If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights. If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money. – Exodus 21:10-11

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 26, 2015): Exodus 21

From our modern perspective, the Bible stance on women is hard to understand. And too often in our history we have misunderstood that stance of the Bible, thinking that the Bible was being prescriptive (saying that this was the way things should be) rather than descriptive (simply describing what is.) In the culture from which the Bible was written, women were property. It was not just this way in Israel, but rather in most of the known world at the time a woman was very simply something that was owned. So it is very logical with this understanding that women would be integral in the discussion on slavery.

But the Bible’s stance is not that this is the way that it should be. Even with the idea of slavery, consistently the Bible’s position is simply “if this is the way the human heart is going to take civilization, then we need to place limits on the practice” or “if you are really going to do this, then let’s, at the very least, make the practice as humane as possible.” And maybe this is nowhere more clearly seen then in the practice of buying a woman to be the wife of a son.

There are a couple of realities working here. The first is purely economic. It is cheaper to buy a slave woman then a woman to be a wife. So the Bible correctly predicts that the practice of finding wives for sons would, at least at certain times and under certain circumstances, be to buy a slave for the son. Knowing this could be the practice, the Bible places limits on this behavior saying that the slave would, in these circumstances, rise to the status of a daughter; possessing all of the rights of a natural born daughter. And this status was irrevocable. There could never be a circumstance where the wife of the son would cease to be a daughter and would return to the status of slave. She must always be a daughter, or she must be released as a free woman. No other reality is appropriate.

But the Bible also recognizes the fickle nature of the heart. Then, as now, the heart has a tendency to wander. If this happened, it could not be seen as an excuse for any kind of abuse. The wife still must be fed and clothed, even if someone new comes along. She remains the responsibility of her husband to be cared for as long as he is alive. Abuse is not to be tolerated under any circumstances. And if abuse exists, then the woman is to go free. This understanding was given to protect the woman.

As women gain in their independence and rights, these regulations can almost come to be seen as antiquated. But maybe where they impact with our society is here. There is no reason acceptable to the Bible where a man has the right to speak harshly to a woman, no reason where he has the right to deprive her of what she needs. And if a woman is abused, then the marriage is simply annulled and the blame is placed on the man, not on the woman. In these circumstances the woman is to be given her freedom, as if the man never happened.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 22