The Skeptics Annotated Bible (79 page)

21
Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.

(21.2-6)
God’s rules for buying slaves and splitting up their families
You can buy one, but you must set him free on the seventh year. If you have “given” him a wife and she bears children, then you get to keep the wife and kids. If he refuses to leave his family when his seven years are up, then bore a hole though his ear and keep him forever. (That sounds fair!)
42 Does God approve of slavery?

2
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free
for nothing.

(21.2)
“If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free.
”

3 If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.

4
If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.

(21.4)
“If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.”

5
And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:

(21.5)
“And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free.”

6
Then his master shall
bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall
bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever
.

(21.6)
“Then his master shall … bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.”

(21.7-8) How to sell your daughter—and what to do if she fails to please her new master.

7 And
if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservan
t, she shall not go out as the menservants do.

(21.7)
“If a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant …”

8
If she please not her master
, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.

(21.8)
“If she please not her master …”

9 And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.

10
If he take him another wife
; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.

(21.10)
“If he take him another wife …”
God’s rules for “taking” another wife
16 Is polygamy OK?.

11 And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.

12 He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.

13 And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.

14 But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.

(21.15, 17)
A child who hits or curses his parents must be executed.
23 Does God approve of capital punishment?