Exodus 20:22-26 - Exposition

1 . Against idols;

2 . Concerning altars ( Exodus 20:23-26 ).

Then follow the laws respecting what our legal writers call "the rights of persons"—which occupy thirty-two verses of Exodus 21:1-36 . and fall under some twenty different heads, beginning with the rights of slaves, and terminating with the compensation to be made for injuries to the person caused by cattle. The third section is upon "the rights of property," and extends from Exodus 21:33 , to Exodus 22:15 , including some ten or twelve enactments. After this we can only say that the laws are mixed, some being concerned with Divine things (as Exodus 22:20 , Exodus 22:29 , Exodus 22:30 ; and Exodus 23:10-19 ): others with human, and these last being of various kinds, all, however, more or less "connected with the civil organization of the state" (Kalisch). In the fourth section the enactments seem to fall under about twenty-five heads. The result is that the "Book of the Covenant" contains, in little more than three chapters, about seventy distinct laws.