Exodus 21:16

16 Anyone who kidnaps a person, whether they have been sold or are still being held, should be put to death.

Exodus 21:16 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 21:16

And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him
One of the children of Israel, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, and so the Septuagint version: but though this law was given to the Israelites primarily, yet was made for men stealers in general, as the apostle observes, who plainly has reference to it, ( 1 Timothy 1:9 1 Timothy 1:10 ) :

or if he be found in his hand;
before the selling of him, as Jarchi notes, since he stole him in order to sell him, he was guilty of death, as follows:

he shall surely be put to death;
with strangling, as the same Jewish writer remarks, as on the preceding verse; and Jarchi sets it down as a rule, that all death in the law, simply expressed, is strangling.

Exodus 21:16 In-Context

14 But if someone plots and kills another person on purpose, you should remove the killer from my altar and put him to death.
15 Anyone who violently hits their father or mother should be put to death.
16 Anyone who kidnaps a person, whether they have been sold or are still being held, should be put to death.
17 Anyone who curses their father or mother should be put to death.
18 When two people are fighting and one hits the other with a stone or with his fist so that he is in bed for a while but doesn't die—
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