The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 162

pert.y of his master, and might he ill-used to i.e., "If the elave doee not die till a rlnv "r nnv extent, even killed, withnut t.he la.w in two afterwards." Compare the pMvision in 1111~ way interfering. It is said that the state ver. 19, with respect t.o persons who were n,,t slaves. No specinl c111lousncss to the sufl,·r- of· things wns different in Egypt (Kalisch); ings of sluvce ie implied. He ie his money. hut we have scarcely snllkient evidence on The slave hud heen purchased for a sum or tho point to be certnin that the slo.ve enjoyed money, or was at any rate money's w<,rth: awl there nny real und ellicicn t protection. At the moster would suffer a pecunitLry loss by Athens, beyond n doul,t, the lu.w protected hie death. tho life of tho slave ; and a very moderate Ver. 22 - 25. - Assault producin1 mi,- amount of ill-treatment entitled a slave to carriage. R,taliation. Women in all bring an action. At Rome, on the contrary, countries are apt to interfere in the quarrels "the master could treat the slave 11B he of men, and run the risk of suffering injuries ple11Sed, could sell him, punish him, and put which proceed from accident rather than him to denth" (Diet. of Greel, &: R0'111. Antiq. design, one such injury being of a peculiar p. 1036). And this was the ordinary state character, to which there is nothing corre- of the law, po.rticulo.rly in Oriente.l countries. spondent among the injuries which may be The Mosaic legislation IIl'llst be regarded e.s done to man. This is abortion, or mis- having greatly ameliorated the condition carriage. The Mosaic legislation sought to of the native slave population. Hebrew protect pregnant women from suffering this bondmen it placed nearly upon a pa.r with injury by providmg, first, that if death re- hired servants (Lev. xxv. 40); foreign slaves, sulted the offender should suffer death (ver. whether prisoners taken in wo.r, or persons 23) ; and, secondly, that if there were no bought in the market, it protected to a very further ill-result than the miscarriage itself, great extent. By the law given in verses 26, still a fine should be pa.id, to be assessed by 27, it largely controlled the brutality of the husband of the injured woman with the masters, who had to emancipate their slaves consent of the judges (ver. 22). The mention if they did them any serious injury. By the of "life for life," in ver. 23, is followed by an law la.id down in verse 20, it gave their lives enunciation of the general "law of retalia- the so.me protection, or nearly the same, a.s tion," applied here (it would seem) to the the lives of freemen. "Smiting" was allowed special case in hand, but elsewhere (Lev. x..~i v. as n discipline, without which slavery cannot 19, 20) extended so as to be a fundamental exist; but such smiting as resulted in death law, applicable to all cases of personal injury WIIS, as a general rule, punishable like any other homicide. The only exception was, if Ver. 22.-If men strive and hurt a. the slave did not die for some days (ver. 21). woman. A chance hurt is clearlv intended, not one done on purpose. So that her fruit In that case the master was considered not to depart from her. So that she be prematurely have intended the slave's death, and to be delivered of a dead child. And no mischief sufficiently punished by the loss of his pro- follow. "Mischief" here means "death," os perty. in Gen. xiii. 4, 38 ; xiv. 29. He shall pa.y as the judges determine. He was not to be Ver. 20.-If a man smite his aervant, or his wholly at the mercy of the injured father. If maid, " Ma.ids" would commonly be chas- he thought the sum demanded was excessive, tised by their mistress, or by an upper there was to be an appeal to a tribunal. servant acting under the mistress's authority. Ver. 23.-Then thou llhalt give life for "A man" here means "any one." With a life. "Life for life" seems an excessive rod. The rods wherewith Egyptian slaves penalty, where the injtll'J was in a great were chastised appear upon the monuments. measure accidental, and when there was cer- They were long canes, like those used by our ta.inly no design to take life. Probably the schoolmasters. trnder his hand. Criminals law was not now enacted for the first time, in the East are said often to die under the but was an old tribal institution, like the law bastinado ; and even in our own country there oi the "avenger of blood." There are muny have been cases of soldiers dying under the things in the Mosaic institutions which Moses lash. A special delicacy of the nervous sys- tolerated, like" bills of divorce "--on account tem .will make a punishment of the kind fatal of "the hardness oi their heurts." to some, which would have been easily borne Vers. 23, 24.-Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, by others. etc. Aristotle says in the Nicomuchean Ver. 21 -If he continue a day or two- Ethics, that this was the rule uf j uslico  1,0 TUE BOOK OF EXODUS. ( en. XXI. 26-31.