Moses is speaking to his people in this passage, directed to do so by God. Moses sets out the law in a series of statements of specific requirements. In the first, he says that a Hebrew slave shall serve for six years and then be freed, with his wife if he is married. If the slave and his wife have children, they become slaves as well. The slave can choose not to be free in which case he can serve for life. Another set of provisions concerns how the daughter who becomes a slave is to be treated, judged, and eventually either married to the son of the household or freed.
If a man strikes another and causes his death, he himself will be put to death. A rationale for letting such a man go free is offered, along with the penalty for a willful attack by one man on another man. Striking one's father or mother is punished by death, as is kidnaping or cursing one's father or mother. If a man attacks another man but the second man does not die and is instead relegated to his bed, the attacker must pay for the time lost and do so until the victim is completely healed.
Several provisions concern the treatment of slaves. If a man kills a slave, he will be punished, but if he strikes a slave and the slave survives for a day or two, the owner will not be punished because the slave is counted as his money. If a man attacks a pregnant woman and causes a miscarriage, he will be fined. If any harm follows from this attack, the punishment shall be in kind, an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, hand for a hand, life for a life, and so on.
This text is concerned with the law. This section of Exodus is known as the Book of the Covenant, a complex of laws both civil and criminal, moral and ritual. This first section includes many of the judicial laws. The legal topics covered include slavery, capital offenses, and bodily injuries (Sarna 693).
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