Exodus 21:32

21:32 If the ox gores a male servant or a female servant, the owner 1  must pay thirty shekels of silver, 2  and the ox must be stoned. 3 

1 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the owner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

2 sn A shekel was a unit for measure by means of a scale. Both the weight and the value of a shekel of silver are hard to determine. “Though there is no certainty, the shekel is said to weigh about 11,5 grams” (C. Houtman, Exodus, 3:181). Over four hundred years earlier, Joseph was sold into Egypt for 20 shekels. The free Israelite citizen was worth about 50 shekels (Lev 27:3f.).

3 sn See further B. S. Jackson, “The Goring Ox Again [Ex. 21,28-36],” JJP 18 (1974): 55-94.