Literary Solutions to Legal Problems: The Contribution of Exodus 2.13–14 to Exodus 21.22–23

Abstract

This article proposes that Moses' encounter with the fighting Hebrews in Exod. 2.13–14 sheds light on the hypothetical case of the pregnant woman who is struck by men also engaged in a fist fight (Exod. 21.22–23). Specifically, Exod. 2.13–14 explains why singular verbs are used to describe the punishment (‭שנצי‬, ‭ותנ‬) when two or more men were actually responsible for the battery (‭ובּגנ‬). In the earlier episode, Moses rebukes the ‘guilty one’, presumably because he was the instigator of the fight. Likewise, if an integrative reading is called for, the penalty for the battery in 21.22 is placed on the shoulders of the instigator alone, which explains the use of the singular forms ‭שנצי‬ and ‭ותנ‬. Exod. 2.13–14 may indirectly resolve other tensions created by this law as well.