15
prominence concerning slaves in the book of the covenant?
The answer lies in the narrative context: Exodus 21 begins with slave laws for the same
reason that the prologue of the Decalogue mentions slavery (Exod 20:2): It relates to a central
theme of the narratives of the book of Exodus, the release of Israelite slaves from Egyptian
servitude.
33
This connection of slave law to narrative also bleeds over to the other social justice
regulations concerning the poor and especially sojourners. The primarily social-humanitarian
regulations of Exod 22:22-23:9 which begin and end with the command not to oppress a
sojourner (Heb. ger) is parallel in terms of the literary, chiastic structure with the
social-humanitarian laws about slaves in Exod 21:2-11.
34
This is not accidental since the
disadvantaged classes of Exod 22:22-27, the sojourner, the widow, the orphan, and the poor,
were the very people most subject to becoming enslaved on the basis of unpaid debts.
35
Israel
itself had become enslaved in Egypt after entering it as sojourners, as the regulation itself states:
"Do not oppress a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt" (Exod 23:9). The
experience of Israel in Egypt recorded by the narrative is thus the basis for the motive clause
promoting legal obedience.
c. The Use of the Number 7. The Sabbath day in Exodus version of the Decalogue finds
its basis in the narrative account of creation, that God rested on the seventh day (Exod 20:11;
Gen 2:1-3). The association of seven with a time of ceasing or rest helps to explain why the
Hebrew slave is released, not on the third year as in the Laws of Hammurabi (§117) or the fifth
or eight year, but on the seventh year (Exod 21:2) in accord with the symbolism of "ceasing,
33
U. Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus (trans. I. Abrahams; Jerusalem: Magnes,
1967), 266; Shalom Paul, Studies in the Book of the Covenant in the Light of Cuneiform and
Biblical Law (VTSup. 18; Leiden: Brill, 1970), 107.
34
Cf. Sprinkle, ,,The Book of the Covenant, 200.
35
Jackson, "Multiculturalism in Early Biblical Law," 197.