Exodus 21 part 2

*The next part of the chapter could be entitled Personal Injury Law. We already know murder is forbidden. Now we find out the penalty for deliberately killing a man (not a woman) is death. For an accidental killing, a person may run away to a designated place. What if a deliberate murderer says it was an accident and runs away?

*A person could also be put to death for: attacking his mother or father, kidnapping someone, and cursing his mother or father. We are not talking about cursing as in using filthy language, we are talking about an old fashioned voodoo-like curse, the opposite of a blessing. Because superstitious words have power? You would think God would know better.

*A man is to be punished, not executed,  if a slave dies right after he beats it. If the slave doesn't die within a few days, the owner will not be punished, after all the slave is his property. Notice that the beating itself is not wrong. Way to go, Yahweh. What happened to the story that the Israelites were miserable as slaves in Egypt and Yahweh heard their cries? Does he not hear the cries of all slaves, or just Israelites?

*If fighting men hit a pregnant woman and she loses the baby, the hitter must pay whatever the husband demands, and the courts allow. If there is a serious injury (It appears that losing an unborn child was not considered serious.) it will be punished in kind, life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, bruise for bruise.  However, if a man hits a slave and destroys his or her eye, or knocks out a tooth, the slave must be set free as compensation. In other words, slaves do not have equal protection under the law. A master will not be punished in kind for any injuries he causes. So, just avoid hitting your slave near the face and you should be fine.

*A killer bull must be killed and not eaten. The owner will not be held responsible, unless the owner can be shown to know the bull was dangerous and did not take precautions. Then, if the bull kills, both the bull and the owner will be executed. However, the owner can go free if he pays acceptable damages. If the bull kills a slave, the owner must pay 30 shekels of silver to the slave owner and the bull must be killed. Again, the harming of a slave does not have the same consequences as the harming of a free person.

*If someone's big hole in the ground is responsible for the death of someone else's animal, he must pay for the dead animal and then it will be his.

*If a bull kills another man's bull, the live one is to be sold. The money is to be divided and the carcass of the dead animal is also divided between the two owners. If the owner did not keep a dangerous bull responsibly restrained, the owner must give the other man a new bull and he gets to keep the carcass of the dead one.

Edited.