Exodus 21 Commentary

So begins a section known as the Book of the Covenant. It contains 42 judgments.

The first section of the Book of the Covenant concerns how male and female servants (or slaves) were to be treated.

Violent acts perpetuated against another person require capital punishment. The persons in view here are free and not servants. There are four crimes described in these verses.

Here are the judgements for four instances of violence done to a person where the victim does not die. The four instances are: violence between free people, violence done to servants, violence done to a pregnant woman which causes the loss of her baby, and bodily injury to a servant.

This passage is concerned with other things that could cause injury to a person and their livelihood. A violent ox, the loss of livestock by negligence, or one ox killing another.