Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ...one seized die of blows or of bad treatment in the house of his distrainer, the owner of the one seized shall bring the merchant to account; if he be the son of a freeborn man, then the son of the merchant shall be put to death; if he be a slave, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver, and he Ithe distrainer shall forfeit all that he gave as a loan. Here we have a most literal carrying out of the lex talionis, "eye for eye, and tooth for tooth," or rather son for son. We have no evidence that the Hebrew law ever authorized the punishing of a child for the sin of his parent. It is true that children providentially have to suffer physical pain, etc., for the transgression of their parents. (Ex. 20:5 and 34:7.) They suffer by the "self-acting operation of natural laws." In the providence of God the natural ties uniting a family are such that it is difficult for one member to escape entirely the consequenes of another's sins. In ancient times it was not uncommon to punish an entire family for the sins of one member. 115. (See Est. 9:13f.; Dan. 6:25; Herodotus III, 119.) The humane law of the Hebrews contrasts well with the above. We read: The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin. (Deut. 24:16.) (517.; If a man incur a debt and sell his wife, son, or daughter for money, or bind them out to forced labor, three years shall they work in the house of their taskmaster; in the fourth year they shall be set free. The Hebrew law is as follows: If thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years: then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee....