Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 21:16
And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
16. Man-stealing. Cf. Deu 24:7, where the present law is merely expanded, and recast in Deuteronomic phraseology.
a man ] in Deu 24:7, expressly limited to an Israelite: so LXX Targ. add here, ‘of the children of Israel.’ No doubt this interprets correctly the intention of the law.
and selleth him ] into a foreign country is probably what is thought (cf. v. 8). This would not only sever the victim cruelly from his own people, and his own religion (1Sa 26:19), but also expose him to many risks of death. The Phoenicians (Amo 1:9, and, at a later time, Joe 3:4-6), to say nothing of other nations (Gen 37:36), would be ready purchasers of slaves.
or if he be found in his hand ] i.e. if he has not yet actually sold him.
shall be put to death ] The same punishment in amm. 14. At Athens, the , who enslaved a free man, or enticed away another person’s slave, was punished with death (Hermann, Griech. Antiq. iii. xii. 12; lxii. 12: cf. Demosth. Phil. i. p. 53 end, 47; Xen. Memor. i. 2. 62): among the Romans both the seller and the buyer of a free-born citizen were punished with death (Kn.).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Exo 21:16
He that stealeth a man.
About kidnapping
The same law is repeated in Deu 24:7; from which passage it is evident that it treats of kidnapping a Hebrew. And thus the severity of the punishment, death, without the possibility of redemption, cannot appear surprising. For all Israelites are considered as free citizens with inalienable and equal rights, of which they can never be entirely divested. Now it is natural that he who steals an Israelite will, in the rarest cases, keep him as his slave or sell him to an Israelite, as the injured person could, in the Holy Land, easily find means to inform the authorities of his fate, and thus cause the punishment of his criminal master. The latter, therefore, generally sold the kidnapped individual to foreign merchants into distant lands, either to Egyptians, who commanded the land commerce to the south, or to Phoenicians, who influenced the trade to the west; and opportunities of selling must have easily offered themselves, as Palestine was situated in the exact centre of the commerce of the East. But by such sale, free Israelites became permanent slaves; they forfeited with their liberty their chief characteristic as Hebrews, and were thus lost to the Hebrew community, the more so, as the exclusive intercourse with pagans must necessarily defile the purity of their faith, and gradually accustom their thoughts to idolatry. For this reason it was in the Mosaic law, interdicted to sell even thieves into foreign countries, because thereby souls are, as it were, extirpated from Israel. Thus he who kidnapped Israelites and sold them to other countries justly deserved death, especially if we consider the most melancholy and bitter lot to which the slaves of heathen nations were generally doomed. (M. M. Kalisch, P h. D.)
Unrighteousness of slave holding
At the time slaves were held in the State of New York, one of them, escaping into Vermont, was captured and taken before the court at Middlebury by his owner, who asked the court to give him possession of his slave property. Judge Harrington listened attentively to the proofs of ownership, but said that he was not convinced that the title was perfect. Then the counsel asked what more was required. Until you bring me a bill of sale from God Almighty you cannot have this man. (J. Swinton.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 16. He that stealeth a man] By this law every man-stealer, and every receiver of the stolen person, should lose his life; no matter whether the latter stole the man himself, or gave money to a slave captain or negro-dealer to steal him for him.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
i.e. In the manstealers hand; q.d. though he keep him in his own hands for his own use; for still it is a theft, and he is made that mans slave, and it is in his power to sell him to another when he pleaseth, and therefore deserves death.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him,…. One of the children of Israel, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, and so the Septuagint version: but though this law was given to the Israelites primarily, yet was made for men stealers in general, as the apostle observes, who plainly has reference to it, 1Ti 1:9:
or if he be found in his hand; before the selling of him, as Jarchi notes, since he stole him in order to sell him, he was guilty of death, as follows:
he shall surely be put to death; with strangling, as the same Jewish writer remarks, as on the preceding verse; and Jarchi sets it down as a rule, that all death in the law, simply expressed, is strangling.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Verse 16:
Kidnapping was punishable by death. If one kidnapped a man for the purpose of selling him as a slave, he was to be put to death. Or if one bought a kidnapped man, he was a guilty as the one kidnapping him.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
16, 17. Stealeth a man Note that manstealing was placed on the same plane with the crime of murder . Cursing a parent was also treated as a capital offence .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 21:16. And he that stealeth a man, &c. See Deu 24:7. This crime was death both by the Athenian and Roman laws. It is difficult to say, why this law is placed between those respecting striking and cursing parents. Some suppose that children, stolen in youth, might, upon returning to their own country, be guilty of the crimes between which this law stands, as not knowing their parents. But as these are single laws, it may be difficult, if not impossible, always to assign reasons for their position and connexion.
REFLECTIONS.Note; 1. If the murderer will find no sanctuary even at God’s altar, surely he should find none elsewhere. Mercy to a murderer is cruelty to mankind. 2. Though the behaviour of an undutiful son under our laws meets not with such exemplary punishment, God will surely take vengeance, either in time or eternity. 3. Nothing is accidental: if a sparrow fall not to the ground without Divine direction or permission, much less does a man.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Observe, that among the Israelites, the very idea of stealing man, woman, or child, must have been with a view to sell them to the heathen nations; because no Hebrew could, by the law, become the purchaser. Hence the greatness of the crime was increased, The apostle classes this sin among the most heinous. 1Ti 1:10 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 21:16 And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
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.”
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
a man. (Hebrew. ‘ish. App-14.) Aramaean and Septuagint add “of the sons of Israel”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
stealeth: Gen 40:15, Deu 24:7, 1Ti 1:10, Rev 18:12
selleth him: Gen 37:28
found in: Exo 22:4
Reciprocal: Gen 17:13 – bought Gen 37:27 – sell him Exo 20:15 – General Neh 5:8 – sell your Eph 4:28 – him that Rev 18:13 – slaves
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 21:16. He that stealeth a man Whether he keep him in his own hands for his own use, or sell him, still it is a theft of a heinous kind, and the man-stealer deserves death. It appears from 1Ti 1:9-10, that this law was not meant to be of a merely temporary nature, but of standing force.