‘The Book of the Covenant’: A Literary Approach (Biblia.com)

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This volume offers a synchronic, literary reading of the final form of the laws of Exodus 20:22–23:19 (commonly, though inaccurately labeled “The Book of the Covenant”), in contrast with primarily source and form critical approaches commonly utilized in the past. The work seeks to demonstrate that this literary unit is much more coherent, more integrated into its narrative context, less in need...

Figurative language and wordplay support the literary view: the lex talionis is metaphorical for monetary substitutes. The death sentence on the negligent owner in 21:29 is a hyperbole rather than a rigid legal dictate since the culprit normally escapes death by means of a ransom (21:30). Hence, a legal form is used for something other than a legal purpose: to say in the strongest of possible terms ‘woe to him who allows a dangerous ox to roam about unrestrained.’ Possible poetic devices observed

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