrediar liber » :
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v. 6 « offeret eum dominus diis », adducet eum ad iudices (Chald. Syr.; LXX : mpog 5 Xpuefjotoy vcU 0cc0); m'noswn 5N non pesse verti « ad sanctuarium » (Dillm.), ostendit 22,98 (cf. etiam v. 9); potes autem cum Ponfr. intelligere « iudices sacros », inter quos sine dubio aliqui aut plures fuere sacerdotes. « Et applicabitur ad. ostium et » — reliqui aut — « postes ». Quis applicabit (Hebr.)? Servi dominus, respondent plures, quibus ali obiieciunt, pro primo et tertio verbo adseribi subiectum vZ7N, ergo aliud esse secundi verbi subiectum. Respondent igitur alii, iudex. Reapse, cum Hebr. rem in medio relinquat, optime vertit Vw/g. verbo passivo. An os/tum et postes habebant tentoria Hebraeorum? Nulla est difficultas, si supponatur haec lex, ut aliae plures, esse Moyse antiquior et iam in Aegypto ab Hebraeis esse observata. Ostiwm. vero secundum Deut. 15,17 intelligere oportet ostium domus heri, quo ille iudices deduxerit; certe non urbis (!), cuius ostium nunquam n^*, sed semper zv audit (Bonfr.). « Perforabitque aurem eius » « in janua domus » Deut. 15,17 « subula, et erit ei servus in. saeculum », nulla iam anni sabbatiei habita ratione. 216 y EX AEGYPTO IN SINAI. Perforatio illa non fiebat ad « ignominiam » (Theodoret.), quod servi illi liberta- * tem reliquis omnibus praeferre debuissent; sed « signum illud obedientiam per auditum significat, et quod extra ostium egredi non liceat iniussu domini » (id.). Fiebat coram testibus et signo adhibito externo, « ut amplius semel dictae prcfessionis suae delere vel abscondere non posset monumentum » (Rup.) servus ille. Arg. — Serva emptitia et cóncubina non Hebraeo ne vendatur. Si filio heri sit desponsata, filiarum loco habetor. Si alia introducatur | concubina , habeto prior illa cibum, vestitum, torum. Quae si ei denegentur, libertatem recuperato. Voce *» (uti v. 2. 14. 18. 20. 22. 26) introducitur haec lex.
21:7
v. 7 « S? quis vendiderit filiam suam in famulam, non egredietur sicut ancillae exire consueverunt ». Ita eam LXX; sed pro ancillae reliqui omnes - habent servi. Gum v. 2-5 NX^ constanter scribatur de egressu e servitute in libertatem , ergo eundem h. l1. sensum habet ; et cum ibi sermo fuerit de solis servis hebraeis, ergo etiam h. l. servi non sunt intelligendi soli servi non hebraei (Bon/7. etc.) aut servi Chananaei (Ps. Ion.). Dicuntur igitur illae filiae in servitutem divenditae non egredi servitule, sicut v. 2-6 servi egredi describebantur. Cuius asserti triplex potest esse sensus. Primus, ut illae filiae nullam omnino affirmentur habere egrediendi facultatem ; quem sensum falsum esse, ex immediate sequentibus clarescit. Secundus, ut affirmentur habere quidem modum aliquem egrediendi, sed ab eo modo, quo v. 2-6 viri egredi narraban- - tur, omnibus numeris diversum : cui repugnat Deut. 15,17, ubi, postquam de perforanda viris aure (cf. Ex. 21,6) dictum est, additur : « ancillae quoque similiter facies ». Cf. Ier. 34,9. 10,11. 16, unde patet ancilas quoque hebraeas, aeque atque servos, fuisse libertati restituendas, septimo sc. anno. Tertius sensus, isque omnino planus et obvius, hie est, habuisse illas filias modum aliquem servitute egrediendi, non absolute quidem; sed secundum quid a modo v. 2-6 deseripto diversum : tum vere dici poterant illae filiae egredi, non sicut servi egredi consueverant; idque tanto verius, quod plerumque ven- . derentur filiae non mere ut famulae, sed cum aliqua exspectatione, ut sive ab hero sive ab heri filio ducerentur (Bonfr.). lam varii enumerantur casus, in quibus eiusmodi filiae conditio alia erat a conditione servorum.
21:8
v. 8 « Si displicuerit oculis domini sui , cui tradita fuerat , dimittet eam ». Cum Akeri, Vulg. LXX Chald. pro 85 legatur *5 : qui eam sibi desponsavit. Agitar de hypothesi, quando aut filia empta est eo fine, ut hero desponsaretur, aut post emptionem el est desponsata; et nota apud Iudaeos unum fuisse desponsationem et matrimonium. Neque haec relativa sententia neque sequens n2 17223 (Chald.) necessario includit puellam fuisse violatam, licet id in plerisque ex his non ita frequentibus casibus sine dubio acciderit : tum sane parcius pro violata quam pro integra redemptionis pretium herus accipiebat (D/Im.). Hebr. : faciat eam redimi, non a puellae patre, qui vix non semper paupertate compulsus filiam divendiderat; sed ab alio, qui ea vellet coneubina uti. Si talis non: reperiretur, crediderim dimittendam fuisse liberam gratis (v. 11), nisi praeferret ipsa in famularum ordine (v. 6) perseverare. « Populo autem alieno », 1. e. non Israelitis (Aug.), « vendend? non habebit potestatem , si. spreverit eam », violatam non retinens concubinam , aut exspectatum concubitum omnino denegans. Licebat filiabus hebraeis nubere non Hebraeis, non tamen Chananaeis (Ruth 1,4; 9 Reg. 3,3; 3 Reg. 15,21), quod matrimonii genus sane minus honestum reputabatur, neque ei addicenda erat serva hebraea, quam herus sprevisset. Ex quo intulerim id, de quo nihil reperi in V. T., non fuisse fas hero ancillae hebreae (cf. v. 4) dare maritum servum non hebraeum : ita quippe adigebatur ancilla ad nuptias minus honestas subeundas; et quomodo post sex annos (v. 2) potuit ipsa discedere marito relicto? et cuius futuri essent liberi e tali matrimonio prognati? Agitur iam casus, quando ancilla non hero, sed heri filio desponsata est seu nupsit.
21:9
v. 9 « Stn autem filio suo desponderit eam , twxta morem filtarum faciet illi. ». Subiectum apodoseos est idem , quod in tota hac oratione, sc. herus pater. Facere tuxta morem filiarum non est dotem dare (Vat.), pecunia quippe patri puellae data dotis loco est; non est facere « sicut fit filiabus aliorum Hebraeorum, quae non sint servae » (Tost.), cum gratuito vox filiarum ad unam filiarum rum in domo patris degentium. Filii concubina tractanda est a filii patre non ut serva, sed ut filia (Ke). Tandem tractatur casus, quando praeter illam ancillam in eoncubinam assumptam alia ducitur eaque sane gratior concubina vel uxor. Subiectum, uti v. 8 sq., est pater herus. '5 LXX referunt ad patrem, Vulg. ad filium, re certe utrumque attingit (Bonfr., Malv.); quodsi enim lex proxime respiciat patrem alteram ducentem uxorem, propter omnimodam paritatem applicanda item erit ad filium alteram uxorem ducentem vel a patre sibi provisam accipientem.
21:10
v. 10 « Quodsi alteram ei acceperit » , non priore repudiata (Vulg. : cf. « nuptias »), sed priori superaddendam (Ps. Ion.), « providebit [puellae| nuptias et vestimenta , et pretium pudicitiae non negabit ». *wv est caro, recte Targ. e& Syr. vertunt cióus. Carnem pro cibo, non panem efferri ait Kn., quod agatur de homine divite, qui valeat plures sibi vel filio adsciscere uxores. Porro concubinae illi, quando altera praeter eam ducitur mulier, non solum non est denegandus panis, 1. e. cibus ad vitam necessarius, sed vel caro, i. e. lectiores cibi. nnzv est concubitus (LXX Targ. Syr.). Ergo, etiamsi altera addatur uxor, concubinae iura intacta permaneant, quoad cibum, vestitum, torum.
21:11
v. 11 « 52 tria ista non fecerit », $i cibum, vestitum, concubitum non praestiterit, « egredietur gratis absque pecunia ». En igitur, quibus filiae intuitu matrimonii divenditae egressus e heri servitio dilfert. ab egressu earum, quae solummodo ancillae sunt : 1) si displiceat hero, ex eius servitio etiam ante expletum sexennium egreditur, divendita alteri hero hebraeo; 2) si filio heri in concubinam destinatur, iam non ancillae, sed filiae loco in domo habetur; 3) altera aecedente uxore, sua iura intacta retinet; 4) si haec neelieantur, etiam ante expletum sexennium libera discedit. Et nota haec omnia praescribi non tamquam. perfectam coniugiorum legem a Deo Hebraeis concessam , sed quo cohiberetur longe. effraenatior, quae ante invaluisset, licentia.
21:12
v. 12 « Qu? percusserit hominem volens] occidere », — Hebr. et mortuus est, agitur de percussione lethali, effectu secuto — « morte moriatur ». Non fit distinctio inter Hebraeum et non Hebraeum , non adscribitur uti v. 14 vox y. Orta fortasse est haec lex, antequam gentes ex uno natae separarentur. Neque pro liberis, uti postea v. 21 pro servis, adscribitur restrictio : « si uno vel duobus diebus supervixerit ». Mox tamen adiicienda fuit « limitatio » (Caz.) pro casu necis non plane praemeditatae. Hinc
Legis huius, qua explicatur mandatum de non occidendo, notes formam. v. 12. 15. 16. 17 habes quatuor breves leges, poenam capitis statuentes in enormia quaedam scelera , incipiuntque singulae participio : percutiens, furans etc. Quibuscum cf. legem talionis v. 2^4 sq., quae quidem participio non incipit, sed dictione simplici et concinna illarum legum affinis est. Reliquae omnes ordiuntur voce ^» (v. 14. 18. 20. 99. 96. 28. 33. 35; v. 13 "vN), membra vero illis subordinata distinguuntur coniunctione DN (v. 19. 21. 23. 27. 29. 30. 32; v. 31. 36 *N). Quatuor illaeleges debuere esse ex numero antiquissimarum, quae in stirpe electa conderentur : sancienda mature fuit poena in homicidas, parentum percussores, raptores hominum , maledictores parentum. Cf. Gen. 9,6. 25. Legem autem talionis antiquissimam esse patet inde, quod apud tot antiquos populos viguerit. Eam fere supponit canticum Lamech Gen. 4,23 sq. Stilus harum legum antiquitatem sapit. Cf. Lev. 20,9-21, qui poenarum infligendarum catalogus item antquissimus est. Differunt autem illae quinque leges a decalogo eo potissimum, quod quorumdam scelerum ibi prohibitorum poenas statuant; ad illum se habent uti Lev. 20 ad Lev. 18. Verum decursu temporum paucae illae leges capitales visae sunt non iam sufficere. Plura committebantur, quibus illae leges viderentur specialius esse adaptandae. Has quaestiones discussit casuistica, suasque conclustones legibus antiquis appendit voce ^? earumque 7enbra distinxit voce BN. Ad particularia descendamus. Vel antiquissimis temporibus oportuit distinctionem adhibere legi de homicidio, definito discrimine inter homicidium voluntarium et involuntarium : unde mature versui 12 acerevere conclusiones duae v. 13 sq. (*&N, ^2). Lex ita aucta cum tribus legibus v. 15-17 in unum coaluit de poenis capitalibus instrumentum. In his lex de homicidio mox visa est esse complenda quibusdam de percussione natura sua. lethali statutis. Haec autem non fuere 1mmediate post v. 1^ inserta, neque ausi sunt antiqui illi homines legem v. 12-17 discindere, sed ei ad calcem adseripsere , sive simul sive suecessive, conclusiones tres v. 18. 20. 22 (*2). Interim lex talionis remanserat a lege v. 12 sqq. separata, quod haec esset de poena capitali, illa non. Accreverat item legi talionis conelusio una v. 21 sq. .[:2) de /aestone servi. Additis porro conclusionibus v. 18-23 non iam erat lex v. 19 sqq. de solis delictis capitalibus; non erat ratio, cur non lex talionis cum illa coalesceret : ergo in unam legem v. 12-27 coaluere. Verum mox etiam huic legi visum est aliquid deesse : quid enim si pecus hominem aut pecus pecudem occideret? quid si hominis incuria pecus alienum. interiret? Hine natae conclusiones tres v. 28. 33. 35 (12) cum suis membris. Quae non ante v. 24 legi sunt insertae, sed lege qualis tum erat servata intacta, adscriptae sunt ad calcem legis talionis v. 24-21, licet non tam ad hanc, quam ad praecedentem de percussione tractatum spectarent.
21:13
v. 13 : « Qui autem non est insidiatus , sed Deus illum tradidit in manus etus », — « Intelligitur tantummodo Deus fecisse, cum quis occiditur a nolente. Cum vero volens occidit, et 1pse occidit et Deus tradidit in manus eius » (Aug.) — « constituam tibi [ocum, in quem fugere debeat ». Id Deut. 19,2; Num. 35,6. 11 sqq.; Ios. 20 accuratius definitur, assignatis civitatibus refugii; primitus non videntur fuisse civitates, sed altaria v. 1*; quod comprobant aliorum antiquorum populorum mores. v. 1* « Si quis per industriam occiderit proximum suum et per insidias », — Hebr. : si quis praevaricatus est in proximum suum, ut eum 2nterficiat dolo — « ab altari meo evelles eum, ut moriatur ». « Nullum pro eiusmodi homine erit asylum » (Bonfr.). Verba utique edicunt, et altare esse aptum qui pro refugio designetur locum et, si alia praeter altare loca designentur, altare semper illis esse futurum refugium sanctius. Quare non ad civitatem refugii, sed ad altare confugit Ioab 3 Reg. 9,98 sqq. v. 13. sq. legis generalis v. 12 duos extremos casus discutiunt : unus, quo legis effectus suspendatur, quoad occisoris innocentia probetur isque liber discedat; alter, quo legis effectus nunquam suspenditur, qui est dolosa oceisio proximi, i. e. Hebraei. Verum inter hos duos casus interiacent alii, qui quidem generali legi v. 12 subsunt, sed in quibus aliquid videtur permitti prudentiae et clementiae iudicis, neque semper ab altari erat avellendus reus : occisio Hebraei deliberata, sed non per insidias; occisio non Hebraei sive per insidias sive sine illis facta. Ceterum adseripta vox proximum suggerit conclusionem v. 14 esse lege v. 12 recentiorem. — Ad v. 13 notetur lectio Syr. constitues pro constituam. Facillime profecto potuit vocibus TY2w"* et n237: accrescere postmodum litera *, quo mandatum v. 135 vertebatur in vaticinium. Neque est, cur illud locum de solis civitatibus refugii interpreteris : accipe de quovis loco, qui communi aliquando consilio pro asylo sit habendus. Sequuntur alia tria delicta capitalia.
21:15
v. 15 « Qwui percusserit patrem suum aut matrem, morte moriatur », etiamsi parentis mors non Sequatur. « Sermo est de percussione, quae non excusatur propter imperfectionem actus » (Cai.).
21:16
v. 16 « Qui furatus fuerit hominem et vendiderit eum, convictus noxae, morte moriatur ». Pro convictus norae habet Hebr. v2 Nx'22, quod nequit verti e£ fuerit inventus (ille tur, qui iam venditus est? Ergo cum Cat. verte : Qui furatus fuerit hominem, sive eum vendiderit, sive inveniatur in manu eius, morte moriatur. Deut. 95,7 haec lex explicite est de solis hominibus hebraeis furto abigendis. Tuetur hominum libertatem , quae vix minoris aestimanda est vita ipsa. « Palaestina, primaria illis temporibus mercaturae sedes, magis plagio favebat, quam ulla alia terra, et nemo tutus fuisset , nisi Moyses tam grave supplicium in illud constituisset » (Ros.).
21:17
v. 17 « Qui maledizerit patri suo vel matri, morte moriatur ». Lev. 20,9. Hunc versum ZXX, fortasse correctius, scribunt immediate post v. 15, qui etiam est de parentibus. Notat Ca?. parentum exsecrationem, similiter atque in Deum blasphemiam (Lev. 25,16) morte puniri; et Tost., Deut. 21,21 filii quoque in parentes contumaciam morte mulctari. Arg. — Si homo liber percussus reconvalescat, restituat percussor lucrum eessans et damnum emergens. Si dominus servum suum percusserit ia, ut 1s post aliquos dies moriatur, satis censetur punitus amisso suo servo. Qui percusserit mulierem praegnantem, si solus abortus sequatur, pecunia mulctabitur, si ipsa praeterea mulier mo- - riatur, interimatur. ' v. 18« Se rixati fuerint viri, et percusserit alter proximum suum lapide vel pugno » , — utramque vocem ignorat Sam., dum Syr. loco pugni habet baculum — « et ille mortuus non fuerit, sed iacuerit in lectulo »,
21:19
v. 49 « sz surrexerit et. ambulaverit. foris super baculum suum, innocens erit, qui percusserit, ia tamen, ut operas eus et impensas 4n. medicos restituat ». Hebr. : solum quietem eius pendat et mederi faciat, restituat « lucrum cessans et damnum emergens » (Cai.). Agitur de percussione « non gladio, non ex intentione, sed ex repentina rixa » (Ca?.) facta. Lapis et pugnus utique ad eminus et cominus, armis quibusdam aut nullis armis pugnantes referuntur : tamen illis vocibus includi etiam gladios, sagittas etc. (Tost.), vix concesserim. Agitur de rixis subito subortis, non e condicto. Quodsi in eiusmodi rixis quandoque etiam gladii stringebantur, utique per epikeiam haec lex poterat invocari. Si moriebatur vulneratus, antequam foris ambulare super baculum valuisset, mortis percussor reus censebatur, poteratque privilegio v. 13 concesso uti. Si primum egrediebatur vulneratus ambulans super baculum, et post hoc moriebatur, « censebatur mors ex negligentia curationis vel alia causa contigisse » (lans.). Lex fertur de solis Hebraeis (proximum) : crediderim longe severius animadversum iri in non Hebraeum, qui intra terrae sanctae fines Hebraeum vulnerasset. Non omnes casus hae leges attingunt : non attingitur casus eo aevo sane inauditus mulieris graviter vulnerantis virum, neque casus servi vulnerantis herum. Mulierum rixae censebantur habere plus clamoris quam cruoris.
