Exodus 21:32

32 If the bull kills a male or female slave, the owner must pay the master the price for a new slave, or twelve ounces of silver, and the bull must also be stoned to death.

Exodus 21:32 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 21:32

If the ox shall push a manservant, or a maidservant
Which the Targum of Jonathan and Jarchi interpret of a Canaanitish servant, man or maid; but no doubt the same provision was made for an Hebrew servant, man or maid, as for a Gentile one:

he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver;
that is, the owner of the ox shall pay so much to the masters of the servants for the loss they have sustained by his ox goring them; and Maimonides ^F18 observes, that

``the ransom of servants, whether great or small, whether male or female, is fixed in the law, thirty shekels of good silver, whether the servant is worth a hundred pounds, or whether he is worth but a penny.''

This was the price our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was sold at, (See Gill on Matthew 26:15).

---

FOOTNOTES:

F18 Hilchot Niske Maimon, c. 11. sect. 1.

Exodus 21:32 In-Context

30 But if the family of the dead person accepts money, the one who owned the bull may buy back his life, but he must pay whatever is demanded.

31 Use this same law if the bull kills a person's son or daughter.

32 If the bull kills a male or female slave, the owner must pay the master the price for a new slave, or twelve ounces of silver, and the bull must also be stoned to death.

33 "If a man takes the cover off a pit, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and another man's ox or donkey comes and falls into it,

34 the owner of the pit must pay the owner of the animal for the loss. The dead animal will belong to the one who pays.