Ver. 1. Now these are the judgments,] i.e., The judicial laws, fitly annexed to the Decalogue, whereof the civil magistrate is the lord-keeper. It was written upon the sword of Charles the Great, Decem praeceptorum custos Carolus.
Ver. 2. In the seventh year.] No longer might they serve, because they were God’s servants; (Leviticus 25:42) whose privilege, see in Isaiah 65:13,14 Christ’s “freemen.” (1 Corinthians 7:22)
Ver. 3. If he came in by himself,] Without a second-self, a yoke fellow, standing on even ground with himself, though drawing on the left side.
Ver. 4. Have given him a wife,] viz., One of his heathen handmaids, whom to part with was no great punishment, because an unlawful couple.
Ver. 5. I love my master.] A little better than he in Plautus, that said, Ego non servio libenter; herus meus me non habet libenter, tamen utitur me ut lippis oculis.
Ver. 6. And he shall serve him.] Being υπερετης και οργανον και ολως εκεινου, as Aristotle hath it; the master’s instrument, underling, and wholly his. He doeth his own, and not his master’s will, that doeth no more than himself will: this is a holiday servant, as they say.
Ver. 7. She shall not go out.] But upon better terms. He that was to come “in the form of a servant,” (Philippians 2:7) see what care he takes of poor servants’ welfare. Lawyers seldom speak but for great men, or when they may have great gifts. Christ is not of that humour.
Ver. 8. He hath dealt deceitfully with her.] By not answering her expectation. This God tolerated for the hardness of their hearts, but approved not.
Ver. 9. After the manner of daughters.] Not put her off, as they say they do their daughters in Hungary, without a portion, only with a new coat at their wedding: much less set her to sale, as the Thracians did their young brides; quae non moribus nubebant, sed praemiis. Solin, cap. 15.
Ver. 10. Her duty of marriage.] See 1 Corinthians 7:5, [See Trapp on “1Co 7:5”]
Ver. 11. And if he do not these three unto her.] Picus est imago ingrati mariti, quia sub autumnum eiecit coniugem, ne cogatur per hyemem nutrire: postea sub vernum tempus eam ad se blande revocat, ac in consortium recipit. Melancthon.
Ver. 12. Shall be surely put to death.] [See Trapp on “Ge 9:6”]
Ver. 13. But God deliver him.] Who is the Lord of our lives, and to whom we have frequently forfeited them; so that it is his mercy that we are not consumed; (Lamentations 3:22) that we are not cut off from the land of the living.
Ver. 14. , Thou shalt take him, &c.] “A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit; let none stay him”; -where (Proverbs 28:17) the word Adam, rendered man, hath in the original a little d, to show that a murderer is not worthy to be called a man; -he is to be drawn from the altar to the slaughter. [Hebrew Text Note]
Ver. 15. He that smiteth.] By the law of God, of nature, and of nations, such a man should die. And herein, I think, our laws are defective: albeit, I am not of Carolostadius’s mind, who, if Melancthon misreport him not, held that these judicial laws set down by Moses should be still of force, and these only, in Christian commonwealths, and all other civil and municipal laws abolished. Our English Alfred I cannot but commend for his piety, in that he began his common laws with the ten commandments. Lombard.
Ver. 16. He that stealeth a man.] Akin to these are they that steal other men’s books, and father them, setting them out in their own names. Diagoras was so served by a plagiary, which, when he saw, and that the thief was not presently struck with a thunderbolt, he, out of stomach, turned atheist. Thus, of late, Fabricius stole Tremelius’s Syriac translation. Villavincentius stole Hyperius’s treatise, “De Ratione Studii Theologici.” And Possevinus stole Dr James’s “Cyprianus Redivivus.”
Ver. 17. And he that curseth.] [See Trapp on “Ex 21:15”] [See Trapp on “Mt 15:4”] Immane verbum est ultio. -Seneca.
Ver. 18. If men strive together.] This is counted manhood, when indeed it is doghood rather: heathens condemned it; and yet Navarrus, a Popish casuist, Caedem recte admitti putat, ut alapa vitetur, et ad honorem recuperandum. Qui ulciscitur, excusatius peccat. -Ibid.
Ver. 19. Upon his staff.] See 2 Samuel 3:29 Zec 8:4.
Ver. 20. He shall be surely punished.] At the discretion of the magistrate, who is the “revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” (Romans 13:4)
Ver. 21. For he is his money.] And therefore he hath power over his flesh. (Colossians 3:22) Yet “hide not thine eyes from thine own flesh,” saith the prophet. (Isaiah 58:7)
Ver. 22. And yet no mischief follow,] i.e., No life be lost. There is a time, then, when the embryo is not alive; therefore the soul is not begotten, but infused after a time by God. Infundendo creatur, et creando infnnditur, saith Augustine, who at first doubted, till overcome by Jerome’s arguments.
Ver. 23. And if any mischief follow.] Either by death or maim, either of mother or child.
Ver. 24. Eye for eye.] How the Pharisees had wrested that text. [See Trapp on “Mt 5:39”] This kind of law, in use among heat hens also, Aristotle calls το αντιπεπονθος and was given against private revenge.
Ver. 26. And if a man smite the eye of his servant.] Think the same, saith Aben Ezra, of the other principal members, which the Jews call capita membrorum: these are the ten fingers, the ten toes, the two ears, the nose, and the yard.
Ver. 28. Then the ox shall be surely stoned.] God requiring man’s blood even of beasts. (Genesis 9:5) [See Trapp on “Ge 9:5”]
Ver. 29. That he hath killed a man, &c.] Since the fall, all creatures are armed against us; as that sword which Hector gave Ajax: which so long as he used against men, his enemies, served for help and defence: but after he began to abuse it to the hurt of hurtless beasts, it turned into his own bowels.
Ver. 30. Sum of money.] Taxed upon him by the next of kin, or, if he be unreasonable, by the judge. (Exodus 21:22)
Ver. 31. A son or a daughter.] A little one, and in his minority, as Puerilitas est periculorum pelagus.
Ver. 32. Thirty shekels.] This same was that “goodly price” that our Lord Christ was valued at by the vile Jews. (Zechariah 11:12,13 Matthew 26:15)
Ver. 33. And an ox or an ass.] We can hardly open the deep pit of God’s bottomless, boundless mercy, but some silly beast will be falling thereinto; “stumbling at the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed.” (1 Peter 2:8)
Ver. 34. The owner of the pit shall make it good.] Think the same of other cattle also, good vel ad usum, vel ad esum, as horse, ass, sheep, &c.: a parte, tolum intelligendum, saith Augustine here; by a part it is to be understood the whole.
Ver. 36. Ox for ox.] These were those “right judgments, true laws, good statutes, and commandments.” (Nehemiah 9:13)