Exodus 21:16

16 "Anyone who kidnaps someone and either sells him as a slave or still has him when he is caught must 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 plans and murders another person on purpose, put him to death, even if he has run to my altar for safety.
15 "Anyone who hits his father or his mother must be put to death.
16 "Anyone who kidnaps someone and either sells him as a slave or still has him when he is caught must be put to death.
17 "Anyone who says cruel things to his father or mother must be put to death.
18 "If two men argue, and one hits the other with a rock or with his fist, the one who is hurt but not killed might have to stay in bed.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.