Exodus: The Lord and His PilgrimsSample

Owners, guardians and monotheists

22:1–17 comes under the heading of property and ownership, but in various senses verses 1–6 rest in the assumption that we have a right to private property, and that this right must be safeguarded by sanctions against theft (vv. 1–4) or wilful damage (vv. 5–6). In Old Testament law there is no sense in which one size fits all. Different cases require different responses, but theft itself is always wrong, and restitution must be paid – not to the Treasury but to the injured party. 

Guardianship, where goods or money are entrusted to someone’s care (vv. 7–13), rests on an assumption of integrity on the part of the person trusted. Verse 11 opens a window into a society of trust in which it can be taken for granted that a person’s word is his bond. 

The case of the unmarried daughter (vv. 16–17) – though possibly according more authority to the father than is the norm today – is an issue of guardianship since the parent is the responsible guardian as long as she is under his roof. Pre-marital sex created an obligation to marry – and indissoluble marriage at that (Deut. 22:28–29)! 

Offences against monotheism attracted the death penalty, being as they were primary violations of the Decalogue. This obviously applies in verses 18 and 20, but also in verse 19 because ‘bestiality’ was a feature of Canaanite fertility cults. But the particular nature of Israelite monotheism exerted its own distinctive requirements. First is the need to live in a way that reflects the nature of our redemption (v. 21). The situation from which we were redeemed must make us especially concerned for those who are still as we once were. Secondly is the obligation to relate to people in a way that matches the Lord’s attitude towards them (vv. 23, 27). The helpless and resourceless (v. 22) are Yahweh’s special concern. The debtor must be protected from the ‘loan shark’ (vv. 22–27). Thirdly is the requisite to be holy – to display in every way the difference and distinctiveness proper to those who are the Lord’s (v. 31). 

Reflection

To be holy (v. 31) means ‘to be separated’ to one’s God – to belong to his sphere of reality, live by his rules, and reflect what he is and what he wishes.