Does the Bible Allow Masters to Kill Slaves As Long as the Slave Lingers for Two Days? Critics Say Yes. I Say No.
Exploring What the Bible REALLY Says About Slavery
When critics claim the Bible supports slavery, they’ll often whip out Exodus 21:21 as their proof positive, typically in an older translation:
If a slave owner takes a stick and beats his slave, whether male or female, and the slave dies on the spot, the owner is to be punished. But if the slave does not die for a day or two, the master is not to be punished. The loss of his property is punishment enough. (Exodus 21:20-21 GNT).
Critics claim this verse allows masters to beat slaves to death, as long as the slave lingers a day or do before dying.
Indeed, if the Bible did say such a thing, it would be horrid, and many old translations seem to say exactly this.
But is it accurate?
What do we find when we apply the same tools we’ve been using: looking at the verses before and after, looking at what the words mean, and finding other passages that address the same topic?
We find what you’d expect from a loving God: redefining society to care for each other in the places where we need it most.
From violence to compassion
Let’s start the with verses immediately before:
“When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed, then if the man rises again and walks outdoors with his staff, he who struck him shall be clear; only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall have him thoroughly healed.” (Exodus 21:18–19, ESV)
This command looks out for the health and well-being of everyone, even men fighting each other.
In most societies, when people fight, they try to injure the other person as much as they can, then leave. They think nothing of helping the person they beat up.
But God won’t have that in Israel.
The goal of God's law is thorough healing of the wounded person. If the wound is not serious and the person recovers, then the one who wounded him must pay for the money he lost by not being able to work. Physical health is assured, as well as financial well-being.
Consider how this changed the fabric of society! Even when you physically fight someone, you are bound to see that this person recovers. You look after each other, even those you quarrel with.
This is the context leading into the contentious verses: re-writing the laws of society to care for those who used to end up beaten and ignored.
“If a man strikes his male servant [ebed] or his female servant [amah] with a staff so that he or she dies as a result of the blow, he will surely be punished.” (Exodus 21:20, NET).
This command further prevents slavery and its abuses. No one may beat another to death. If someone works for you, they are not your property. They are humans, just as you are.
In nearly every other ancient civilization, a master could beat their slave to death and the law would do nothing. Elites had all the power. Masters had all the power.
Except in Israel.
God explicitly prevents these kinds of abuses. Everyone is a human being deserving of life and dignity — both the servant and their boss.
Again, God establishes radical equality: the master’s life and the servant’s life count the same.
Dying or recovering — one word that changes everything
And now we come to the verse causing the trouble:
But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money. (Exodus 21:21, ESV)
This one sounds horrid. It’s entirely the fault of a bad translation.
The word for “survives” — ya’a’mod — means “to stand.” It depicts a full recovery — the servant is no longer suffering their injury but is back on their feet. Elsewhere in the Old Testament, it signifies people fully healthy, ready for action.
In Exodus 8:22, it signifies people who are living, healthy:
"But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where My people are living [ya’a’mod], so that no swarms of insects will be there, in order that you may know that I, the LORD, am in the midst of the land.” (Exodus 8:22 NAS).
Likewise, in Leviticus 16:10, it refers to a goat, fully alive and healthy, a goat with no blemish whatsoever:
But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive [ya’a’mod] before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat. (Leviticus 16:10 ESV).
Ya-a-mod means “to stand,” signifying health and readiness.
If you place this understanding in the sentence above, it changes the entire meaning. Or better said: it recovers the original meaning. You end up with this:
However, if the servant gets up after a day or two, the owner shall not be punished.
In other words: the only way the master avoids being punished is when the wound is so slight that the servant fully recovers after a day or two. I’ve stubbed my toe and it hasn’t recovered for half a week. This window is incredibly small, emphasizing the point: you do not beat your servants or you will be punished.
Still, we must ask: why have any window at all?
The reason is provability.
If you suffered an injury and you wanted the authorities to handle it, you must be able to prove you were injured. What do you do if the wound was so slight it was gone after a day?