21:20
v. 20 « Qui percusserit servum suum vel ancillam virga » , — vocem ignorat Sam. — « et mortui fuerint in manibus eius », — Hebr. sub manu eius — « eriminis reus erit ». Servi postmodum plerique Lev. videntur fuisse exempti. Dicitur seroum. suwm : qui servum alienum occidisset, videtur fuisse tractandus secundum v. 13 sq. (Sy/v.). « Additur virga, quoniam castigatio per virgam seu bacillum non est de se mortifera et, si aliquando contingebat, quod ita castigati post aliquot dies morerentur, praesumi poterat, quod dominus eos non castigaverat animo occidendi, vel etiam quod non essent mortui ex illa castigatione » (Sy/v.). Unde Bonfr. sentit, qui herus gladio interemisset servum, eum communi lege fuisse iudicandum. apz* 2pz, w/tionem praestabit , non esse idem atque morte morietur (Sam.), vel ipsa expressionum diversitate manifestatur. Servorum mala generatim minoris aestimabantur, atque liberorum mala : cf. v. 21 cum 19 sq., v. 26 sq. cum 23 sqq., v. 32 cum 29 sqq. Chald. Syr. LXX : tudicio dudicabitur, 1. e. causa iudicibus submittatur, qui omnibus perpensis aut poenam capitis aut leviorem poenam decernant.
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v. 291 « Sin autem uno die vel duobus supervixertt , non subiacebit poenae , quia pecunia Mlius est », et herus pecuniae iactura satis punitur.
21:22
v. 99. « St rixati fuerint virt, et percusserit quis mulierem praegnan- Lem », volentem forte eruere virum de manu fortioris (Deut. 25,11), « et abortivum quidem fecerit , sed [ipsa] vixerit, subiacebit damno », Hebr. mulcta muletabitur, « quantum maritus mulieris expetierit et arbitri qudicaverint ». Hebr. - et ezierint infantes (LXX. Sam. : infans) et. non fuerit infortunium, quam significationem generalem utique habet "nx Gen. 42,4. 38; 44,29. LXX : xoi £840 x* xouS(ov alti wi é&evxovtopévov , quae explicat PA?/o (De special. legibus) de abortu nondum in plenam hominis formam redacto. Quomodo haee translatio e textu fluxerit, haud dispicitur. Bon/r. suggerit, LXX pro "oW legisse vx. Ut yos cum Vu/g., Ios. (IV. 8. 33) et Ps. Ion. ad solam restringatur matrem, ratio non est; bene vero cum iisdem et Chald. vox ad mortem refertur, etenim toto hoe capite, ubi agitur de percussione proximi (solis v. 15 exceptis parentibus), sola mors morte punitur (v. 23). Neque expressio mo5?* ws" (cf. Gen. 25,25) abortum sapit, sed h. l. mere tempus significat : si egrediuntur infantes et nullum est infortunium, i. e. nulla mors neque prolis neque matris (Cai.), tum pro percussione matris infligitur mulcta. Si e contra aut foetus prodierit mortuus, aut vix natus moriatur, aut mater in partu exanimetur, homicidii ille vir reus habebitur. Si aut foetus aut mater aut ambo morerentur aliquanto post partum, fortasse epikeiae locus erat, qualis v. 21 habetur. Si percussio locum habuerat non de industria, patebant loca refugii. Ergo non erat iniusta aut durior lex.
21:23
v. 23 « Sin autem mors |eius| fuertt subsecuta », Hebr. st acciderit infortunium, « reddet animam pro anima », vitam pro vita. Arg. — Legi de pereussione lethali v. 12-23 accrevit lex talionis v. 9^ sq. cum suo additamento v. 26 sq. Cf. Lev. 24,20; Deut, 19,21. Pro hominibus sc. liberis lex talionis valet absolute; servorum aliquae mutilationes libertate servi compensantur.
