Discovery BoxExodus 21:12 
Context21:12 1 “Whoever strikes someone 2 so that he dies 3 must surely be put to death. 4
Exodus 21:15
Context21:15 “Whoever strikes 5 his father or his mother must surely be put to death.
Exodus 21:17
Context21:17 “Whoever treats his father or his mother disgracefully 6 must surely be put to death.
Exodus 22:19-20
Context22:19 “Whoever has sexual relations 7 with a beast must surely be put to death.
22:20 “Whoever sacrifices to a god other than the Lord 8 alone must be utterly destroyed. 9
Exodus 30:38
Context30:38 Whoever makes anything like it, to use as perfume, 10 will be cut off from his people.”
1 sn The underlying point of this section remains vital today: The people of God must treat all human life as sacred.
2 tn The construction uses a Hiphil participle in construct with the noun for “man” (or person as is understood in a law for the nation): “the one striking [of] a man.” This is a casus pendens (independent nominative absolute); it indicates the condition or action that involves further consequence (GKC 361 §116.w).
3 tn The Hebrew word וָמֵת (vamet) is a Qal perfect with vav consecutive; it means “and he dies” and not “and killed him” (which require another stem). Gesenius notes that this form after a participle is the equivalent of a sentence representing a contingent action (GKC 333 §112.n). The word shows the result of the action in the opening participle. It is therefore a case of murder or manslaughter.
4 sn See A. Phillips, “Another Look at Murder,” JJS 28 (1977): 105-26.
5 sn This is the same construction that was used in v. 12, but here there is no mention of the parents’ death. This attack, then, does not lead to their death – if he killed one of them then v. 12 would be the law. S. R. Driver says that the severity of the penalty was in accord with the high view of parents (Exodus, 216).
6 tn The form is a Piel participle from קָלַל (qalal), meaning in Qal “be light,” in Piel “treat lightly, curse, revile, declare contemptible, treat shamefully.” (See its use in Lev 19:14; Josh 24:9; Judg 9:26-28; 1 Sam 3:13; 17:43; 2 Sam 16:5-13; Prov 30:10-11; Eccl 7:21-22; 10:20.) It is opposite of “honor” (כָּבֵד, kaved; Qal “be heavy”; Piel “honor,” as in 20:12) and of “bless.” This verse then could refer to any act contrary to the commandment to honor the parents. B. Jacob (Exodus, 640) cites parallels in Sumerian where people were severely punished for publicly disowning their parents. “21:15, 17 taken together evoke the picture of parents who, physically and verbally, are forcibly turned out of the house (cf. Prov. 19:26)” (C. Houtman, Exodus, 3:148).
7 tn Heb “lies with.”
8 tn Heb “not to Yahweh.”
9 tn The verb חָרַם (kharam) means “to be devoted” to God or “to be banned.” The idea is that it would be God’s to do with as he liked. What was put under the ban was for God alone, either for his service or for his judgment. But it was out of human control. Here the verb is saying that the person will be utterly destroyed.
10 tn Or to smell it, to use for the maker’s own pleasure.
