Exodus 21:16

16 "If anyone kidnaps and sells another person, he will be put to death. If he still has the person with him when he is caught, he will 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 suppose he kills someone on purpose. Then take him away from my altar and put him to death.
15 "If anyone attacks his father or mother, he will be put to death.
16 "If anyone kidnaps and sells another person, he will be put to death. If he still has the person with him when he is caught, he will be put to death.
17 "If anyone calls down a curse on his father or mother, he will be put to death.
18 "Suppose two men get into a fight and argue with each other. One hits the other with a stone or his fist. He does not die but has to stay in bed.
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