Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.
However, if the servant survives a day or two, the master will not be punished, because the servant is his property.
This verse is part of ancient laws that regulated how masters could treat their servants, stating that if a beaten servant didn't die immediately, the master wouldn't face legal punishment since the servant was considered his property.
📚 Historical Context
In the historical context of ancient Israel, God was giving the Mosaic Law to the Israelites shortly after their deliverance from Egyptian slavery, as part of the Covenant Code to establish a just society amid surrounding cultures that practiced harsh slavery. This specific verse addresses the treatment of slaves, where if a slave survived a beating for a day or two, the master was not punished for murder because the slave was considered the master's property, reflecting the economic realities of that era. These laws, while embedded in their time, aimed to impose limits on abuse compared to other ancient Near Eastern codes.
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