21:24
v. 9& « Oculum pro oculo », — supple : dabis. Falso quippe accusativos Di/lIm. ita accipit, quasi Vulg. LXX v. 29^ sq. construant dependenter a « reddet » v. 23, et Kn. dieta applicat solis rixantibus (v. 22), cum aeque applicanda sint insidiantibus (v. 13), et fortasse quadamtenus inadvertenter proximum vulnerantibus (ef. ib.) — « dentem pro dente, manum pro manu, pedem pro pede »,
21:25
v. 25 « adustionem pro adustione, vulnus pro vulnere, ltivorem pro livore ». Ultima duo tamquam maius et minus sibi opponuntur etiam Gen. 4,23. lam Ps. Ion. cuique nomini praefigit vocem « pretium » ; et Jos. (IV. 8. 35) ita describit mitiorem , quae eius aevo servabatur, praxin : « Qui alium mutilaverit, similia patiatur, privatus quo privavit alium, nisi mutilatus pecuniam malit accipere ». Nullumque est dubium, mitiorem hanc praxin legitime et probabilius ab ipso Moysis aevo esse invectam. Et »Occisor quidem non poterat se à supplieio redimere, quia occiso pecunia nullo usui esse poterat : at mutilato plerumque mutilatoris mufilatio exiguum afferebat commodum, pecunia utilis erat. Neque obest, quod Deut. 19,18 sqq. a falso in iudieio teste redemptio accipi prohibeatur : est enim hic specialis casus, talique falso testimonio iniuria afficiebatur non solum, qui accusabatur, sed 1psius tribunalis auctoritas. Admissa porro in lege talionis redemptione patet, gratuito asserere Sylv., eam legem viguisse « inter privatos solum eiusdem sortis et conditionis », neque regem oculo mulctandum fuisse, qui subditi oculum execussisset : rex facilius ceteris subditis se pecunia redimere poterat. Praeterea, cum lex talionis non privata sed iudicum auctoritate esset applicanda, patet eam minime fuisse iniustam neque vindictae cupiditatem in immensum veluti auxisse : « non fomes, sed limes furoris est » (Aug. c. Faust. XIX. 95; M. 8. 365; cf. c. Adimant. 8; M. 8. 139). De lege talionis cum lege evangelica Matth. 5,38 sqq. comparata , cf. Knabenbauer in eum locum. Servis mutilatis loco pecuniae conceditur libertas.
21:26
v. 26 « S? percusserit quispiam oculum servi sut aut ancillae, et luscos eos fecerit », — Hebr. : et corruperit eum — « dimittet eos liberos pro oculo [quem eruit| ».
21:27
v. 91 « Dentem quoque si excusserit servo vel ancillae suae, [similiter] dimittet eos liberos » pro dente. « Quod hie de oculo et dente, extendunt Rabbini ad cetera omnia membra, quae semel amissa nunquam reparantur. Quatuor et viginti enumerant etc. » (Ca/m.). Sine dubio lex humana et usus plura supplevere in tam concinna lege divina. Ps. Jon. dicta restringit ad servos Chananaeos, Sy/v. ad non Hebraeos :in textu nihil est, quod ei restrictioni faveat. Potuit servo Hebraeo praeter libertatem concedi pecunia pro rata temporis, quod superesset usque ad septimum annum (v. 2). Ceterum haec lex efficaciter praepediebat graviorem servorum percussionem (cf. v. 20 sq.).
21:28
v. 98 « Si bos cornu percusserit virum aut mulierem, et mortui f'uerint, lapidibus obruetur », « in detestationem et horrorem facti » (Cat.), et secundum illud Num. 35,33 : « nec aliter expiari potest, nisi per eius sanguinem, qui alterius sanguinem fuderit ». Haec lex affinitatem habet plurimam cum illo Gen. 9,5 : « Sanguinem animarum vestrarum requiram de manu cunctarum bestiarum ». « Quo Deus homines magis averteret a crudelitate et homicidio..., sollicite praescribit mortis poenam in bruta, quae hominem peremerint. Sunt enim bruta servitiis hominum facta; quare, cum pro servitio damnum inferant etincommodum , merito destruenda sunt » (Ca/m.). « Et non comedentur carnes eius », quia immundae habentur (Ke7/) et sanguis a carne non est separatus. « Dominus quoque bovis innocens erit », neque quidquam solvet, quod is, qui damnum tulit, mortuus nihil accipere queat. Haec lex universim ponitur, pluraque sequentibus legibus et usui definienda relinquuntur. Nihil omnino dicit de casu, quo bos hominem non occidit, sed graviter vulneravit. Loquitur textus de solo bove, ubi iam Sam. supplet e£ omne pecus. Cornu utique, id enim habet n22, solus bos hominem adultum perimere potuit, vix aries. Sed quid de ungulis? Ubi monet T^st., ungulis perimi nonnisi imprudentes. Haud dubium, quando ungulis aut morsu alicuius animalis domestici homo interiisset, iudices sententiam tulisse ex analogia legis h. 1l. descriptae.
