Latest / The Bible Study Podcast / #980 - Exodus 21 – Laws About Servants and Injuries

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#980 - Exodus 21 – Laws About Servants and Injuries · The Bible Study Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio The Bible Study Podcast, Episode nine and eighty. Today,
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  Speaker 1: The Bible Study Podcast continues the study of the Book
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  Speaker 1: of Exodus with chapter twenty one. Welcome to the Bible
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  Speaker 1: Study Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Kristensen. We're going to
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  Speaker 1: continue on with more instructions given at Mount Sinai, But
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  Speaker 1: first a word from this sponsor. So Chapter twenty one
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  Speaker 1: starts this way. These are the laws you are to
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  Speaker 1: set before them Hebrew servants. If you buy a Hebrew servant,
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  Speaker 1: he is to serve you for six years, But in
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  Speaker 1: the seventh year he is to go free without paying anything.
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  Speaker 1: If he comes alone, he is to go free alone.
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  Speaker 1: But if he has a wife when he comes, she
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  Speaker 1: is to go with him. If his master gives him
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  Speaker 1: a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the
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  Speaker 1: woman and her children shall belong to her master, and
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  Speaker 1: only the man shall go free. But if the servant declares,
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  Speaker 1: I love my master and my wife and children, and
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  Speaker 1: do not want to go free, then his master must
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  Speaker 1: take him before the judges. He shall take him to
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  Speaker 1: the door or the doorpost, and pierce his ear with
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  Speaker 1: an all. Then he will be his servant for life.
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  Speaker 1: If a man sells his daughter as a servant. She
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  Speaker 1: is not to go free as male servants do. If
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  Speaker 1: she does not please the master, who has selected her
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  Speaker 1: for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He has
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  Speaker 1: no right to sell her to foreigners because he has
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  Speaker 1: broken faith with her. If he selects her for his son,
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  Speaker 1: he must grant her the rights of a daughter. If
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  Speaker 1: he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first
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  Speaker 1: one of her food, clothing, and marital rights. If he
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  Speaker 1: does not provide her with these things, she is to
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  Speaker 1: go free without any payment or money. So these are
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  Speaker 1: part of a series of rule in the levitical law,
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  Speaker 1: which we're getting to end this instruction here at Mount
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  Speaker 1: Sinai that's documented in Exodus. That really go back to
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  Speaker 1: you were slaves in Egypt, and you're going to be
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  Speaker 1: my people. I don't want you to be in debt
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  Speaker 1: as we'll get to, and I don't want you to
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  Speaker 1: be slaves forever. Now you can have indentured servants. That's
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  Speaker 1: what we would call it if you were a slave
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  Speaker 1: for six years. Right, If you're a slave, basically you're
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  Speaker 1: saying I'm going to give you my service, probably because
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  Speaker 1: I got into debt, but I'm not going to stay
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  Speaker 1: a slave forever, and that's really what this is all about.
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  Speaker 1: But you might have this situation where the guy realizes, hey,
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  Speaker 1: I'm better off being a slave for the rest of
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  Speaker 1: my life being a servant for the rest of my life,
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  Speaker 1: in which case there's a provision here that you can say,
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  Speaker 1: I'd rather do that. And then you notice you have
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  Speaker 1: to go before the judge. You have to have somebody
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  Speaker 1: else say yes, we believe this person is really saying this,
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  Speaker 1: rather than you're just telling us they made this decision.
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  Speaker 1: And then you mark them, you pierce the ear to
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  Speaker 1: make sure that everybody knows that this is a permanent servant.
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  Speaker 1: And then these whole things with selling your daughter as
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  Speaker 1: a servant. All of these rights here are that you're
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  Speaker 1: not going to be sold off to a foreigner, that
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  Speaker 1: if you're selected for your son, you have to be
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  Speaker 1: treated like a daughter, treat these people, well, you were
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  Speaker 1: a slave before, and therefore we're going to have a
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  Speaker 1: different set of rules for you. All of these rules,
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  Speaker 1: you notice, only do apply to fellow Hebrews. Slavery is
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  Speaker 1: not illegal at this point in the Bible. We can
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  Speaker 1: talk about whether it should be or not although usually
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  Speaker 1: slavery and this time period is not what we would
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  Speaker 1: call chattel slavery. It's not slavery because you are a
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  Speaker 1: specific color or a specific nationale. It's slavery because you
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  Speaker 1: got into debt, or it's slavery because your people lost
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  Speaker 1: to my people in a battle. So it's a little different.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, still not a big fan of slavery.
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  Speaker 1: But these rules were all to temperate within the Hebrew
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  Speaker 1: society personal injuries. Now, before I get into this, why
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  Speaker 1: do we have all these rules? Remember you're coming out
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  Speaker 1: of Egypt, where you were living under Egyptian rules. You
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  Speaker 1: didn't have Hebrew laws because you weren't allowed to have laws,
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  Speaker 1: you weren't in charge. And so you're basically taking this
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  Speaker 1: people who were slaves and turning them into a nation.
