Law, OT

OT laws and legal traditions govern every aspect of the life of the covenant people of God.

Kinds of OT law

Criminal law

Exodus 21:12–14 Criminal law deals with crimes against persons punishable by a court.

Whoever strikes and kills a man must surely be put to death. If, however, he did not lie in wait, but God allowed it to happen, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee. But if a man schemes and acts willfully against his neighbor to kill him, you must take him away from My altar to be put to death.

Civil law

Deuteronomy 16:18–20 Civil law deals with the upholding in court of legally established rights against possible abuse. See also Deuteronomy 15:12–18

You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the LORD your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment. Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. Pursue justice, and justice alone, so that you may live, and you may possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

Social law

Exodus 22:21–22 Social law deals with behaviour or standards of behaviour which are not strictly enforceable in the courts. See also Deuteronomy 24:19–22

You must not exploit or oppress a foreign resident, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt. You must not mistreat any widow or orphan.

Cultic law

Cultic law deals explicitly with the ritual or religious life of the people of God. Leviticus chapters 1–7 are totally devoted to this kind of law: Leviticus 1:10–13, Leviticus 4:13–21, Leviticus 7:11–18

Examples of OT law

Conditions for freeing servants

Exodus 21:2–6 parallel Deuteronomy 15:12–18 See also Exodus 21:3–11; Leviticus 25:39–55

If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free without paying anything. If he arrived alone, he is to leave alone; if he arrived with a wife, she is to leave with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free. But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children; I do not want to go free,’ then his master is to bring him before the judges. And he shall take him to the door or doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he shall serve his master for life.

Dealing with injuries

Exodus 21:23–25 See also Matthew 5:38

But if a serious injury results, then you must require a life for a life — eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, and stripe for stripe.

Property is to be protected

Exodus 22:1 See also Leviticus 6:1–7; Luke 19:8

“If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters or sells it, he must repay five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep.

The rights of aliens must be respected

Exodus 22:21 See also Leviticus 19:33; Deuteronomy 10:19

You must not exploit or oppress a foreign resident, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

Justice must be universally respected

Exodus 23:2–3 See also Leviticus 19:15

You shall not follow the crowd in wrongdoing. When you testify in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd. And do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit.

The Sabbath must be observed by all

Exodus 23:12 See also Exodus 20:8–11

For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you must cease, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the son of your maidservant may be refreshed, as well as the foreign resident.

Three annual festivals are to be celebrated

Exodus 23:15–16 See also Exodus 12:17; Deuteronomy 16:16

You are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread as I commanded you: At the appointed time in the month of Abib you are to eat unleavened bread for seven days, because that was the month you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before Me empty-handed. You are also to keep the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the produce from what you sow in the field. And keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field.

You must be sure to set aside a tenth of all the produce brought forth each year from your fields.

Cultic laws are grounded in the holiness of God

Leviticus 11:44, Leviticus 19:1–2 See also 1 Peter 1:16LEV 1 Peter 1:3, Leviticus 2:1–2, Leviticus 3:1–2, Leviticus 4:27–28, Leviticus 5:17–18

For I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, because I am holy. You must not defile yourselves by any creature that crawls along the ground.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the whole congregation of Israel and tell them: Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.

Rules governing infectious or contagious diseases

Leviticus 13:2, Leviticus 15:13

“When someone has a swelling or rash or bright spot on his skin that may be an infectious skin disease, he must be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons who is a priest.

When the man has been cleansed from his discharge, he must count off seven days for his cleansing, wash his clothes, and bathe himself in fresh water, and he shall be clean.

There must not be unlawful sexual relations

Leviticus 18:6

None of you are to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD.