If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.
Exodus 21:10 is part of the instruction given to Moses for Israel to guide and regulate dealings with one another and to guard against injustice. It belongs together with the rest of Exodus 21-23, and if all read those chapters carefully and obeyed them, the conditions now seen in the world would not exist. It was given by Christ to Israel as part of the statutes and judgments, which were to be strictly obeyed.
It is part of a code showing God guarding the interests of His people and guarding against injustice, with special directions concerning the poor and impartial, exalted requirements. More specifically, it belongs to the laws regulating servants and guarding their rights. Hebrew servitude was limited to six years with freedom in the seventh, while non-Israelite slaves were permitted but their lives and persons were protected so that injury by a master could bring freedom. Israel was to remember its own harsh servitude and treat those under it with kindness and compassion.
Its provision about a wife's food, clothing, and marital rights is one specific practical rule that expands the principles of the Ten Commandments, illustrating and applying them so their obligations would be more fully understood and enforced and the commandments guarded. Unlike the Decalogue, these precepts were delivered privately to Moses for him to communicate to the people. They were needed because the minds of the people, blinded and debased by slavery, were not prepared to fully appreciate the far-reaching principles of God's ten precepts.
Exodus 21:10 is part of the instruction given to Moses for Israel to guide and regulate dealings with one another and to guard against injustice. It belongs together with the rest of Exodus 21-23, and if all read those chapters carefully and obeyed them, the conditions now seen in the world would not exist. It was given by Christ to Israel as part of the statutes and judgments, which were to be strictly obeyed.
It is part of a code showing God guarding the interests of His people and guarding against injustice, with special directions concerning the poor and impartial, exalted requirements. More specifically, it belongs to the laws regulating servants and guarding their rights. Hebrew servitude was limited to six years with freedom in the seventh, while non-Israelite slaves were permitted but their lives and persons were protected so that injury by a master could bring freedom. Israel was to remember its own harsh servitude and treat those under it with kindness and compassion.
Its provision about a wife's food, clothing, and marital rights is one specific practical rule that expands the principles of the Ten Commandments, illustrating and applying them so their obligations would be more fully understood and enforced and the commandments guarded. Unlike the Decalogue, these precepts were delivered privately to Moses for him to communicate to the people. They were needed because the minds of the people, blinded and debased by slavery, were not prepared to fully appreciate the far-reaching principles of God's ten precepts.