And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished.
The law requires sure punishment for a master who strikes his male servant or his female servant with a rod so that the servant dies under his hand, and by that requirement the life and person of the servant are placed under legal protection. In its immediate setting, related servant laws go further to make even a lesser injury inflicted by a master the ground for the servant's freedom, even when the injury is only the loss of a tooth.
The verse belongs among the additional precepts, statutes, judgments and commandments that illustrate, apply and amplify the Ten Commandments, supplying minute and detailed instruction about duties to one another so that the obligations of the Decalogue would be more fully understood and enforced and its sacredness guarded. These added precepts were given because the minds of the people, blinded and debased by slavery, were not prepared to fully appreciate the far-reaching principles of the ten precepts. Unlike the Decalogue, this instruction was delivered privately to Moses for him to communicate to the people.
It was given by God, even Christ, through Moses to Israel as part of exalted and impartial requirements to guard against injustice, to guard the interests of God's people, and to guide and regulate their dealings with one another. If all would read these commandments carefully and obey them, the evil conditions now seen in the world would not exist.
The law requires sure punishment for a master who strikes his male servant or his female servant with a rod so that the servant dies under his hand, and by that requirement the life and person of the servant are placed under legal protection. In its immediate setting, related servant laws go further to make even a lesser injury inflicted by a master the ground for the servant's freedom, even when the injury is only the loss of a tooth.
The verse belongs among the additional precepts, statutes, judgments and commandments that illustrate, apply and amplify the Ten Commandments, supplying minute and detailed instruction about duties to one another so that the obligations of the Decalogue would be more fully understood and enforced and its sacredness guarded. These added precepts were given because the minds of the people, blinded and debased by slavery, were not prepared to fully appreciate the far-reaching principles of the ten precepts. Unlike the Decalogue, this instruction was delivered privately to Moses for him to communicate to the people.
It was given by God, even Christ, through Moses to Israel as part of exalted and impartial requirements to guard against injustice, to guard the interests of God's people, and to guide and regulate their dealings with one another. If all would read these commandments carefully and obey them, the evil conditions now seen in the world would not exist.