Exodus 21:16

16 "Whoever kidnaps someone must be put to death, regardless of whether he has already sold him or the person is found still in his possession.

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 willfully kills another after deliberate planning, you are to take him even from my altar and put him to death.

15 "Whoever attacks his father or mother must be put to death.

16 "Whoever kidnaps someone must be put to death, regardless of whether he has already sold him or the person is found still in his possession.

17 "Whoever curses his father or mother must be put to death.

18 "If two people fight, and one hits the other with a stone or with his fist, and the injured party doesn't die but is confined to his bed;