Exodus 21:16

16 Likewise he that steals a man and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely 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 a man comes presumptuously upon his neighbour to slay him with prudence, thou shalt take him from my altar that he may die.
15 And he that smites his father or his mother shall be surely put to death.
16 Likewise he that steals a man and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
17 In the same manner he that curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
18 And if men strive together and one smites another with a stone or with his fist and he dies not, but keeps his bed,
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010