टीका वर्तमान में केवल अंग्रेज़ी में उपलब्ध है। हिन्दी अनुवाद प्रगति पर है।
Exodus 21 — Judgments for the Common Life
God gives Moses the case laws that apply the Ten Commandments to daily life — laws about Hebrew servants, manslaughter, smiting parents, kidnapping, personal injury, slaves, the ox that gores, and theft. The covenant is not merely lofty principle but specific application to the actual messes of human living.
“Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”
— Exodus 21:24
- v.1-11 Laws of Hebrew servants — including release in the seventh year
- v.12-17 Capital offenses — murder, smiting/cursing parents, kidnapping
- v.18-27 Personal injury — including the principle of proportion
- v.28-36 The ox that gores; responsibility for animals
A servant who chose to remain with a beloved master forever could have his ear bored at the doorpost. The mark of voluntary lifelong service.
Psalm 40:6 reflects this image messianically — mine ears hast thou opened — quoted in Hebrews 10:5-10 of Christ. Christ's ear was opened to the Father's will; He chose to be the eternal Servant for love. The slave-with-bored-ear is a type of His voluntary submission.
The seriousness with which God treats the honor of parents. Cursing them was a capital offense. Jesus quoted this verse in Matthew 15:4 to rebuke the Pharisees for evading it through corban tradition.
In our day cursing parents has become casual entertainment. The biblical weight of the act is still real. The fifth commandment carried not just blessing for keeping (that thy days may be long) but death for the worst kinds of violation.
The proportion principle — known as lex talionis, the law of retaliation. Often misread as cruelty; in context it was a limitation. The natural instinct was disproportionate revenge (Genesis 4:23-24 — Lamech's seventy-sevenfold vengeance). The law said: only proportional.
Justice in the law of Moses was not vindictive but measured. The principle protected against escalation — exactly the opposite of how the phrase is often used today.
Jesus addressed this directly in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:38-42). Not abolishing the civil principle of proportional justice — but lifting it from personal retaliation. The state has the sword (Romans 13:4); the individual offers the other cheek.
The distinction matters. The civil law of proportional justice still applies to courts. The personal ethic of the believer is to absorb personal wrong rather than escalate it. Christ embodies this perfectly — He let the Roman state crucify Him without resistance, while never denying that the state has its proper authority.
The God of Sinai is not only the God of grand principles. He cares about how you treat your servant, your neighbor, your ox, your parents, the stranger at your door. Real holiness is in the specific application. Look at how you treat the people in your daily orbit. That is where holiness lives or dies.
Exodus 21:6 — the servant with the bored ear at the doorpost — is a striking type of Christ. Hebrews 10:5-10 explicitly applies the same imagery to His incarnation: a body hast thou prepared me... Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. Christ is the Servant who chose to remain. His ear bored at the doorpost of His Father's house — and at the doorpost of every house where He has been received by love.
The first case law concerns slavery. God's law placed a six-year limit on Hebrew servitude — a sharp contrast with surrounding ancient cultures where slavery was unlimited. The seventh year of release reflected the Sabbath pattern.
This is not biblical endorsement of slavery; it is regulation that pointed toward freedom. Deuteronomy 15:13-15 added that the released servant was to be sent away with generous gifts — thou shalt not let him go away empty.