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Exodus 21

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1 Now these are the laws which you are to put before them.

2 If you get a Hebrew servant for money, he is to be your servant for six years, and in the seventh year you are to let him go free without payment.

3 If he comes to you by himself, let him go away by himself: if he is married, let his wife go away with him.

4 If his master gives him a wife, and he gets sons or daughters by her, the wife and her children will be the property of the master, and the servant is to go away by himself.

5 But if the servant says clearly, My master and my wife and children are dear to me; I have no desire to be free:

6 Then his master is to take him to the gods of the house, and at the door, or at its framework, he is to make a hole in his ear with a sharp-pointed instrument; and he will be his servant for ever.

7 And if a man gives his daughter for a price to be a servant, she is not to go away free as the men-servants do.

8 If she is not pleasing to her master who has taken her for himself, let a payment be made for her so that she may go free; her master has no power to get a price for her and send her to a strange land, because he has been false to her.

9 And if he gives her to his son, he is to do everything for her as if she was his daughter.

10 And if he takes another woman, her food and clothing and her married rights are not to be less.

11 And if he does not do these three things for her, she has the right to go free without payment.

12 He who gives a man a death-blow is himself to be put to death.

13 But if he had no evil purpose against him, and God gave him into his hand, I will give you a place to which he may go in flight.

14 But if a man makes an attack on his neighbour on purpose, to put him to death by deceit, you are to take him from my altar and put him to death.

15 Any man who gives a blow to his father or his mother is certainly to be put to death.

16 Any man who gets another into his power in order to get a price for him is to be put to death, if you take him in the act.

17 Any man cursing his father or his mother is to be put to death.

18 If, in a fight, one man gives another a blow with a stone, or with the shut hand, not causing his death, but making him keep in bed;

19 If he is able to get up again and go about with a stick, the other will be let off; only he will have to give him payment for the loss of his time, and see that he is cared for till he is well.

20 If a man gives his man-servant or his woman-servant blows with a rod, causing death, he is certainly to undergo punishment.

21 But, at the same time, if the servant goes on living for a day or two, the master is not to get punishment, for the servant is his property.

22 If men, while fighting, do damage to a woman with child, causing the loss of the child, but no other evil comes to her, the man will have to make payment up to the amount fixed by her husband, in agreement with the decision of the judges.

23 But if damage comes to her, let life be given in payment for life,

24 Eye for Eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, blow for blow.

26 If a man gives his man-servant or his woman-servant a blow in the eye, causing its destruction, he is to let him go free on account of the damage to his eye.

27 Or if the loss of a tooth is caused by his blow, he will let him go free on account of his tooth.

28 If an ox comes to be the cause of death to a man or a woman, the ox is to be stoned, and its flesh may not be used for food; but the owner will not be judged responsible.

29 But if the ox has frequently done such damage in the past, and the owner has had word of it and has not kept it under control, so that it has been the cause of the death of a man or woman, not only is the ox to be stoned, but its owner is to be put to death.

30 If a price is put on his life, let him make payment of whatever price is fixed.

31 If the death of a son or of a daughter has been caused, the punishment is to be in agreement with this rule.

32 If the death of a man-servant or of a woman-servant is caused by the ox, the owner is to give their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox is to be stoned.

33 If a man makes a hole in the earth without covering it up, and an ox or an ass dropping into it comes to its death;

34 The owner of the hole is responsible; he will have to make payment to their owner, but the dead beast will be his.

35 And if one man's ox does damage to another man's ox, causing its death, then the living ox is to be exchanged for money, and division made of the price of it, and of the price of the dead one.

36 But if it is common knowledge that the ox has frequently done such damage in the past, and its owner has not kept it under control, he will have to give ox for ox; and the dead beast will be his.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 8987

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8987. I will not go out free. That this signifies the delight of obedience, is evident from the signification of “going out free,” as being the state after combat, which is merely a state of confirmed and implanted truth (of which above, n. 8976, 8980, 8984); for the service, which was of six years, and is called “a week” in Genesis 29:27-28, signifies labor or some combat, such as those have who are in truths and not in the corresponding good, and who in the spiritual sense are meant by the “Hebrew menservants.” These are of such a nature that they cannot be regenerated, but only reformed. For to be regenerated is said of those who suffer themselves to be brought by the Lord, by means of the truths called the truths of faith, to the good of spiritual life; but to be reformed is said of those who cannot be brought to the good of spiritual life by means of the truths which are of faith; but only to the delight of natural life.

[2] They who suffer themselves to be regenerated, act from affection according to the precepts of faith; but they who do not suffer themselves to be regenerated, but only to be reformed, do not act from affection, but from obedience. The difference is this. They who act from affection, act from the heart, and thus from freedom, and they also do truth for the sake of truth, and good for the sake of good, and thus they exercise charity for the sake of the neighbor; but they who act from obedience do not thus act from the heart, consequently not from freedom. If they seem to themselves to act from the heart and from freedom, it is for the sake of something of self-glory which causes it to be so perceived; and they do not do truth for the sake of truth, nor good for the sake of good, but for the sake of the delight arising from this glory. Thus they do not practice charity toward the neighbor for the sake of the neighbor, but in order to be seen, and in order to be recompensed. From this it is evident who and of what quality are they who are represented by the sons of Israel, and who and of what quality are they who are represented by the Hebrew menservants.

[3] But within the church at this day the knowledge of this distinction has been lost. The reason is that the church at this day is proclaimed and said to be from faith and not from charity; and few know what faith is; most persons believing that faith consists in knowing those things which the doctrine of the church teaches, and in being persuaded that they are true; but not that it consists in living according to them. Life according to them they call “moral life,” which they separate from the doctrine of the church, and entitle it Moral Theology. But the learned believe that faith is confidence or trust that they are saved by the Lord’s having suffered for them, and redeemed them from hell; and they say that those are saved who have this confidence; thus by faith alone. But such persons do not consider that there cannot be the confidence of faith, except with those who live a life of charity.

[4] These are the reasons why knowledge has been lost concerning the difference between those who are in truths of faith and not in the corresponding good of life, and those who are in good of life corresponding with the truths of faith; and because this knowledge has been lost, what has now been said about those who are in truths and not in good, who are signified by “the Hebrew menservants,” cannot but appear strange.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.