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  Speaker 1: Will nations have laws, they have rules that they live by.
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  Speaker 1: And so we started with some basics like the Ten commandments.
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  Speaker 1: You know, hey, just don't steal, just don't kill, don't
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  Speaker 1: covet because it leads to other problems. You know, don't
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  Speaker 1: commit adultery, all those things. But then we're adding in
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  Speaker 1: more detail as our laws also add more detail, and
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  Speaker 1: we get more and more laws because of precedent, because
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  Speaker 1: of well, the judges decided in this case to apply
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  Speaker 1: this law in this way. They get a lot of
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  Speaker 1: laws here that God is specifically starting them with again
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  Speaker 1: personal injuries. Anyone who strikes a person with a fatal
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  Speaker 1: blow is to be put to death. However, if it
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  Speaker 1: is not done intentionally, but God lets it happen, they
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  Speaker 1: are to flee to a place I will designate. But
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  Speaker 1: if anyone schemes and kills someone deliberately, that person is
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  Speaker 1: to be taken from my altar and put to death.
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  Speaker 1: Anyone who attacks their father or mother is to be
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  Speaker 1: put to death. Anyone who kidnaps someone is to be
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  Speaker 1: put to death, whether the victim has been sold or
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  Speaker 1: is still in the kidnapper's possession. Anyone who curses their
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  Speaker 1: father or mother is to be put to death. If
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  Speaker 1: a person quarrels with one person hits another person with
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  Speaker 1: a stone or their fist, and the victim does not die,
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  Speaker 1: but is confined to bed, the one who struck the
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  Speaker 1: blow will not be held liable if the other can
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  Speaker 1: get up and walk around outside with a staff. However,
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  Speaker 1: the guilty party must pay the injured person for any
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  Speaker 1: loss of time and see that the victim is completely healed.
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  Speaker 1: Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a
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  Speaker 1: rod must be punished if the slave dies as a
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  Speaker 1: direct result, but they are not to be punished if
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  Speaker 1: the slave recovers after a day or two, since the
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  Speaker 1: slave is their property. If people are fighting and hit
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  Speaker 1: a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely, but there
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  Speaker 1: is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever
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  Speaker 1: the women's husband demands and the court allows. But if
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  Speaker 1: there is serious injury, you are to take life for life.
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  Speaker 1: Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot
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  Speaker 1: for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
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  Speaker 1: An owner who hits a male or female slave in
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  Speaker 1: the eye and destroys it must let the slave go
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  Speaker 1: to compensate for the eye, and an owner who knocks
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  Speaker 1: out a tooth of a male or female male slave
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  Speaker 1: must let the slave go free to compensate for the tooth.
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  Speaker 1: If a bull gore is a man or woman to death,
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  Speaker 1: the bull is to be stoned to death, and its
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  Speaker 1: meat must not be eaten, but the owner of the
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  Speaker 1: bull will not be held responsible. If, however, the bull
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  Speaker 1: has had the habit of goring and the owner has
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  Speaker 1: been warned and he has not kept it panned up,
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  Speaker 1: and it kills a man or woman, the bull is
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  Speaker 1: to be stoned, and the owner also is to be
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  Speaker 1: put to death. However, if payment is demanded, the owner
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  Speaker 1: may redeem his life by the payment of whatever is demanded.
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  Speaker 1: This law also applies if the bull gore is a
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  Speaker 1: son or daughter. If the bull gores a male or
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  Speaker 1: female slave, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver
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  Speaker 1: to the master of the slave, and the bull is
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  Speaker 1: to be stoned to death. If anyone uncovers a pit
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  Speaker 1: it digs one and fails to cover it, and an
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  Speaker 1: ox or donkey falls into it, the one who opened
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  Speaker 1: the pit must pay the owner for the loss and
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  Speaker 1: take the dead animal in exchange. If anyone's bull injures
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  Speaker 1: someone else's bull and it dies, the two parties are
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  Speaker 1: to sell the live one and divide both the money
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  Speaker 1: and the dead animal equally. However, if it was known
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  Speaker 1: that the bull had a habit of going, yet the
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  Speaker 1: owner did not keep it penned up, the owner must
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  Speaker 1: pay animal for animal and take the dead animal in exchange.
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  Speaker 1: We have rules like this too. Isn't this amazing? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: these are really detailed. You got to think about all
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  Speaker 1: the different circumstances that might happen. So, first of all,
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  Speaker 1: that first one is really saying we've got different rules
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  Speaker 1: for manslaughter versus murder. If you and I have a
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  Speaker 1: fight and I throw a punch and you die, that
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  Speaker 1: is different from I decide that I'm going to kill
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  Speaker 1: you now in this case, remember they are currently in Sinai.
