Exodus 21:21
“Notwithstanding, if he gets up after a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his property.”
What does Exodus 21:21 mean?
This difficult passage addresses the ancient practice of slavery within ancient Israel's legal code. The context is a master who strikes a servant, and the law here establishes a boundary: if the servant recovers within a couple of days, the master faces no legal penalty because the servant is considered his economic property. However, this verse is actually part of a larger framework where Exodus 21:26-27 protects servants from permanent injury, and other laws limited how harshly masters could treat those under their authority. It's important to read this not as God's ideal vision for how people should treat one another, but as ancient law attempting to regulate and restrain practices that were already common in that world. The Bible's trajectory moves toward human dignity and freedom, culminating in Jesus' teachings about loving others as ourselves. Many who read Scripture see laws like these as reflecting the culture of that time, while the deeper biblical direction points toward valuing every person's worth.