“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her. If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.
“Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee. But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.
“Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.
“Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.
“Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.
Comment: The children of Israel were about to set out on a 40 year march throughout the wilderness and then it would take some years before they were in charge of the land which God had promised to them and they were intent on doing so. But it would take some years of fighting before they were an established kingdom. There were no prisons and they had to keep on the move. Slavery was not that seen (and today is still seen in many parts of the world) in the way Isaac Newton captured and carried Africans to the England and the Americas. It was a means of people being able to settle their debts and the person (themselves or a family member) given to cancel the debt was to be cared for and treated with respect, almost like a family member.
The phrase ‘but God let him fall into his hand‘, is translated differently in different translations. In the NLT it says ‘But if it was simply an accident permitted by God’. The later makes sense but I am not sure if it is what the original says. Obviously murder is dealt with harshly and not all deaths are seen as murder. God provided a way of them to be punished but not by death sentence. Kidnapping is seen as a major crime and the family structure is strongly supported. A child in a temper crying out ‘I hate you, I hate you’ to their parents was not seen as a a man cursing his parents but the constitution given in Exodus ch 20 clearly stated that God demands parental respect from even adult children!
Prayer: As Christians, Father God, we are not under this part of the ‘law’, but help us to discern what is taught in the New Testament for the way we should live. Certainly You call us to Your way of Family living, and to respect the value of lives and to keeping our promises.
As I read it! 