21:29
v. 29 « Quodsi bos cornupeta fuerit ab heri et nudiustertius »; i. e. « a multo tempore », vel certe « antea » (Vat.), « et contestati sunt dominum etus », — coram testibus monuerunt, quo res iudicio probari posset; et Ps. Jon. prodit exactam postmodum esse trinam monitionem —- « nec recluserit eum, occideritque virum aut mulierem : et bos lapidibus obruetur, et dominum eius occident ». Si quis ad bovem reclusum ingressus interficiebatur, dominus innocens erat (Sylv.).
21:30
v. 30. « Quodsi pretium fuerit et impositum, dabit pro anima sua, quidquid fuerit postulatus », « secundum discretionem iudicis » (Sylv.). Cam vix non semper dominus peceaverit non ex malitia, sed e negligentia, poena capitis in desuetudinem abiit, et Ps. Jon. solum loquitur de morte, « quae immittatur ei de coelis ». Aliis verbis, ni Deus evidenti miraculo bominis malitiam patefaceret, maluere haeredes mulctam accipere, quam hominem occidere.
21:31
v. 31 « Filium quoque et filiam » nondum adultos « sz cornu percusserit, simili sententiae subiacebit. »
21:32
v. 32 « Si servum ancillamque invaserit , triginta. siclos argenti domino dabit, bos vero lapidibus opprimetur ». Domino solvitur pretium servi : unde iam patet, non locum esse hic ei, quam Sy/r. volebat, distinctioni inter servum non hebraeum et servum hebraeum. Quam minime confirmat Dilim. asserens, ex Lev. 27,3 servi hebraei pretium fuisse non triginta, sed quinquaginta siclorum : inspice locum et videbis, nequaquam ibi agi de servis, aliud pro viris etaliud pro feminis seribi pretium, rem tractari toto coelo diversam. Agmen claudunt caedes in animalia patratae.
21:33
v. 33 « S7 quis aperuerit cisternam » iam ante effossam, « e£ » — seu verius aut (Hebr.) — de novo « foderit, et non operuerit eam , cecideritque bos aut asinus in eam »,
21:34
v. 3& « reddet dominus cisternae pretium [tumentorum]; quod autem mortuum est, ipsius est ». Plena fit restitutio. Impeditior sententia apud Hebr. Sam. LXX Chald. : restituet pecuniam , reddet domino eius. Poterat 15725 27v esse explanatio praecedentis membri, a margine in textum invecta. Sam. rursum addit e7 omne pecus ; Ps. Ion. rem limitat ad cisternas « in platea » : lex a Moyse lata decursu temporum magis est explicata et limitata. Refertur ea ad mandatum de non furando. Materiam non exhaurit , sed ea attingit, quae facilius in simplice gente obtinerent. Hinc neque uti praecedens lex a perantiquis quibusdam (21,12. 15. 16. 17. 94 sq.) axiomatis proficiscitur hisque suas conclusiones subnectit, sed tota constat conclusionibus septem à voce ^2 incipientibus (v. 1. 5. 6. 7. 10. 14. 16), quarum zebra voce 2N adnectuntur (v. 23. 9. RT 19. 13. 15. 17). Lex ad illa beata tempora nos revocat, Moyse utique antiquiora (cf. Lev. 25), ubi hominum divitiae solis pecudibus et segetibus constabant, non ob aliam quam pecudum abigendarum causam fur domum effringeret; tamen servitus iam exsistebat.
21:1
… the one who received it (Deut. 17, 11: "he shall act according to the t. [directive] that they shall give you, both the Levitical priests and the tribunal"; 24, 8: "execute all that the Levitical priests teach you [jōrā]"; 30, 10, where mišpāṭim [cf. Ex. 21, 1] is synonymous with t.), became prevalent in the so-called deuteronomic period (ca. 622 B.C.) and still more during and after the exile (6th century B.C.). …
21:2
… Indeed, he was required to grant freedom to his fellow-countrymen slaves after six years of service, assuring them a minimum essential for living (Lev. 25:39-54; Ex. 21:2; Deut. 15:12-18). The slave was permitted to renounce his freedom; in that case he remained the property of the master (Ex. 21:5, 6). Freedom could also be regained through flight …
21:4
II. SLAVERY IN THE BIBLE. - Among the ancient Hebrews, as among other peoples, prisoners of war fed the slave market in a particular way (I Sam. 30:3; Am. 1:9; Ez. 27:13; I Mach. 3:41). Moreover, all the children of a slave were considered the property of the master (Ex. 21:4). An Israelite could not be sold as a slave to foreigners; indeed, he should never have been reduced to such a condition (Lev. 25:42-46). In practice, however, often, for financial …
21:5
… Indeed, he was required to grant freedom to his fellow-countrymen slaves after six years of service, assuring them a minimum essential for living (Lev. 25:39-54; Ex. 21:2; Deut. 15:12-18). The slave was permitted to renounce his freedom; in that case he remained the property of the master (Ex. 21:5, 6). Freedom could also be regained through flight (Deut. 23:16 ff.) or following mistreatment by the master (Ex. 21:26, 27).
