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
Context22:19 “Whoever has sexual relations 7 with a beast must surely be put to death.
Exodus 25:16
Context25:16 You are to put into the ark the testimony 8 that I will give to you.
Exodus 33:4
Context33:4 When the people heard this troubling word 9 they mourned; 10 no one put on his ornaments.
Exodus 34:33
Context34:33 When Moses finished 11 speaking 12 with them, he would 13 put a veil on his face.
Exodus 40:26
Context40:26 And he put the gold altar in the tent of meeting in front of the curtain,
Exodus 40:28
Context40:28 Then he put the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle.
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 sn The “testimony” is the Decalogue (Exod 24:12; 31:18; Deut 4:13; 9:9; 1 Kgs 8:9); the word identifies it as the witness or affirmation of God’s commandments belonging to his covenant with Israel. It expressed God’s will and man’s duty. In other cultures important documents were put at the feet of the gods in the temples.
9 tn Or “bad news” (NAB, NCV).
10 sn The people would rather have risked divine discipline than to go without Yahweh in their midst. So they mourned, and they took off the ornaments. Such had been used in making the golden calf, and so because of their association with all of that they were to be removed as a sign of remorse.
11 tn Heb “and Moses finished”; the clause is subordinated as a temporal clause to the next clause.
12 tn The Piel infinitive construct is the object of the preposition; the whole phrase serves as the direct object of the verb “finished.”
13 tn Throughout this section the actions of Moses and the people are frequentative. The text tells what happened regularly.
