C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on Exodus 21:1
Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. Browse this work.
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Exodus21:1
The mishpatim (Exo 21:1) are not the “laws, which were to be in force and serve as rules of action,” as Knobel affirms, but the rights, by which the national life was formed into a civil commonwealth and the political order secured. These rights had reference first of all to the relation in which the individuals stood one towards another. The personal rights of dependants are placed at the head (Exo 21:2-11); and first those of slaves (Exo 21:2-6), which are still more minutely explained in Deu 15:12-18, where the observance of them is urged upon the hearts of the people on subjective grounds.
C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, Exodus 21:1. Public domain.
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