Exodus 21

In the Old Law, had a man killed another unawares, he might take sanctuary; but if he had killed him willingly, though he did fly to the sanctuary, the holiness of the place was not to defend him. (Exodus 21:14) If a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with gui…

And in this respect the Priesthood was given before the law. For although the moral law was given in the audience of the people before on the Mount, and an explication was given of it to Moses, as it was to be applied to the government of that people in judiciary proceedings, co…

God alone by virtue of his sovereignty, could dispense with the execution of this sentence of the Law, as he did in the case of David (2 Samuel 12:13), but as to the people, they were prohibited on any account to dispense with it, or forbear the execution of it (Numbers 35:31).…

For I do not judge there is any allusion in the expression, to the law of boring the ear of the servant that refused to make use of his liberty at the year of release. Nor is the word, used in that case, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] but [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] (Exodus 21:6).…

This is presumptuous murder, his heart was in it, nor can it be said to be done ignorantly. There is another clear scripture, which proves that if persons fall out, and in the strife one shall strike the other a deadly blow, life shall go for life (see Exodus 21:14, 21, 22). But…

And so did Eli consent to the vileness of his sons, because though he reproved them he did not restrain them. There is a law (Exodus 21:29): If an ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it has been testified to his owner, and he has not kept him in, but that he has…

A soldier shoots an arrow at random, and God guides it to be the executioner of Ahab for his sin; which death was foretold by Micaiah (v. 17, 28). God gives us a certain rule to judge of such contingencies (Exodus 21:13): And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into hi…

In which sense the word Elders is taken (Genesis 50:7), as Tostatus and Rivetus expound that place. In the same manner we say of Deuteronomy 19:12, and in that case it is further to be remembered that the cities of refuge had a kind of a sacred designation and use, for the altar…

Proper to each. [Exodus 21:10. If he shall take another to himself, let him not diminish her food, her clothing, and benevolence due to her. Titus 2:3. Likewise to the old women, that they wear such apparel as may become holiness, not slanderers, not given to much wine, but teac…

7. God no more wills all, and every man to be saved, and come to believe; so they will all, and every one believe; than he wills all and every one to be damned; so they believe not and refuse the Gospel: the one will is as universal as the other. 8. It is no justice, that the ra…

By his example we are taught to make satisfaction for all injuries and hurts done to others, and that to the utmost. He that steals, according to the quality of his theft, must restore either twofold, or fourfold (Exodus 22:7); he that maims a man must pay for his healing, and f…

This law is a necessary fence to the fifth commandment, and upholds the honor that is due to parents. Example 5. He that strikes a man so that he dies, shall die the death (Exodus 21:12). To this law there is no exception made, but one, and that is, when a man is killed unawares.

And this shows, that the children in respect of their bodies, are the goods of their parents. In this respect, the Jews were permitted to sell their children (Exodus 21:7). And so sacred a thing was the authority of the parent, that he which rebelliously despised the same, was p…

Againe, if all sinne committed voluntarily, and willingly, were simply inexpiable, euery mans case were damnable. And though the word [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], signifie willingly, as Aristotle takes it, Eth. l. 3. c. 2. yet sometime it signifis, spitefully, and malitiously, a…

That which is commonly called the Moral Law, the Scripture terms [in non-Latin alphabet] (Exodus 34:28) the words of the Covenant, the ten words; from where is the Greek [in non-Latin alphabet], or the Law of ten words, or precepts: all which in their substance are moral, and un…

But who can imagine, what should move the LXX to render [in non-Latin alphabet] a word of a known signification and univocal, by [in non-Latin alphabet], when they had translated it an hundred and fifty times, that is constantly elsewhere, by [in non-Latin alphabet] and [in non-…

So that to do a thing for nothing is to do a thing without wages, without price. And there is the same interpretation of the word in Exodus 21:11, where Moses, speaking of the maid who was taken into the family and was not married, says, "If he does not do these three to her, th…

And certainly it is but fit and meet that we should give them the best and the most obliging language, who have taught us to speak; and to please them with our words, who have instructed us how to form them. Indeed, that rude and boisterous language which many of the sons of Bel…

But here we must look to it, that we be employed about lawful things; otherwise, if we be doing that which is unjustifiable, which accidentally proves to be the death of another, this cannot be excused from murder; and I am sure God exacts the same punishment for it. And therefo…

If there is a curse for him that smites his neighbor secretly (Deuteronomy 27:24), then he is double cursed that kills him. If a man had [reconstructed: slain] another unawares, he might take sanctuary, and fly to the altar: but if he had done it willingly, the holiness of the p…

Here was his greatest humiliation and suffering, by which principally he made satisfaction to the justice of God for the sins of men. First, his life was sold by one of his own disciples for thirty pieces of silver, which was the price of the life of a servant, as you may see in…

4. They ought not to marry while the time of their covenant for service lasts, unless their master gives consent to that. The law of God sets forth the lawful marriages of servants thus: "If his master has given him a wife" — by which is implied that if a servant marries, it mus…

Answer. No, not without the free consent of the servants themselves: for marriages must be made with the free consent of the parties that are married. Objection. The law implies that a master has power to give his servant a wife, for it shows whose those children shall be that a…

He is like the Servant under the Law. Exodus 21:5. I love my Master, I will not go out free.

The law of God condemned pits for tame beasts. (Exodus 21:33-34) If a man open a pit, or dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or ass fall therein: the owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money to the owners of them. Though it was lawful for hunters to take wild beast…

Adam was, and so were we the children of God by creation, God was our Father, who made us, and woe to him that strives with (and fights against) his Maker (Isaiah 43:9); it is woeful sinning against God as a Maker; Oh how unnatural it is to sin against our parents! So heinous wa…

In like sort, let me say, Come, squander away your time, even contrive to get the dead commodity off your hands; but know you that in the day, when God shall judge the world, all this time of yours must be accounted for. It was the law of old, in (Exodus 21:18), If one man smite…

So it is with many a sluggish [illegible], he is content to perish rather than do anything to deliver himself, he blesses himself in his misery and so is a devoted slave to the Devil. As (Exodus 21:6), if when the servant had his liberty to go out free, he said plainly I love my…

For example, when adultery was punished with death, fornication was punished with fifty shekels of silver, and with paying of money according to the dowry of virgins (Exodus 22:16, 17, compared with Deuteronomy 22:22, 28, 29). So, when stealing of men was death, stealing of oxen…

3. The substance and equity of the judicial law remains in that Christ and his Apostles make use of, transfer and prove by some judicial laws divers things under the New Testament. Christ makes use of a judicial law concerning punishment (Matthew 5:38, 39), an eye for an eye, an…

(Matthew 5:38): Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. (Exodus 21:24, 23): You shall give life for life. Give that piece of money for you and me (Matthew 17).

Being justified , so the LXX. render the Hebrew particle ; without price, without merit, without cause; and sometimes it is used for without end, that is, what is done in vain; as is used by the apostle, Galatians 2:21. without price or reward, Genesis 29:15. Exodus 21:22. 2 kin…

For what can you more ascribe to chance, than when a broken bough falling from a tree kills a wayfaring man passing by it? But the Lord says far otherwise, who confesses that he has delivered him into the hand of the slayer (Exodus 21:13). Likewise, who does not leave the happen…

No, but before he began, he foreknew and foretold the end. Go (said he to Moses) and declare to him my will, but I will harden his heart, that he obey not (Exodus 21). So when he stirs up Ezekiel, he warns him beforehand that he sends him to a rebellious and stubborn people, to…

6th Commandment: You shall not kill. He breaks this commandment: who bears malice to another (1 John 3:15); who is given to hastiness (Matthew 5:22); who uses inward fretting and grudging (James 3:14); who is froward of nature, hard to please (Romans 1:31); who is full of rancor…

Again, such beggars are thieves and robbers, because they steal their labor from the Church and Commonwealth, which is as profitable, as land and treasure. In the old Law, if two men strived together, and the one had wounded the other; the offender was enjoined, not only to pay…

How many contingencies did [illegible], his piercing eye run through, to foresee the crowning of Esther, for the deliverance of his people. In a word; known to God are all his works: now what can possibly be imagined to be more contingent, than the killing of a man by the fall o…

See Matthew 27:1 compared with Acts 2:23 and chap. 4:27, 28; Luke 24:26; John 19:34, 36. For the necessity of other events, see Exodus 21:17; Job 14:5; Matthew 19:7, &c. | Lib. Arbit. God's sustaining of all things is not an affirmative act of his power but a negative act of his…

Do they oblige any other now, further than the general equity thereof may require? No (Exodus 21:1 to the last verse; Exodus 22:1-29; Genesis 49:10; 1 Corinthians 9:8-10; 1 Peter 2:13-14; Matthew 5:17, 38-39). Well then, do not some err — though otherwise orthodox — who maintain…

(4) Because if the Magistrate shall neglect to inflict due punishment, the Lord himself will be avenged on that Magistrate. (1 Kings 20:42; Numbers 25:4.) (5) Because he that strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. (Exodus 21:12.) (6) Because all that take th…