This threshold is small enough that it effectively banishes beating. One person punching another will generally leave a bruise that lasts for days, if not weeks. If a master punched an ebed, they could go to the village elders, show the bruises, and the elders would punish the master.
The only way the master would avoid a punishment is if no sign of the injury remained after a day or two, and therefore could not be proven to the elders.
A few short verses later, Exodus s21:26-27 will clarify that any permanent injury instantly frees a servant:
When a man strikes the eye of his ebed, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the ebed go free because of his eye. If he knocks out the tooth of his ebed, male or female, he shall let the ebed go free because of his tooth. (Exodus 21:26-27 ESV).
These laws together created a system enforcing justice. If any violence occurs, the law seeks justice equally:
At the most severe level, if anyone kills another, the killer is punished, regardless of the social class difference. Even if the murderer is in the wealthiest class and the victim the lowest, the victim is avenged (Exodus 21:12-14, Exodus 21:20).
If two people quarrel (two workers, a landowner and their worker, a foreigner and a citizen, any two people), whoever “wins” the fight must ensure the other person is restored to health and compensated for the loss of their ability to work. (Exodus 21:18-19).
If a master beats a servant and causes any permanent injury, the servant is automatically freed to prevent any further abuse (Exodus 21:26-27).
If a master beats a servant in a way that doesn’t cause a permanent injury, that master is still punished, unless the wound is so slight it’s fully recovered a day or two later (Exodus 21:20-21).
Step by step, from the top down, God writes respect into the Law. People cannot be treated as property to be abused at a whim. The Law holds even the most wealthy and powerful to account.
But then we have the last phrase of the verse:
“for the slave is his money.” (Exodus 21:21–21, ESV).
This can sound horrific, if you don’t know what’s going on.
But this is the kill-shot.
Several older translations say “the slave is his property,” instead of “money.” Again, if you take this at face value, it sounds like a blanket approval of slavery.
But the Hebrew word is kas-pow, which means “silver, money.”
Rather than stating the ebed is property, it’s stating the ebed is the master’s source of income. He makes money when his workers work. In this sense, the workers are his money — their work creates his income.
By calling the servant “his money,” the law tells the master that he is punishing himself, as well as his workers. If a business owner hires employees to work for him, and he ends up hurting the employees so that they can’t work, the owner has not only hurt the other person but also themselves.
This law is honest about human nature: some wealthy people care only about the bottom line. Some wealthy people value their workers solely based on the money they can generate, rather than seeing them as individuals.
Given this, the law addresses wealthy people where it hurts: if you abuse your workers and they can’t work for you, you’re hurting your own bottom line. While they’re recovering, you’re losing money. Thus, even if you’re a cold-hearted owner who only cares about profits, that should still motivate you to treat your employees as well as possible.
Back to the beginning
After walking through all this, we arrive back the beginning.
Critics claim Exodus 21:21 allows masters to avoid punishment for murdering a servant, as long as the servant lingers a day or two before dying.
But does that fit the context?
In these verses, God re-organizes society from the top down, ensuring that no one can be beaten or killed without justice. God establishes protections for the lowest classes, such that any abuse instantly releases them, and any serious beating resulted in the punishment of the one who beat them, even if that person was wealthy.
In a passage pursuing compassion and justice for the lowest classes, does it make sense for God to say these same people can be killed without punishment, as long as they suffer in pain for a day or two before dying?
It’s ridiculous.
What makes far better sense is a translation like this:
but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two
Or:
But if the slave recovers within a day or two, then the owner shall not be punished
These aren’t my own translations. These are the New International Version and the New Living Translation, two of the most popular modern translations. Their translation committees have recognized the error in this verse and corrected it.
This is the translation that fits the context: the only way the master avoids punishment is when the wound is so slight that it’s recovered after a day or two — likely because it’s hard to prove an injury that disappears before it can be brought before the judges.
This requires, then, that any wound that lingers longer than that results in the master being punishment.
The law that God is creating in Exodus 21 bares its teeth against anyone who would abuse or mistreat their workers. Any injury that can be proven before the judges results in the punishment of the master.
Money and power do not justify abuse. Not in God’s law.