The Challenge of Exodus 21:1-11

[Jayhawker Soule]

The text as found in the Tanach

Exodus 21

1. These are the decisions that you will set before them:
   
2. If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he will go out free without paying anything.
3. If he came in by himself he will go out by himself; if he had a wife when he came in, then his wife will go out with him.
4. If his master gave him a wife, and she bore sons or daughters, the wife and the children will belong to her master, and he will go out by himself.
5. But if the servant should declare, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’
6. then his master must bring him to the judges, and he will bring him to the door or the doorposts, and his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.
7. If a man sells his daughter as a female servant, she will not go out as the male servants do.
8. If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to a foreign nation, because he has dealt deceitfully with her.
9. If he designated her for his son, then he will deal with her according to the customary rights of daughters.
10. If he takes another wife, he must not diminish the first one’s food, her clothing, or her marital rights.
11. If he does not provide her with these three things, then she will go out free, without paying money.

How should we view this? As a source of pride? ... a cause for embarrassment? ... a reason for contempt? How we read the Torah significantly influences what we read into it and what we get out of it. So what's the "take-away" here?

 

[sojourner]

The text as found in the Tanach

Exodus 21

1. These are the decisions that you will set before them:
2. If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he will go out free without paying anything.
3. If he came in by himself he will go out by himself; if he had a wife when he came in, then his wife will go out with him.
4. If his master gave him a wife, and she bore sons or daughters, the wife and the children will belong to her master, and he will go out by himself.
5. But if the servant should declare, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’
6. then his master must bring him to the judges, and he will bring him to the door or the doorposts, and his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.
7. If a man sells his daughter as a female servant, she will not go out as the male servants do.
8. If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to a foreign nation, because he has dealt deceitfully with her.
9. If he designated her for his son, then he will deal with her according to the customary rights of daughters.
10. If he takes another wife, he must not diminish the first one’s food, her clothing, or her marital rights.
11. If he does not provide her with these three things, then she will go out free, without paying money.

How should we view this? As a source of pride? ... a cause for embarrassment? ... a reason for contempt? How we read the Torah significantly influences what we read into it and what we get out of it. So what's the "take-away" here?

It's a record of how the community endeavored to treat their slaves equitably.
BTW, am I correct in thinking that slavery in this context was not what we put the blacks through in the 1800's? This is about debt-slavery -- completely different animal. This is part of the prohibition against usury, is it not?

 

[Quagmire]

As systems of slavery go this one's extremely humane.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

It's a record of how the community endeavored to treat their slaves equitably. BTW, am I correct in thinking that slavery in this context was not what we put the blacks through in the 1800's? This is about debt-slavery -- completely different animal. ...

As systems of slavery go this one's extremely humane.

Yes, it's about debt-slavery and manumission and, yes, it reflects a significantly egalitarian advance.

 

[Seven]

How should we view this? As a source of pride? ... a cause for embarrassment? ... a reason for contempt? How we read the Torah significantly influences what we read into it and what we get out of it. So what's the "take-away" here?

I don't think we should get anything out of it. It's simply an account of the laws regarding slavery in a particular culture and time.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

I don't think we should get anything out of it.

I do not doubt that you'll succeed.

 

[Just_me_Mike]

The text as found in the Tanach

So what's the "take-away" here?​

​

As you point out. It depends on how we read the Torah.
In the light of the rest of the Torah was salvery something more than just slavery? Was Slavery a picture of anything else to be understood? If so, than what else did the writers of the Torah want us to know about Slavery and its purpose?
Once this question has been fully exhausted, we can be on better ground when approaching "what to take" from these verses.

 

[Yerda]

Is it documentation of an expanding moral conscience? A record of early slaves rights?

 

[sojourner]

Is it documentation of an expanding moral conscience? A record of early slaves rights?

This deals with debt-slavery. This was s special kind of slavery, which had strict rules designating how it worked. A debt-slave was someone who was working off a debt that he owed to a creditor. (I believe the story of Jacob working for Laban would have been a form of debt-slavery. Since Jacob wouldn't have had a dowry to pay Laban in exchange for Rachel, he had to work the debt off.)
Since the slaves were set free after seven years of debt-paying, they weren't "real" slaves, in the sense that we think of slavery. Therefore, the "morality" here is completely different than what you're probably thinking of.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

Even after all this time, we're still tackling the same social issues.

Sisyphus will never get that darned boulder balanced.

 

[sojourner]

Even after all this time, we're still tackling the same social issues.

Sisyphus will never get that darned boulder balanced.

Look at the usury that happened in 21st-century USA...

 

[Guitar's Cry]

Look at the usury that happened in 21st-century USA...

Yup!

And, who supported it.

 

[Solveigh79]

So many times in the Book of the Law or our Old Testament we see that G_d calls his people to do things a certain way and if they do like the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy they will be blessed! Who wouldn't want that? When Abram waited all day for G_d to show up he did so as a smoking oven, what a site that must have been for the future Father of the nation of Israel but I think he feel into a sleep. In the book of Ruth, some scholars say that she is compared to the nation of Israel and Boaz the "kinsmen redeemer" is compared to the G_d that comes and one day pays for the sins once and for all for his people. We can debate so many things in the Word of G_d (and this i do out of respect for the Jewish nation when I write it out this way. But we need to remember the weighter issues like Loving G_d and treating others well, with love, concern and respect. Repent, now there is a word many people don't talk about too much today, but all we need do is look around at the state of the world and realize that we in fact do need G_d. If that means doing things HIS way then by all means let us come to his throne of Grace and Mercy and repent and accept his salvation. The word says there is no other name under heaven in which man might be saved. In the book of Amos the Lord warns of his coming judgement and talks about "selling the poor for a pair of shoes." Many people today think all these things that are coming upon us are not some mistake but the coming judgement. We need to wake up, Repent and live as the Lord would have us to. He looks at the heart, not our intellect, and we can debate so many things all day long but when it comes down to it, we need to be real with G_d and with man. We need Him BAD! real bad. We are a bunch of miserable sinners who need his mercy, grace and forgiveness and his LOVE.

 

[sojourner]

This has nothing to do with the topic.
It's nice.
But it has nothing to do with the topic.