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  Speaker 1: They have no buildings. The only building they're going to
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  Speaker 1: have soon is a tabernacle, which is a tent. So
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  Speaker 1: they have only tents. So they don't have any prisons,
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  Speaker 1: and so a lot of these laws may seem to
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  Speaker 1: us to be harsh as we go on here, but
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  Speaker 1: they don't have a lot of options. It's not clear
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  Speaker 1: what they would do with somebody. They're not going to
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  Speaker 1: build a prison, and so a lot of these things
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  Speaker 1: are going to be leading to death. This one says though,
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  Speaker 1: that when you get to the Promised Land, if you
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  Speaker 1: flee to a place I designate, there will be cities
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  Speaker 1: that are cities of refuge, And if you can make
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  Speaker 1: it to the city of refuge, then someone can't come
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  Speaker 1: and kill you. But if you're not there and you've
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  Speaker 1: killed someone's brother, they can kill you. So these rules
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  Speaker 1: will get a little more complicated when we get into
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  Speaker 1: the Promised Land. All of these things are trying to
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  Speaker 1: give some form of justice. What is fair? And so
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  Speaker 1: when we see like an eye for an eye, a
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  Speaker 1: tooth for a tooth, what it's doing is it's trying
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  Speaker 1: to limit revenge. So if you knock up my tooth
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  Speaker 1: and I kill you, I'm guilty of murder. Right, If
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  Speaker 1: you knock on my tooth, then I knock out your tooth,
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  Speaker 1: it's saying, well, that's that's fair. So that's the kind
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  Speaker 1: of thing that we're trying to do here. If you
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  Speaker 1: attack father and mother put to death. Remember, honor your
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  Speaker 1: father and mother is a very important thing. So even
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  Speaker 1: if you throw a punch at your father, here it's saying,
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  Speaker 1: it's a serious thing. We don't want kidnappers. You can't
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  Speaker 1: even curse your father and mother. That's a serious that
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  Speaker 1: would surprise us today. But that's how important that honor
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  Speaker 1: your father and mother is. And then we start getting
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  Speaker 1: into the details of Okay, what if I hit you
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  Speaker 1: with a stone but you recover, well, how recovered do
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  Speaker 1: you have to be well. If you can walk around
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  Speaker 1: with a staff, okay, but you know I have to
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  Speaker 1: pay you, and so all putting in all of this
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  Speaker 1: form of compensation here again we don't have laws. We
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  Speaker 1: need laws. Anyone who beats the male servant with a rod, okay,
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  Speaker 1: you can do that. But if they die, then you're
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  Speaker 1: going to be punished. If you knock out their tooth,
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  Speaker 1: then you got to set them free. If you damage
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  Speaker 1: their eye and they can't see anymore, you have to
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  Speaker 1: set them free. If you're fighting and a woman gives birth,
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  Speaker 1: if there's no serious injury, you just with the husband
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  Speaker 1: demands and the courts allow. Again, patriarchal society. That is
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  Speaker 1: the reality of this situation. And I thought it was
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  Speaker 1: interesting this whole thing with the bull. So if a
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  Speaker 1: bull gore is a man or a woman, you put
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  Speaker 1: that bull to death, but the owner isn't responsible. But
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  Speaker 1: the owner knew that there was a risk. This is
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  Speaker 1: sort of where a lot of our legality comes from
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  Speaker 1: in terms of if you knew that your car that
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  Speaker 1: you were selling me was unsafe and I die in it,
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  Speaker 1: that's a different thing than if you didn't know it
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  Speaker 1: was unsafe and I die in it, and that's the
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  Speaker 1: same thing going on here with a bull. So some
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  Speaker 1: of these things are very similar to what we have.
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  Speaker 1: Some of them, like cursing your father and mother being
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  Speaker 1: put to death, are very different from what we have.
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  Speaker 1: If you uncover a pit and somebody falls into it
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  Speaker 1: and an animal falls into it, then you have to
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  Speaker 1: pay for it. You left this hazard. Basically, if I
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  Speaker 1: digging up potholes in front of my house and you
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  Speaker 1: drive into it, I'm going to be held responsible if
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  Speaker 1: I didn't put out those signs that say, hey, don't
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  Speaker 1: drive here, there's a pothole. It's similar sort of things.
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  Speaker 1: And then again the same sort of thing with if
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  Speaker 1: my bull injures your bull, it's different if I didn't
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  Speaker 1: know that that was going to happen because my bull
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  Speaker 1: has never done this before, than if I did. There's
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  Speaker 1: going to be a lot of these very prosaic rules
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  Speaker 1: that are set up because you need these prosaic rules.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you could have started with if somebody is injured,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to do things fairly and then let judges
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  Speaker 1: figure it out. But it's easier to start from at
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  Speaker 1: least a basic framework. And again they're being set up
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  Speaker 1: as a nation. They need laws. We're going to be
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  Speaker 1: going through some of them here. With that, we're going
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  Speaker 1: to end this episode of the Bible Study Podcast. If
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  Speaker 1: you have any questions, send an email to Chris two
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  Speaker 1: x at gmail dot com, or, better yet, leave a
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  Speaker 1: comment on this episode at the biblestudypodcast dot com. And
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  Speaker 1: as always, thanks so much for listening. I want to
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  Speaker 1: take just a second to thank the team at Life
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