1. "If a man smite his servant with a _rod_."--The instrument used, gives a clue to the _intent_. See Numbers xxxv. 16, 18. It was a _rod_, not an axe, nor a sword, nor a bludgeon, nor any other death-weapon--hence, from the _kind_ of instrument, no design to _kill_ would be inferred; for _intent_ to kill would hardly have taken a _rod_ for its weapon. But if the servant dies _under his hand_, then the unfitness of the instrument, instead of being evidence in his favor, is point blank against him; for, to strike him with a _rod_ until he _dies_, argues a _great many_ blows laid on with _great_ violence, and this kept up to the death-gasp, establishes the point of _intent to kill_. Hence the sentence, "He shall _surely_ be punished." The case is plain and strong. But if he continued _a day or two_, the _length of time that he lived_, together with the _kind_ of instrument used, and the fact that the master had a pecuniary interest in his _life_, ("he is his _money_,") all, made out a strong case of circumstantial evidence, showing that the master did not _design_ to kill; and required a corresponding decision and sentence. A single remark on the word "punished:" in Exodus xxi. 20, 21, the Hebrew word here rendered _punished_, (_Nakum_,) is _not so rendered in another instance_. Yet it occurs thirty-five times in the Old Testament--in almost every instance, it is translated _avenge_--in a few, "_to take vengeance_," or "_to revenge_," and in this instance ALONE, "_punish_." As it stands in our translation, the pronoun preceding it, refers to the _master_--the _master_ in the 21st verse, is to be _punished_, and in the 22d _not_ to be punished; whereas the preceding pronoun refers neither to the _master_ nor to the _servant_, but to the _crime_, and the word rendered _punished_, should have been rendered _avenged_. The meaning is this: If a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod, and he die under his hand, IT (the death) shall surely be avenged, or literally, _by avenging it shall be avenged_; that is, the _death_ of the servant shall be _avenged_ by the _death_ of the master. So in the next verse--"If he continues a day or two," his death shall not be avenged by the _death_ of the _master_, for in that case the crime was to be adjudged _manslaughter_, and not _murder_, as in the first instance. In the following verse, another case of personal injury is stated, not intentional, nor extending to life or limb, a mere accidental hurt, for which the injurer is to pay _a sum of money_; and yet our translators employ the same phraseology in both places. One, an instance of deliberate, wanton, _killing by piecemeal_. The other and _accidental_, and comparatively slight injury--of the inflicter, in both cases, they say the same thing! "_He shall surely be punished_." Now, just the difference which common sense would expect to find in such cases, where GOD legislates, is strongly marked in the original. In the case of the