출애굽기 Chapter 21

Translation: ESV

1

Now these are the rules that you shall set before them.

Key Message

God's law is publicly proclaimed before the community and becomes the standard of justice and order arising from covenant relationship.

▸God transmits specific social laws to Moses immediately after establishing the Sinai covenant.

God transmits specific social laws to Moses immediately after establishing the Sinai covenant. These 'mishpatim (ordinances)' are detailed legal provisions governing the actual life of the Israelite community, applying the principles of the Ten Commandments to specific situations. The expression 'set before them' emphasizes that these laws are not secret but must be publicly proclaimed before the community.

Related Verses

And God spoke all these words, saying.
2

When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.

Key Message

God guarantees freedom even to fellow Hebrew slaves, commanding the creation of a just society that remembers the Egyptian slavery experience.

▸Slavery existed in Israelite society, but God placed strict time limits on the slavery of fellow Hebrew slaves.

6

Then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.

Key Message

The vow to become a permanent servant voluntarily is a covenantal dedication with God as witness, and it comes not from compulsion but from love.

▸The ritual of piercing the ear is a public vow that inscribes voluntary permanent commitment onto the body.

12

Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death.

Key Message

Human life bears God's image and therefore has absolute value, and the sin of taking a life must bear the heaviest penalty.

▸The capital punishment regulation for murder is the legal application of the sixth commandment (you shall not murder).

13

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.

Key Message

God distinguishes between intent and outcome in His judgment, and is a just Judge who provides a place of protection for the wrongly accused.

▸This regulation distinguishing intentional murder from accidental manslaughter is a very progressive principle in ancient law.

14

But if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.

Key Message

Religious formality does not exempt from moral responsibility, and God requires substantive justice rather than ritual sanctuary.

▸The regulation that a premeditated murderer cannot receive sanctuary even at the altar is an important limitation on the right of asylum.

24

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

Key Message

The lex talionis establishes proportionality as the principle of justice, limiting excessive retaliation; Jesus completes this justice with grace.

▸The lex talionis (law of equal retaliation) is often misunderstood as a call for revenge, but it was actually a progressive limitation on excessive retaliation in ancient law.