21:26,27
Times were rough and ready and all sorts of violence could occur. If you read the prophets often you find God rebuking the people for the amount of violence in society. Here we see that slaves had rights too. We do not appreciate how radical that was. They were not to be treated merely as possessions. If the slave owner caused injury to the slave then he was to let the slave go free.
21:28-32
Now we have rules about what should happen if a man’s ox gores someone to death. Now, not many of us own oxen these days, but there are general principles that we can apply. The first is that the beast was to be put to death. Today I guess the nearest we get to this is someone’s dog killing someone. The life of the person is clearly placed well above that of the animal. Indeed, the Bible considers anything else to be complete madness. Most people today would have the same attitude, but there are some who don’t! Then we come to the owner. If it was a first offence, then nothing happens, but if the animal had a habit of goring then he had responsibility, and he too was to be held responsible. The sentence was death, but it seems that this could be redeemed by suitable payment. If the man gored by the ox was a slave, then in addition to the other penalties, the slave owner was to be compensated.
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