Key Verses: Exodus 21-23

Key Questions


1. Why is God so insistent on protecting the widow, orphan, and foreigner? How does your community embody—or fail to embody—this kind of Divine concern?
2. How do these laws about Hebrew servants attempt to limit power and restore dignity? How do we engage critically with texts that still regulate servitude?
3. What do these laws of restitution teach us about making things right? What would a system rooted in restoration, not punishment, look like today?
4. How does Sabbath rest for land and laborers reflect God’s concern for all creation? What systems today deny that kind of rest—and how might we resist them?
5. How do we read and apply laws that were specific to a different time and culture, yet still carry divine intent?


Theological Insights


“These chapters, containing the first body of Torah legislation, have become known in English as the ‘Book of the Covenant,’ Hebrew sefer ha-berit. This name is based in 24:4, , which recount that Moses put the divine commands into writing and then read aloud the covenant document to the people, who gave it their assent. The title is of major importance, for it underscores the outstanding characteristic of the collection: its divine source. Social rules, moral imperatives, ethical injunctions, civil and criminal laws, and cultic prescriptions are all equally conceived to be expressions of divine will… Unlike the ancient Near Eastern corpora of laws, the document here is not a self-contained, independent entity; rather, it is an inseparable part of the Exodus narratives. The narrative context is essential to the meaning and significance of the document.” Sarna, Exodus, 117.

“[on Exodus 23:4-5] your enemy is also a human being. Hostility may divide you, but there is something deeper that connects you: the covenant of human solidarity. Distress, difficulty – these things transcend the language of difference. A decent society will be one in which enemies do not allow their rancour or animosity to prevent them from coming to one another’s assistance when they need help. If someone is in trouble, help. Don’t stop to ask whether they are friend or foe.” Sacks, Covenant and Conversation.


“Scholars of biblical law, comparing our text with ancient Mesopotamian and Hittite legal collections, have identified numerous points of contact but also significant differences… one major difference between the two sets of laws [is that] a characteristic feature of the Code of Hammurabi is its reference to three distinct, seemingly fixed social classes—roughly, ‘gentry,’ ‘commoners,’ and slaves—and there are laws that apply differently to members of different classes. The comparable ordinances of the Lord, by contrast, apply uniformly to all members of the community… this difference reflects the more-than-political purpose of the laws: not only righteousness but also holiness, expressed in a special relationship between each Israelite and the Lord… They appear not as a detached legal code but as part of the long, unfolding story of the human race and especially of the Children of Israel, through whom God is now attempting to address humankind’s proclivities for folly and mischief.” Kass, Founding God’s Nation, 241-342.