21:7
… The Talmud (Šabbāth jer., 5b) and the Midrash rabbā (on Ex. 21:7; etc.) present the šāṭān as "accuser" of men.
… subjected to slavery (II Reg. 4:1; Neh. 5:5, 8). A thief who could not return the stolen goods became the property of the one he had robbed (Ex. 22:3). The poor sometimes found themselves in such conditions that they had to sell their family and themselves (ibid. 21:7 ff.).
21:12
… Thus in the Mosaic code, the death penalty is expressly sanctioned (cf. Ex. 21, 12, 14-17, 23; 22, 3 etc.; Lev. 20, 10-18 etc.). …
… By instituting asylum at the altar for the desert period (Ex. 21:12-14), and, when this had become insufficient, in the cities of refuge, he placed a curb upon it, which many times annulled its effects (cf. Num. 35:25; etc.).
… Succoth and of Penuel, localities near the river Jabbok, captured and killed them, probably after having led them to Ophrah, his city (Judg. 8:4-21). Gideon, besides exercising a right of war, intended thereby to avenge the blood of his brothers (cf. Ex. 21:12; Num. 35:16-18). The episode is also recalled in Ps. 83:11. Angelo Penna
The obligation has an individual and a social value; it concerns not only individuals and families, but also the community, all Israel as a nation (cf. Ex. 21, 12-17). Observance of the law ensures the return of Israel's political and social prosperity (Is. 58, 12 ff.), and its violation, which brings hardship, famine and misery (Jer. 17, 21-27; …
21:13
… provoked homicide, in the Mosaic Law the right of asylum was established and six cities were designated where those guilty of involuntary bloodshed (qui nolens sanguinem fuderit) could find safe refuge while the trial against them was being conducted (Ex. 21, 13-14; Num. 35, 6 and 11-34; Deut. 4, 41-43). The benefit of asylum was extended also to citizens of another nationality or religion; excluded from it were those guilty of crimes such as …
… true priests existed in Israel before the consecration of Aaron, since they appear at Sinai (Ex. 19:22-24; 24:4-5). The existence of a priestly class is already affirmed by the most ancient collection of laws, the "Book of the Covenant" (Ex. 20:24; 21:13; 22:8: allusions to a sanctuary with sacrifices, asylum, oracle). …
21:14
… Their meaning is uncertain; perhaps they were a remnant of the masšebāth formerly erected on the altar (hypothesis of H. Gressmann), and which the Law had forbidden to raise (Deut. 16:21). Great was their importance (Lev. 8:15; Ex. 21:14; I Reg. 1:50; 2:28): they were smeared with the blood of the victims (Ex. 29:12; Lev. 4:25, 30, 34) and conferred the immunity of asylum on the guilty.
21:22
3. LAW. - The first mention of abortion as a crime is found in a passage of the Bible (Ex. 21, 22), where, however, it is considered more as a consequence of personal injury than as an offense in its own right. …
21:23
… Samuel, after reproaching Saul ("melior est oboedientia quam victimae," Hos. 6:6; Mt. 9:13; 12:7), applying the norms of holy war (Lev. 27:29) and the law of retaliation (Ex. 21:23-25), cut A. to pieces before the altar at Gilgal (1 Sam. 15).
… "If a misfortune follows, you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise" (ibid. 21:23-25).
21:26
… 25:39-54; Ex. 21:2; Deut. 15:12-18). The slave was permitted to renounce his freedom; in that case he remained the property of the master (Ex. 21:5, 6). Freedom could also be regained through flight (Deut. 23:16 ff.) or following mistreatment by the master (Ex. 21:26, 27).
21:32
… found, while in the Greek text there is mention of simple drachmas; in the Septuagint, moreover, the Hebrew shekel ("shekel", v.) is often improperly translated with this word, though it actually had twice the value of the Attic d. (Gen. 23:15-16; Ex. 21:32 etc.). …
Mina (Heb. Mâneh; Gr. Μνᾶ; Lat. Mina or Mna)
In some legal texts the trace of the ancient m. of 60 shekels has been preserved (Ex. 21:32), while in the Deuteronomic texts the current use of the m. of 50 shekels seems to have to be recognized. …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.