“When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed, then if the man rises again and walks outdoors with his staff, he who struck him shall be clear; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall have him thoroughly healed.
“When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.
“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
“When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye. If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth.
“When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall not be liable. But if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death. If a ransom is imposed on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed on him. If it gores a man’s son or daughter, he shall be dealt with according to this same rule. If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
Comment: This passage while largely based on ‘an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth’ sets responsibility and just payment in recompense as the basis of the law – as they travelled along the route ahead of them. It acknowledges that original sin has consequences – ‘everyone would be good if given the chance’ is imagined rubbish. God giving these instructions based the law on the reality of what the fall in the garden meant. They and we live in this ‘fallen’ world!
Either the Bible is true or it is not. I guess it is not as simple as that, because logically you could argue that it contains truth but is not totally true. The problem which then raises its ugly head is ‘who has the right to discern the right bits?’ It claims to be the truth as God has revealed it and its claim is that it is ‘The Truth!’ Mind you that doesn’t mean that you throw out your reasoning and turn on stupidity and let it have free reign! You are not expected to believe that ‘trees clap their hands’; you are not expected to try and literally claim that well-known sayings are stupid because we don’t use them today. Everyone in the age and area where it was spoken knew what ‘camels passing through the eye of a needle’ meant. The small gate in the large gates used to close the city wall of Jerusalem to allow individual people to pass, while stopping large caravans of traders or enemies access was know as the eye of the needle. We know that the way of signing an agreement, in Abraham’s time, it wasn’t to get a lawyer to sign and witness an agreement, but to cut an animal(s) in halves and both parties to walk between the bloody, gut spilt mess and thereby saying may the same happen to me if I break this agreement!
Prayer: Help me and us as a church to understand and practice what Your laws for the Jews mean to us as Christians and to live according to Your Way.
As I read it! 