Only, if he continue [to live] a day or two days, he shall not be avenged; for he is his money.
Exodus 21 moves from the Ten Commandments to case law. This verse deals with a master who beats his servant, and the servant lives on for a day or two before dying. The stated reason for the lighter outcome — that the servant is the master's property — raises two hard questions. What did God permit here? And what was He holding back?
The case as it stands
The verse is the second half of a pair. One writer sets out the ruling and the single reason given for the difference.
Anyone who struck his servant and caused his death would incur the death penalty himself. Yet if the servant lived even a day or two before dying, the penalty would not be carried out. The only explanation given for this is, "for he is his money" (v. 21).
The master is himself under authority
Read alone, the clause sounds like the master owns a life. The chapter cuts that idea down at the start. It opens with what masters may and may not do.
Special duties of masters are considered first. They may think they have full authority over their slaves. But they must first remember God's authority over themselves. God limits what they may do.
That limit is real. Six verses later, a master who destroys a servant's eye or knocks out a tooth loses the servant. The injured man walks out free.
Protection where the world around gave none
These rules look harsh on their own. Set them beside the nations around Israel and they look different. One writer draws that comparison.
The slave of those days was the property of his master. The law of Moses was merciful. It protected the Jewish servant from a cruel master. Among the other nations there was almost no legal check on a harsh master, and a slave there could suffer the most brutal treatment.
An evil restrained, not yet removed
Commentators do not defend the institution these laws regulate. One calls it what it is, while noting the softening effect of the limits placed on it.
This commandment deals with slavery. It was an evil that could not be removed yet. In the limited form allowed here, it often became a benefit — above all when the slave became something like the adopted child of his master.
Another writer says the same about these rules as a whole. They improved on the practice of the nations around Israel. They still fell short of God's own mind.
The law given by Moses had done much to reduce the harshness of slavery in Israel… Still, we freely admit that the law made nothing perfect, here as everywhere else. Because of human hardness of heart, the law tolerated much that was far from God's mind. That lasted until He came who is the truth in grace. Christ changed everything, and the bondman became His freedman.
Elsewhere the same reasoning is applied to the servant-woman of verses 7-11, where things were permitted that Christians today would not tolerate — the law set out the minimum of God's demands, while everything He desires is set out in Christ.
What this tells us about law itself
The verse belongs to a block of rulings that measure damage and match penalty to injury. One commentator draws two conclusions from the whole section. The second explains why this verse feels cold.
The first is that all these rules show the tenderness of God. He protects the bodies of His people, above all those under someone else's power. The second is that we find here the true character of law. Grace is absent. It is eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. Our blessed Lord quotes these rules to show how they differ from grace… Law demands an equal return — no more and no less. Grace can cancel every claim.
Law can weigh a case and set a boundary. It cannot produce a heart that would never strike at all. That is why the same chapter opens with a servant who stays because he loves his master. He is the opposite of a man valued as money.
Summary
- Property — The verse gives one reason and no other for the lighter penalty: the servant was the master's money.
- Limit — Ownership did not mean unlimited power. God's authority stood over the master. Killing a servant brought punishment. Injuring one cost him the servant.
- Mercy — In the nations around Israel a master faced almost no legal check. These rules gave real protection to the person with the least power.
- Tolerated — Writers call slavery an evil that could not be removed yet. The law tolerated much that was far from God's mind, because it made nothing perfect.
- Christ — Law weighs damages and stops there; grace cancels the claim. The chapter that prices a servant also opens with the servant who refuses freedom out of love.